Gov. Mifflin ready to make its pitch for first District 3 baseball championship
2024 Berks baseball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
Travis Jenkins has been catching Bryce Detwiler since junior high. He goes back even further with Ethan Grim; the Gov. Mifflin junior was putting fingers down for him when the two were Little Leaguers.
Jenkins is not surprised to see what his teammates have done in the District 3 Class 5A Tournament, stringing together three straight shutouts to lead the Mustangs to Tuesday’s championship game.
“It’s great to see them overcome a lot, not let anything get into their head,” Jenkins said of Detwiler, who has thrown a pair of shutouts, and Grim, who’s thrown one. “They’re pitching great; you couldn’t ask for more.”
How about a fourth straight shutout?
That’s probably never been done in the District 3 Tournament but it might be necessary when the top-seeded Mustangs (20-4) run into second-seeded Mechanicsburg (19-3-1) Tuesday at 6:30 at FirstEnergy Stadium.
District 3 Class 5A Tournament bracket
Good as Detwiler and Grim, a pair of junior right-handers, have been, Mifflin will be running into a pitcher with an even bigger resume, Reese Young. The 5-11 left-hander was named Mid-Penn Conference Keystone Division co-Player of the Year and has a scholarship to play at North Alabama, a Division I program which competes in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
Young is 10-0 with an 0.67 ERA and 93 strikeouts over 62 2/3 innings. He’s 28-2 in his career and was part of Mechanicsburg’s district championship team last year.
The Mustangs will likely counter with Grim, who is 6-2 with a 2.06 ERA and 81 strikeouts over 54 1/3 innings. He pitched a five-hitter in Mifflin’s 3-0 quarterfinal win over Palmyra last Monday.
Grim has humped his fastball up several mph since last season and is throwing in the low 90’s. He has offers from Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh, Connecticut, and Delaware.
Detwiler will be eligible out of the bullpen, if needed. He’s 8-2 with a 1.55 ERA and 68 whiffs over 54 innings. He was recruited by the University of Connecticut as an infielder but has made big strides on the mound this season and might get a look there when he arrives in Storrs 15 months from now.
Grim and Detwiler have combined for 31 strikeouts and just two walks over 21 district innings.
Young has pitched two of Mechanicsburg’s three district games, with a 6-0 shutout over No. 15 Elizabethtown and a 4-0 win over No. 6 Shippensburg in the semifinals.
Because of the five-day gap in the tournament, due to Memorial Day weekend, he’s eligible to go again Tuesday on full rest.
The Wildcats went to their No. 2 pitcher, sophomore Grady Weaver, just once in the tournament, in the quarterfinals against No. 7 Muhlenberg. They had to put together a big comeback to survive. They trailed 3-0 after Aaden Lopez’s three-run homer in the first, were down 5-2 in the second and 6-5 in the third.
Their big hitter, Duke recruit Jeff Loguee, helped ignite a comeback with a two-run homer in the first. He also homered in the semifinals, his sixth of the year. He’s batting a team-high .382, with 30 runs scored and 22 driven in. He shared Keystone co-Player of the Year honors with Young.
Weaver and junior Jager Nailor, who leads the team with 23 RBIs, were second-team all-league picks; senior Landon Mark, who will play at Messiah, is a third-team pick.
The Mustangs have needed near-perfect pitching because they have not hit well in the tournament. They banged around Berks League pitching during the regular season but that hasn’t been the case in districts: They’re batting a combined .123 with five runs scored, two of them unearned.
Detwiler, the Berks Player of the Year, is batting a team-best .471; he has two hits in three district games (one was a homer). Grim is batting .420 and is second on the team with 25 RBIs (Detwiler has 29).
Jenkins, an All-Berks pick who is batting .357, didn’t get a hit in the semifinals but reached on an error in the semifinals and scored from second on Joey Berg’s walk-off single to shallow center.
“It’s was a great feeling,” Jenkins said of touching home to end it. “It was great knowing we were going to the finals. We played a really good team; they were great, they were scrappy. We just stuck with it and had great pitching from Bryce all day.”
The shutout was the Mustangs’ eighth of the season; it was their fifth one-run win.
“It’s been grind it out and fight to the very end (in every playoff game),” Mifflin coach Chris Hole said. “Be one run better: That’s our goal, and we’ve been able to do this point.
“It’s playoff baseball. Every team that gets into these tournaments is very good. Every team is going to have experience, strong pitching, so it’s a dogfight. Every game is a grind, and for us that’s certainly proven to be the case.”
Gov. Mifflin has won 20 games six times in program history, including three times in the last four seasons. It has reached a district game three times in the past (all since 2016) but has never won. Most recently, it played Wilson in the 6A championship game in 2021 and lost – just a couple weeks after upsetting the Bulldogs for the league title.
“It’s pretty hard to believe,” Jenkins said of Mifflin being without a district title. “I remember watching (in 2021), a team with Connor Maryniak, Tyler (Minick), Matt Gehris. We all thought they were gonna win the district after they beat Wilson for the county chip, but . . . that’s how baseball goes.”
