Of the four matchups involving teams we cover on the first day of District 1 playoffs, the most intriguing is the matchup of Central League foes in the 6A, 12 vs 21 game.

Lower Merion and Conestoga meet for the third time this year. The stakes are a little higher now that we’re in the “win or go home” portion of the season.

The Aces are the higher seed and will have home field advantage. I guess you could call it home field advantage, LM decided to play this game at Harriton not South Ardmore Park. They went 12-7 overall this year and 10-6 in the Central League, good enough for the twelfth seed in District 1.

This is the third-straight year we have seen Lower Merion make the playoffs, but the first without star pitcher Van Wilner. It has been an impressive group effort from the 2025 team to get back to this spot and the rise of two twin pitchers has certainly helped.

Brian and Justin Heck make up a legitimate 1-2 punch in Lower Merion’s starting rotation. While both are in their first year of getting real varsity experience, they have shown a lot of poise and pitched in many important games.

Playoffs always bring additional nerves, but a familiar opponent may help the Heck’s as it feels likely that we’ll see both pitch. Brian started the first game against Conestoga, going six shutout innings in a 3-1 win way back on March 19th. Justin threw a complete game in the second matchup, a 3-2 loss on April 30th.

If Lower Merion coach Colin Quinn decides to try and save one of the Hecks for the next round, Peyton Spiegler and Gus Wright look like reliable options to turn to out of the bullpen. Both have thrown a decent amount this year, but it feels more likely that one of the Heck’s starts.

Looking to give this staff some run support is a really deep LM lineup. Wright, Brody Slensky, and Toby Myers bring some firepower at the top of the order. In the middle of the order, Nicholas Dragut, Charlie Parsons, and Calvin Rendle have done a good job driving in runs.

Rounding out the lineup recently has been Leo Ufberg and Matt Hartstein. Coach Quinn has rotated Spiegler, Ryan Scholz, and Brendan O’Gara in the bottom of the lineup a bunch as well. I’m not sure who will get the start from those three in the playoff game.

Taking on this lineup will almost certainly be Conestoga’s Luke Hunter. Hunter has had a huge year as the Pioneer’s ace and is also one of their top bats.

Conestoga has been one of the stories of the year. Anthony Greco took over as head coach this offseason following a few difficult years for the program. It looked like his first season at the helm would be another difficult one after an 0-5 start.

A disappointing March turned to a hopeful April and the Pioneers caught fire, winning their first seven games of the month. They would finish 8-1 in April, bringing them from nowhere to a playoff contender and the hottest team in the area.

The Pioneers finished 11-8 overall and 9-7 in the Central League. That earned them the 21st seed and a spot in the 6A playoffs for the first time since 2021. 

Hunter’s emergence in all areas of the game led this Conestoga turnaround but the talent on the rest of this squad is not to be overshadowed.

Henry Fuerst has settled into the number two role and put up good numbers this year. He’s actually seen Lower Merion twice this year and been pretty successful; Fuerst threw a complete game in Stoga’s 3-2 win over the Aces.

Max Brown and Ryan Bauer have both thrown a decent amount out of the bullpen. Brown seems to be the first option in relief. He has closed out a good amount of games for the Pioneers.

Conestoga can swing it as well. This lineup is capable of producing a lot of runs and features three college commits.

James Quici and Cooper Evers make a strong top of the order. Quici, a Penn State – Harrisburg commit, and Evers, a Hamilton College commit, have both been hitting well recently.

Tasked with driving those two in will be the middle of the order featuring Chase Cherny, Hunter, and Chase Rantanen, a York commit. Brendan Soura, Kurt Tharnish, Landon Jones, and Josh Lee make up a last-four in the lineup that has proven themselves capable of coming up with big hits in big moments.

I’m very excited to see what kind of show these teams put on today. Neither are playing their best baseball, Lower Merion lost their last two and Conestoga dropped two straight before beating Upper Darby on the final day, but that could change in a playoff atmosphere.

Playoff experience should help Lower Merion. A few players from this team will have been a part of the past runs and can help some of the more inexperienced guys. They’ll have their work cut out against Hunter though, who has been one of the best pitchers in the area this year.

I mentioned earlier that this game is taking place at Harriton instead of at the Aces’ usual home, South Ardmore Park. It’s certainly an interesting move to change the location of your playoff game to your rival’s field, but we were told that being able to play on a field with a fence (South Ardmore does not have one) was a determining factor.

We’re in for a great game today. This one kicks off, along with three other games we’ll be following at DBN, at 4pm. Be sure to tune in for coverage on my personal Twitter account @ben_thorpe34 as well as our main one @delcobaseball.