Once again, Branson Adams and Mustangs are a hit in state tournament play
2024 Berks baseball coverage presented by
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A year ago Branson Adams had to sit and watch his Gov. Mifflin teammates battle through the playoffs.
An arm injury while playing travel ball in the fall of 2022 led to UCL repair surgery the following spring and cost him his entire sophomore season.
You would’ve never known watching him swing the bat Thursday when he reached base four straight times and ended the Mustangs’ PIAA Class 5A quarterfinal with a two-run single that completed a 10-0, five-inning rout of Whitehall at Kutztown Park.
“It’s great to be back, swinging a bat, just playing baseball,” the junior left fielder said.
There’s no way Adams would’ve wanted to miss this playoff run. Three days after winning the first state tournament game in program history the Mustangs made quick work of the District 11 champion Zephyrs (14-10) and advanced to the state semifinals for the first time.
The Mustangs (22-5) will play either District 4 champ Selinsgrove or Shippensburg, the fourth-place finisher in District 3, on Monday. Those teams will play a quarterfinal Friday at 6.
Such a deep playoff run looked remote just a couple weeks ago when the Mustangs were struggling to get through districts. Their potent lineup suddenly stopped hitting. They batted a woeful .113 in four district playoff games and scored all of six runs. They made states on the strength of their powerful pitching duo, Ethan Grim and Bryce Detwiler, who produced three straight shutouts, including a pair of 1-0 wins.
“It was shaky,” Adams said of the playoff run, “but we had really good defense, Ethan and Bryce threw really well and we did just enough with the stick to get it done.”
They’ve done more than enough with the sticks in the state tournament. After collecting 10 hits in a 7-2 opening-round over Frankford they were even more lethal Thursday, opening the game with four straight hits and scoring four times in the first. They led 6-0 in the second after Travis Jenkins singled and drove in his third run of the game.
They finished the game with 11 hits – including four doubles – and put double figures on the scoreboard for the first time since an 18-11 win over Exeter more than a month ago.
The Mustangs scored 10 or more runs 10 times in their first 16 games. The offense dried up in late May but Mifflin coach Chris Hole and his staff figured a way to revive it following a 6-1 loss to Mechanicsburg in the District 3 championship game.
“We tweaked a couple things with individual players,” Hole said. “We tried to emphasis hitting the ball more on the ground, did drills to keep the ball out of the air. The boys have come out the last two games and swung it a lot better.”
Detwiler, the Berks Player of the Year, led off the first with a double to the base of the outfield fence in right. Adams followed with a bunt single. Jenkins drilled one to the wall in right for a double and 2-0 lead. He scored when Grim laced a single up the middle. Grim’s courtesy runner, Ryan Lehman, scored from third on Joey Berg’s infield single to make it 4-0.
The Mustangs chased Whitehall starter Evan Kovalcik in the second on Adams’ RBI single and Jenkins’ RBI double.
Adams finished 3-for-3 with three runs scored, three RBIs and two stolen bases in four plate appearances; Jenkins also went 3-for-3 with three RBIs.
“Our approaches are a lot better,” Jenkins said of the Mustangs’ revitalized offense. “We’re taking the ball the other way. We’re staying back, being calm.”
“We focused on getting balls on the ground, keeping them out of the air,” Adams said. “Once we did that, then we really came in hitting.”
The Mustangs’ 11-for-21 hitting attack nearly overshadowed the mound work of Grim, which is quite a feat. The junior right-hander was on his game, with a powerful fastball and devastating curve.
He struck out 10 over five innings and allowed just two singles and two walks.
“He was really good tonight,” said Jenkins, his catcher. “It was one of his best outings of the year, honestly.”
Grim improved to 7-3 and lowered his ERA 1.85. He has struck out a Berks-leading 101 batters over just 64 1/3 innings.
Only one Whitehall batter managed to hit the ball past the infield – that came on Rob Yankowy’s line single to left in the third.
“Even from the outfield I could hear it smacking off Travis’ glove,” Adams said. “I knew he was throwing hard; his stuff was good today.”
| Whitehall | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Gov. Mifflin | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | – | 10 | 11 | 0 |
| Zephrys | AB | R | H | RBI | Mustangs | AB | R | H | RBI | |
| Yankowy, c | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Detwiler, ss | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Bridgidi, cr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Adams, lf | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| Hoderewski, cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Jenkins, c | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | |
| Reichenbach, lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Holh, cr | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Kovalcik, p/dh | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Grim, p | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| Hansen, p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Lehman, cr | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Sanders, 2b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Barrett, dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Lloyd, ss | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Reiter, 2b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Schaedel, 3b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Koehler, 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Strauss, ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Berg, rf | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Casantini, 1b | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| Wunderlich, cf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Montgomery, cr | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 16 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 21 | 10 | 11 | 10 |
2B: Jenkins 2, Detwiler, Casantini. SB: Adams 2, Detwiler. CS: Berg. S: Wunderlich. LOB: Whitehall 3, Gov. Mifflin 6.
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |||
| Kovalcik, L (1-1) | 1 2/3 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 0 | Grim, W (7-3) | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | |
| Hansen | 2 2/3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
HBP: Berg (by Hansen).
