Mustangs, Muhls braced for rare midseason matchup of unbeatens

Brian Kopetsky watched as his Muhlenberg baseball players celebrated their biggest win of the season, a 6-5 comeback over Wilson Saturday night at Owls Field. The Muhls improved to 10-0, but their coach knows they can’t rest on that.

“You enjoy it for 24 hours,” Kopetsky said.

Then it’s back to what the veteran Muhls coach is referring to as “the gauntlet,” a weeklong stretch of Berks I contenders, and Boyertown, for the his Berks II-leading team.

Muhlenberg’s early schedule wasn’t the most demanding — its first nine opponents are a combined 24 games under .500. It got serious in a hurry when the Muhls went to Owls Field to face right-hander Rueben Livingston, one of the top pitchers in the league, and a Bulldogs team that’s much better than its 4-6 record.

The temperature goes up a few degrees Monday night when when the Muhls head to Shillington to play defending Berks champ Gov. Mifflin, which at 13-0 is off to what might be the best start in program history.

The Mustangs’ record is the best in the state, according to figures on maxpreps.com. They moved into the top spot in the District 3 Class 6A power ratings briefly late last week, then slipped back to second behind Central Dauphin (9-1) after the Rams beat a 9-1 Susquehannock team Saturday.

The Muhls and Mustangs are the only unbeaten teams in District 3. That makes Monday’s showdown especially interesting.

Midseason baseball games usually aren’t something to get too excited about. Coaches know its all about what you do in the playoffs that matters, and what matters most at that time of the year is having pitching depth and a sound defense.

It’s too early to worry about those things yet — the district tournament is still nearly a month a way. Still, a battle of unbeatens this late in April is pretty rare.

“That’s a big one, obviously,” said Muhlenberg right fielder Gio Cavanna after driving in three runs in the win over Wilson to keep the Muhls unbeaten, “everyone knows that.”

This might be the best start in Mifflin program history; Muhlenberg hasn’t gotten off to a start this good in at least 15 seasons.

Junior shortstop Tyler Minick was a big part of Mifflin’s run to a county championship and a 21-7 record last season. Even after losing 13 seniors from that team he was confident the Mustangs would be in the thick of it again this year. He wasn’t, however, predicting a start such as this.

“Twelve and 0, I mean, that’s crazy,” he said Thursday after the Mustangs’ win over Fleetwood in the Berks County High School Showcase at Owls Field.

“(We know) if we go out and we perform, we can beat a lot of teams,” Minick said. “We’ve got to keep improving, keep grinding for when it matters.”

Minick, a University of Connecticut recruit, has been a driving force in an attack that’s averaging 8.7 runs and winning by 6 1/2 runs per game. Through the first dozen games of the season he batted .464 with a .583 on-base percentage and an .893 slugging average. Those are serious numbers, even for a small sample size.

Junior Alexander Velez, one of the most improved players in the league, has put up huge numbers, too: A .514 batting average, .558 on-base average, .743 slugging averaging and 18 RBIs in Mifflin’s first 12 games.

As a team, the Mustangs batted .342 through 12 games.

The Muhls can swing a little, too. They carried a .356 team batting average into Saturday’s game against Wilson and were averaging 7 1/2 runs per game.

Luis Beato saw his batting average slip Saturday after going 2-for-4; now it’s down to .551. He has scored 11 runs and has seven extra-base hits in 10 games.

First baseman Sam Martinez, shortstop Kenay Rodriguez and catcher Julian Hatt are each batting over .400.

The perfect records and gaudy stats are nice but what’s important now is to get tested by the kind of quality opponents you’re going to see come playoff time.

Kopetsky is expecting to see Mifflin’s 5-0 Alexander Velez Monday; he’s hoping Exeter has hard-throwing Devin Sheerin lined up for his team Friday when they meet in Laureldale.

“You want to face the best guys, because you want to get a true measuring stick of how good you are,” Kopetsky said.

Mifflin coach Chris Hole feels likewise.

“I don’t care about streaks,” he said. “I don’t care if we lose a game. I want us to come out and compete every game and play to the best of our ability.

“Everybody can chase us. We know we have a bullseye on our back. We have to play within ourselves and not beat ourselves. That’s all I’m telling ’em. There’s no reason to feel pressure (because of the perfect record). Just come out every game and compete, and we’re gonna be fine.”