There will be a practice for Grade 11 and 12 Fall Baseball on Thursday after school at 2:45pm on the Varsity field. Practice will run until 4:30. All grade 11 and 12 players who signed up with Coach LaDuca should attend. Varsity First game - Tuesday Sept. 3 at home vs. Nazareth at 4pm.

Grades 8-9-10 will begin with practice next week and will be announced on this site within the next few days. First Game is Sept. 9 against Central Catholic at Home at 4pm.

By Shawn Suchy | Pocono Record Sports Writer

EASTON – With its season in jeopardy, Stroudsburg provided a late rally.

Unfortunately for the Mounties, it was too little, too late.

No. 5 Stroudsburg fell short 5-3 to No. 4 Easton in the District 11 Class 6A baseball quarterfinals at Charles Richards Field on Wednesday.

The loss marks the end of the Mounties season and the end for a talented senior class at Stroudsburg. Seven seniors contributed to Wednesday1s effort and Stroudsburg battled to the final out of the game.

"I love this group of seniors – I really do," Stroudsburg head coach Phil Stokes said. "They are competitors and I really enjoyed coaching them, that1s for sure.

"I mean, I1ve seen these guys since they were little."

With Stroudsburg trailing 5-0 in the top of the seventh, senior Luis Francisco entered the game as a pinch hitter and got the Mounties started with a rip to the left field wall for a double. Logan Sodl followed with a walk and senior Tyler Yarnall cracked a single through the left side to load the bases.

After an out was recorded on an infield fly, senior Ben Stokes brought in the first run of the game for Stroudsburg with a sacrifice fly to deep right field and after a walk to Danny Orrego, senior Owen Christy brought home two more runs with a single to left field.

But with the Mounties threatening with an epic comeback, Easton1s Dom Mayorca struck out Jordan Wenzel looking to send the Red Rovers to the district semifinal on Sunday against No. 8 Emmaus.

"We had our chances," Stokes said. "I mean at the end of the day, I think their kid pitched really well and got them out of jams and you know that1s baseball."

The Mounties loaded the bases three times in the game, but only capitalized on their last opportunity.

Easton1s Eric Gustofson started for the Red Rovers and struggled with command early walking Breithaupt, Stokes and Orrego to start the game. After a couple mound visits, Gustofson settled down and earned swinging strikeouts of Christy and Wenzel then escaped trouble with a check-swing putout of Benny Pembleton.

Stroudsburg loaded the bases again in the third, but Gustofson once again was able to work out of it. Easton1s starter went six innings allowing four hits, struck out six and picked up the victory.

The Mounties countered with junior right-hander Dylan Budhai. Budhai got into trouble himself in the first inning, but the Red Rovers were able to come up with the big hit.

With the bases loaded, Nick Yannuzzelli had a two-run single and a third run came in to score after the ball was thrown to the back stop. Easton added two more runs in the third inning after a two-run single from Brett Stewart.

"He1s had a heck of an end to the season," Stokes said. "He got the win against Liberty, he got the win against Pleasant Valley and if it wasn1t for us throwing the ball away against Liberty, he had a shutout.

"He threw shut-out innings against Pleasant Valley too and you know I thought he gave us a chance."

With a runner on first with one out in the third inning, Ben Stokes came on to pitch and shut the Red Rovers down the rest of the game. Stokes saw 11 batters and retired all of them which included seven strikeouts.

Stokes, a second-team All-Conference selection as a pitcher, added to his impressive resume on the mound this season. Stokes, who is also a first-team selection at shortstop, struck out 64 batters in 40 1-3 innings this season and only allowed 22 hits.

Easton only had four hits in the game, but timely hits with runners in scoring position was the difference for the Red Rovers.

Stokes, Breithaupt, and Pembleton also had hits for the Mounties. Pembleton1s would-be-triple in the sixth inning was wiped out when the senior, who appeared to slide under the tag at third, was called out.

"Down to the last at bat, they competed and that1s what I really would say about our group of guys," coach Stokes said. "They worked hard and won our division and I1m just proud of the way that they conducted themselves on the field. "