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Top Stories of 2014: #4 - Banner Year for the Pioneer Athletic Conference

December 21, 2014

By Jacob Gill
Philadelphia Region Director of Scouting

2012 was the last time a Pioneer Athletic Conference (PAC-10) school earned a bid to the PIAA class AAA state tournament, while the drought for the conference's class AAAA schools stretched back to 2011. In a monumental reversal of recent fortunes, four of the league's ten teams played their way into a state tournament berth in 2014, matching the number from the 24-team Suburban One League the previous season.

Pope John Paul II (23-6) engineered a dramatic turnaround from a 5-14 season in 2013 on its way to capturing the AAA state title. Spring-Ford (20-8) reached the AAAA semifinals with a quarterfinal win over Methacton (22-7), while Boyertown Area (20-6) fell in the first round to eventual state champion La Salle.

Boyertown won the regular-season conference title by two games over PJP and Spring-Ford. Methacton bounced back from a 4th-place conference finish to capture both the PAC-10 tournament title (over PJP) and District I championship (over Boyertown).

Practically the only reason these schools lost at all was the fact that they cannibalized each other during the season. 17 of the combined 27 losses for the four schools came against each other. Boyertown went 2-0 against Spring-Ford, which went 3-0 versus Methacton, which won three of four games over Boyertown. Despite being the smallest of the four schools, PJP went toe-to-toe against their larger counterparts, finishing with a 4-4 record against the other three schools.

What are the chances of a repeat performance for the league in 2015? Pope John Paul II not only graduated its top three pitchers, but also lost its head coach (see top story #9 below). Boyertown graduated the pitchers that fronted its rotation, as did Methacton, which also wrote eight seniors into its regular line-up last season. That leaves Spring-Ford as the favorite to carry the PAC-10 mantle, as the Rams return seven players who have already made commitments to college baseball programs.

Top Stories of 2014

#5 - La Salle's Joe Parisi Retires on Top
#6 - Five PA Players Selected in MLB First-Year Player Draft
#7 - WPIAL Title Drought Continues
#8 - Acceleration of the Recruiting Process
#9 - Duffy One(-Title)-and-Done at Pope John Paul II
#10 - Sub-.500 Seneca Valley Makes Run to State Semifinals
#11 - PBR PA Moves Office to Manheim
#12 - PBR Recruiting Essentials Unveiled

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