Scott Garcsar has a dilemma, but a common one when you are coaching two talented summer teams.

Garcsar, the 1999 Morning Call baseball player of the year while at Freedom, would like to be in two places at one time this week.

He’s the coach of the Northwest Explosion 12U travel team and an assistant with the Christmas City All-Stars 10U squad.

The Explosion is headed this week to Loudon County, Virginia, for the 12U USA Softball Eastern Nationals.

Meanwhile, the Christmas City team that won the District 20 and Section 6 championships in recent weeks, is going to Williamsport for the 10U state championships. Their first game is 3 p.m. Wednesday against Warrior Run. If they keep winning, they would play for the championship in the eight-team, double-elimination tournament on Sunday.

“They always have these tournaments at the same time, and it is what it is,” Garcsar said. “I will be going to Virginia, but I will be making sure to be following along with what’s happening at Williamsport.”

Garscar has daughters playing on both teams and he’s having a lot of fun coaching the girls. Maggie is on the Explosion and Grace plays for Christmas City team.

“I like the Little League concept for the younger girls,” Garcsar said. “I’ve been coaching here for six or seven years now and we have a lot of girls that start here at Northwest Little League and then they go on to the travel team. I enjoy the 10U level, the girls are really coachable. They’re fun to coach. This is my favorite age because they really listen and really pay attention and give you everything they have got.”

Jen Carlo, who is the manager of the Christmas City team, agrees.

She has a vast background in softball. At Clifton High School in New Jersey, she was part of a high-powered program that won back-to-back state titles and had a 60-game winning streak.

Carlo then went on to play at Rutgers and played two years at the Division I level before an injury ended her career. She then went on to become a professional team general manager and was an assistant GM for the Philadelphia Force pro women’s squad that played in Allentown for several years at what was then called Bicentennial Park.

She knows what high-quality softball is all about and she likes Christmas City’s chances in the state tournament.

Carlo and Garcsar both coached the Northwest Little League 10U team that advanced to the state finals before finishing second two years ago.

Christmas City is primarily a Northwest Little League but also includes three girls from Lehigh Little League and that’s why the Christmas City label is used. The team even uses the colors of Christmas, red and green, in its unform scheme.

“We saw this as an opportunity for some good players at the other Bethlehem little leagues like Lehigh and North Bethlehem to play on an all-star team,” Carlo said. “So we opened it up and had tryouts. We had 18 girls tryout and we picked the best 12.”

Just one Christmas City player, Roslyn Parry, was a member of the 2024 Northwest 10U team that finished second in the state.

Last year’s Northwest team lost in the district finals to Weatherly, falling 5-4 in what Carlo called a heartbreaker.

But this year, Christmas City had no trouble avenging last year’s loss as the Bethlehem team won the best-of-three championship with a sweep – winning 10-0 and 20-0. They outhit the Wreckers 34-1 in the two games.

“We have a very talented team with good hitters, top to bottom,” Carlo said. “Most of these girls just graduated from fifth grade and they’re going to sixth this fall and then we have some rising fifth graders as well. The pitching is the key. We gave up just one hit in two games against Weatherly.”

If Christmas City wins the state title, it would go on to the Eastern Regional tournament.

“What’s great is that this year’s team has some girls with older sisters who were on the team two years ago that finished second in the state,” Carlo said. “We’ve been coaching some of these girls since they were in kindergarten and we’ve always had the same mentality. They work hard and we teach them the fundamentals. We have cage practices in the winter and we’ve been preparing for this for years.”

Parry did not allow a hit in two games against Weatherly. She struck out 14 in five innings of work and walked just two.

“I’m very excited about the state tournament,” she said. “I feel like we have a very good team. I like how we play and I like our bond. We’re really good with our hitting and our defense. It’s great that we can come together and play so well.”

Parry, who will attend Nitschmann Middle School in the coming school year, loves the sport of softball.

“I love my coaches because they are super nice and they have really helped us get this good,” Parry said. “They teach us a lot.”

Garcsar said that while softball participation numbers are down, the sport is still thriving in Bethlehem.

“We get a lot of interest each year and I couldn’t be happier with what we get,” he said. “The girls are here to learn and get better. That’s all you can ask.”

Team members, in addition to Parry, include McKenzie Beck, Margot Beck, Dakota Carlo, Kali Concilio, Grace Garcsar, Lucy Kempinski, Anna Landon, Kylie Reichard, C.C. Rivera, Emory Scaroano, and Jayna Williams.

Legion baseball

The Northampton County Legion League and the Lehigh Valley Legion had championship games on Monday night.

In the Norco, Hellertown and Nazareth were squaring off at Nazareth..

Nazareth had a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three championship series after a 10-4 win on Sunday night. Nazareth had 11 hits with Hank Newton, Chase Biedermann, Caden Mills, Landon Glovas and Chase Brown collecting two hits apiece. Biedermann, Newton and Glovas also had doubles and combined for five RBIs.

South Parkland and Lower Macungie were set to meet at Coplay’s Balliet Stadium. Lower Mac beat defending champ North Parkland twice — 9-0 and 2-0 — and then trounced Whitehall-Coplay 6-1 to reach the final.

South Parkland battled back from a 5-4 loss to Whitehall-Coplay in its first game in the tournament to beat North Parkland and Whitehall-Coplay to reach the finals.

In a 4-3 win over Whitehall-Coplay, Andrew Bowser’s two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the seventh gave South Parkland a 4-3 walk-off win. Carter Delong, Bowser and Ryan Rooney combined on a seven-hitter on the mound.