On Monday afternoon, Perk Valley took down Methacton by a score of 4-0. Directly after that, Pope John Paul II took down Upper Merion 8-2.

With the win, both of these teams advanced to play in the Pioneer Athletic Conference Championship under the lights at Spring-Ford High School in Royersford on Wednesday night at 7:00 PM.

Meanwhile, Haverford and Radnor players spent their Monday night arguing in our Instagram comment section over who was more deserving of being the true Central League Champion as both teams earned a share of the title after going 15-1 in the regular season.

Radnor’s lone Central League loss came by a 4-1 score at the hands of Haverford in our game of the week back on April 8th. Haverford fell to Lower Merion 7-1 on May 1st for their only loss of the year.

In the last few years where I have been pushing for some type of playoff structure for the Central League, I have yet to hear one argument against it that isn’t stupid.

I don’t want to hear that it “can’t” be done, because it is quite literally being done in other conferences. All of the teams playing in the Pioneer Athletic Conference semifinals/finals are all District 1 teams that will be playing in the same district tournaments that all of our teams are playing in.

Methacton will have nine days off until their first district game after playing in the conference semifinals. Upper Merion will have seven. Perk Valley will have seven. Pope John Paul II will have six.

More than enough time to be ready for districts.

They also play 16 games in their regular season too, which is the same amount of games that Central League teams play.

I don’t want to hear about injuries, because these teams are playing non-conference games this week. Haverford has a game with Downingtown East on Wednesday. If teams are supposed to be worried about getting hurt before districts, why would that game that is a glorified scrimmage even happen?

If the playoffs happened this year the way that they happen in the Pioneer Athletic Conference, this is what we would see:

• One of the best pitchers in Delco in Austin Havertine and 15-1 Radnor facing one of the best lineups in Delco in 11-5 Garnet Valley in the 2/3 matchup.
• The nightcap would be an incredible pitching matchup under the lights between two First Team All-Delco pitchers in Jimmy Boyle and 15-1 Haverford against Luke D’Ancona and 10-6 Strath Haven, who would get in as the #4 seed over Lower Merion with the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Winners would play Wednesday night for all the marbles.

I understand the argument for wanting to be fully prepared for districts, but at least for the 6A teams, districts haven’t exactly gone great since the realignment in 2017 to six classes.

Since that change happened, a Delco team hasn’t even made the District semi-finals, let alone brought home a trophy. Why would you rob the Central League players of the chance to go out and win a championship with all of their friends and families in the stands and represent the conference that they all love playing in?

5A has seen good Delco success in districts, with Marple Newtown winning in 2017 and 2024 and Strath Haven in 2021 and 2023. I still think those teams would have won regardless of whether they played a conference title or not.

My senior year at Strath Haven in 2017, THREE teams split the league title when Harriton, Springfield, and Garnet Valley all went 12-4. That’s 25% of the league getting to claim that they are the best!

These teams deserve to settle it on the field instead of second guessing. Radnor and Haverford will not have that chance because Radnor is a 5A school and Haverford is a 6A school. They will not play again this season.

Both of these teams should celebrate this championship because they earned it. With that being said, there has to be some feeling that looking down 476 and seeing another school with that “2025 Champions” banner has to sting a little.

All you have to do is simply have one more week during the regular season that has three conference games as opposed to two. It’s not rocket science. I don’t know who makes the decision at the end of the day, but if you are one of those people and you are reading this, give the people what they want and we’ll see you under the lights at Marple Newtown next year.