Krause’s no-hitter lifts Perkiomen Valley past Abington in district opener

GRATERFORD— It had been a while — as in 11 seasons since a 2004 win in Class AAA over Sun Valley — since Perkiomen Valley brought home a win in a district playoff game.

Just a win evidently wasn’t good enough for Tyler Krause. He needed to make it more memorable.

He just didn’t want to think about it.

“It’s amazing,’ the Vikings senior right-hander said. “As the game went on, I got more and more nervous thinking about it, but I tried to keep my mind off of it. My main goal was to just come out, pound the strike zone and get the win.

‘˜It’ was the no-hitter Krause hurled as the Vikings topped Abington 2-0 in the opening round of the District 1-AAAA playoffs on Monday afternoon at Perkiomen Valley High School.

Krause allowed zero hits across all seven innings where he let just three men on base (a walk, a hit-by-pitch and an error) and struck out six batters to send Perkiomen Valley to a meeting with No. 5 seeded and PAC-10 foe Boyertown on Wednesday afternoon at Bear Stadium.

“It was a really big win for our team,’ Krause said. “We had huge expectations in the PAC-10 even before the season started, and we ended up falling short in the PAC-10 playoffs. This is a good way to get back in the swing.’

Chase Koffel proved the biggest swing of the afternoon, as he hit a clutch two-out single in the bottom of the sixth to break open the scoreless game. He also came around to score on a single from Nick Mikesic to give Krause some breathing room on the mound.

“(Abington pitcher Greg Troyer) did a great job keeping us off balance and hitting the outside part of the plate,’ said Koffel. “We were able to jump on him late which was huge. Tyler definitely deserved to get this win; he threw great out there.’

Troyer threw all six innings for Abington, where he yielded two runs (one earned) on five hits and four walks with one strike out.

“I’m really proud of the way Greg and our team played today,’ said Abington head coach David Torresani. “But Krause was phenomenal out there. He mixed his pitches well and kept our guys off-balance.

“We had been hitting the ball really well this season, that’s how we got to this point. So that shows how well he was throwing out there against us.’

The Vikings created plenty of scoring chances throughout, but couldn’t find a way capitalize until the sixth inning.

With men on first and third in the bottom of the third, Troyer got John Turner to ground into a double play to end the threat.

Two innings later, Sean Moriarity hit a bunt single and eventually reached third base on a sacrifice bunt by Liam Grande. But he was caught at the plate on a perfect throw trying to tag on Nate Yoder’s fly out to center.

“We would have definitely rather scored more runs earlier on in the game,’ said Koffel. “But I’m glad we got two across when we did.’

After splitting the season with Boyertown during the PAC-10 regular season, Perkiomen Valley will look to bring its best on Wednesday.

“We’ll have to go there and prove that we’re a team who deserves to be here,’ said Perkiomen Valley head coach Ryan Hinkle. “We’ve come a long way throughout the season, and I’m proud of all the progress the guys have made up to this point.’

The Vikings will look to carry the momentum of Krause’s no-hitter along with their late-inning rally to their familiar foe.

“I hope we can take it to Boyertown on Wednesday,’ said Koffel. “It should definitely be a good one, but if we can keep playing well, hopefully we can keep rolling.’