It’s all clicking right now for Mustangs, who take first meeting vs. Bulldogs

Xander Velez didn’t get a chance to pitch against Wilson last season but he learned a lot watching Connor Maryniak and Matt Gehris throw big games for Gov. Mifflin.

The scouting report he compiled for the Bulldogs: Throw first-pitch fastballs for strikes and off-speed pitches for outs.

It worked like a charm, the junior right-hander responding to his biggest challenge with a two-hitter Tuesday as the Mustangs opened Berks League Division I play with a 3-1 win over the Bulldogs at Rulon Griffith Field.

Velez walked a couple batters in the first inning but got past that to post a dominant effort, with 10 strikeouts over seven innings. The deeper he got into the game the better his change-up worked and the more dominant he became.

“Coming out in a game like this against your rival, maintaining your composure, and being able to throw multiple pitches for strikes to keep that lineup off-balanced was crucial,” said Mifflin coach Chris Hole.

Velez said it felt like a playoff atmosphere. He noticed the hill behind home plate lined with fans, many expecting a continuation of the season-long battle the Bulldogs and Mustangs waged last year.

They met four times in 2021, with the Mustangs winning the Berks championship game and the Bulldogs coming back to beat them in the District 3 Class 6A title game.

This one had a similar feel as Velez and Wilson’s Rueben Livingston hooked up in a pitcher’s duel. It was scoreless until the fifth when the Mustangs (5-0) took advantage of some defensive miscues to score a pair of runs.

The Bulldogs (0-4) battled back, cutting it to 2-1 on Livingston’s RBI double in the sixth but Velez maintained his composure and didn’t allow another hit.

“Everything was working for him tonight,” said Mifflin center fielder Mason Woolwine. “His change-up was real nice, and his two-seam fastball was also very good. Him going the distance like that keeps us in the game.”

Woolwine did his part, coming up with a spectacular running catch in the third to take away an extra-base hit from Charlie Frantz.

“He’s been very good out there,” Velez said of Woolwine. “I thought it was going to land by the fence; he chased that one down pretty far.”

That was the story of the game: The Mustangs made the plays they had to, the Bulldogs didn’t.

Livingston was strong; he allowed just four hits and didn’t walk a batter over five innings, but his defense let him down in the fifth. A sacrifice bunt was misplayed, opening the door for a big inning; center fielder Rafael Fernandez’s throw home later in the inning beat Ethan Grim, who had tagged up, but catcher Jordan Shutter could hold it and the Mustangs went up 2-0.

The Mustangs scored their third run, in the sixth, on a balk.

“We’re young and inexperienced, and we know that,” said Wilson coach Sal Raccuglia, who’s 0-4 for the first time in his 11 seasons. “We want to play loose, but we still need to tighten things up. We need to find that happy medium.”

The Mustangs have already found it. Hole had to replace 13 seniors from a 21-win team and never expected this kind of start. His team has been dominant. Before facing Livingston they had been averaging 12 runs a game, winning by nearly nine runs.

Several underclassmen were a key part of last year’s run — Tyler Minick, Darien Troche, Valez and Woolwine — and they’ve been key to this year’s fast start. So, too, has a strong freshman class. Travis Jenkins, one of three freshmen who see regular time, got the biggest hit of the game Tuesday, snapping a scoreless tie with an RBI single off Livingston.

“Those (returning) guys brought back experience,” Hole said, “but also that winning culture that has helped us turn the page rather quickly — maybe a little more quickly than I thought we would, especially with some of the teams that we’ve played. It’s been a pleasant surprise so far.”

Good as last season was for Mifflin, it didn’t start this well: The Mustangs were 2-3 at this point. They didn’t start to click until the second half of the season, when they put together a 12-game winning streak — half of those coming in the postseason.

“I knew after the first couple games we had a good group of guys here,” Woolwine said. “Everyone knows their spot on the team, and everyone’s playing to it as best as they can. We have great team camaraderie. It’s all clicking right now.”

Not so for the Bulldogs.

“It’s like starting over,” said Raccuglia, who graduated 12 seniors from a team that went 22-3. “We’re trying to figure it out.”

The glass, he said, remains half full. He’s confident his guys will figure this out.

“If Gov. Mifflin’s the best team in the league, we’re right there with them,” he said. “We just need to make a few plays and figure out ways to get guys on, get ’em over, get ’em in. . . if that starts to happen we’re right there.”