Bullish Bulldog Nick Fiorini continues to clean up at the plate
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Like a bull that sees a matador wave a red towel, Nick Fiorini seems to have a physiological reaction when he sees runners in scoring position.
The Wilson cleanup hitter becomes hyper-focused and his bat becomes as sharp as a bull’s horns.
“Every time I’m up to bat, I’m excited,” the Bulldogs’ RBI machine explains, “but especially when runners are on, I’m fired up. I just get a little more excited.”
Fiorini was locked and loaded again for the start of the BCIAA Tournament Thursday at Laureldale. He doubled his first two times up, drove in runs in his first and last at-bats and reached base all four times as the third-seeded Bulldogs clubbed sixth-seeded Berks Catholic 7-2 in a quarterfinal.
The Bulldogs (14-6) were relentless, scoring three times in the first and adding single runs in the second, third, fifth and sixth innings and they did it against the Saints’ two top arms, Trey Stricker and Parker Nein, who were a combined 11-1 coming in.
Wilson advances to the semifinals Saturday at 4:30 at Owls Field to face second-seeded Twin Valley (15-4), a 5-4, nine-inning victor over seventh-seeded Oley Valley.
Fiorini was at the forefront of Wilson’s 10-hit attack, ripping an RBI double to center to make it 2-0 in the first. He drove in the final run with a single up the middle in the sixth.
He has now driven in a staggering 27 runs in 20 games, a figure that exceeds anything the big sluggers on Wilson’s 2017 and 2019 Berks championship squads managed.
The senior center fielder, who’s now batting .446 with a .723 slugging percentage, had perhaps the Bulldogs’ biggest hit of the season, an RBI single in a 6-5 walk-off victory over Gov. Mifflin on April 15.
“There’s something about him: He knows when it’s time to be clutch, he can do it,” said teammate Christo Hunsicker. “He can produce when we need production offensively, and he got it done again today.”
There is one at-bat Fiorini would like to have back.
“In the fifth inning, I got (on on) a catcher’s interference,” he said. “I was kind of fed up about that. I had two guys in scoring position; I wanted to knock ’em in.”
The way Hunsicker was pitching it wasn’t necessary to. He had all the runs he needed after that three-run first.
The junior right-hander continued to come up with clutch performances. He went five innings in the Division I-clinching victory at Gov. Mifflin last week and pitched six shutout innings in a 10-0 win over Daniel Boone the time before that.
Thursday’s six-inning outing was perhaps his most important to date. It not only pushed the Bulldogs one step closer to a return to the Berks championship game but it kept staff ace Matt VanOstenbridge fresh.
The senior left-hander pitched the final inning Thursday and likely could be used in that same closing role in Saturday’s semifinal. Ben Kulp is expected to get the start in that one. If he can go deep in the game and limit VanOstenbridge to another one-inning outing Wilson will have the league’s top pitcher available on full rest for Monday’s championship game.
“We have confidence that our top four or five guys can throw against anybody,” said Wilson coach Bill Underwood. “Being able to have that luxury to pitch guys in different spots and bring in Matty at the end of the game to shut it down really helps us out.”
Few teams are deep enough to send out their No. 3 starter against a lineup as deep and potent as Berks Catholic’s and feel comfortable about it. The Berks III champion Saints (16-4) entered the playoffs with a league-leading .332 team batting average and averaging 9.3 runs per game.
Hunsicker was eager and prepared for the challenge. He allowed just three hits – one a pop fly that landed on the edge of the outfield grass, that should have been caught – and one earned run.
He kept the free-swinging Saints on their heels with a variety of offspeed pitches and by spotting his fastball. He said it helped that he had played with, and against, several of the Saints in the past and knows their strengths at the plate. He’s adept at picking up cues from hitters and effective executing his pitches.
“I definitely knew I had to not give them anything that they like,” he said. “I’ve learned (where to throw them) from the mistakes in the past.”
Underwood said Hunsicker continues to evolve on the mound, adding things to his repertoire – like a sidearm fastball – that make him difficult to pick up.
“Christo’s been pitching all year against top level teams,” Underwood said, “so we figured if he can throw well against Gov. Mifflin and those other teams he can throw well against Berks Catholic.”
| Berks Catholic | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | – | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| Wilson | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | x | – | 7 | 10 | 4 |
| Saints | AB | R | H | RBI | Bulldogs | AB | R | H | RBI | |
| Walls, ss/2b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | T. Hunsicker, 3b | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| Stricker, p/ss | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Gabel, ss | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Rodriguez, 1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Ulrich, cr | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Nein, 2b/p | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | C. Hunsicker, p/1b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Curley, 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Kulp, 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Schalk, dh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Snyder, c | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| DiSabatino, c | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Kennedy, rf | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| Bradley, lf | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Kostelac, rf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mace, cf | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | VanOstenbridge, dh/p | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Fidler, rf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Herbein, c | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Marmolejos, lf | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Fernandez, 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 27 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 30 | 7 | 10 | 7 |
E: Curley, Bradley, Walls, Stricker, Fidler; Gabel, Kulp, Marmolejos, Fernandez. 2B: Rodriguez, Stricker; Fiorini 2, C. Hunsicker 3B: Gabel. SB: Walls, Bradley; Gabel 3, Ulrich, Fiorini, Kennedy. CS: S: SF: LOB: Berks Catholic 8, Wilson 10.
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |||
| Stricker, L (5-1) | 4 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 6 | C. Hunsicker, W (3-1) | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | |
| Nein | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | VanOstenbridge | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
WP: Stricker 2, C. Hunsicker. HBP: Gabel (by Stricker).
