Lehigh Valley’s Carpenter Cup softball team played to two 2-2 ties in a doubleheader scrimmage against the Patriettes 23U team on June 14 at Patriots Park in Allentown in preparation for this week’s tournament at FDR Park in Philadelphia.

“I’m super excited,” said Lehigh Valley head coach Brian Fehnel. “We have a bunch of hitters and five pitchers. I think we have a talented team this year. We’ll see how we do.”

Lehigh Valley had five hits in the first scrimmage, including an RBI triple to left field by Ariana Castillo (Liberty), a double to right center by Alina Weaver (Nazareth), and singles by Sydney Frantz (Palmerton), Karlye Teman (Palisades), and Addison Sabo (Liberty).

Castillo and Autumn Held (Emmaus) had doubles in the second scrimmage.

“I think they’re starting to warm up to each other tonight,” said Fehnel of his players. “They’re joking around. They all play on tournament teams, so there’s that bond.”

Lehigh Valley has six returners from last year’s team which was eliminated in a semifinal by Mid Penn.

“Mid Penn’s pitcher is back this year. I’m sure, at some point, if we have to play Mid Penn, we’ll see her,” Fehnel said.

But with considerable interest from high school players and a lot of input from their coaches this year, Fehnel is confident that Lehigh Valley will see much success this week.

“Before the high school season started, we sent out emails to all the high school coaches to get back to us with who they thought they would like to nominate for us to come watch play,” said Fehnel. “We went and watched everyone play throughout the whole season. I saw more high school softball than I’d ever seen in my life. We saw everyone play three or four times, and then we selected the players we wanted.”

Lehigh Valley’s first game in the Carpenter Cup Softball Classic is scheduled for June 21 against Inter-AC.