Eagles emerge from the shadows to ruin Mustangs’ perfect run

Sure, Brady Hannahoe and his Exeter teammates took delight Thursday afternoon in the fact that they ended Gov. Mifflin’s bid for a perfect regular season, but the Eagles were motivated by more than that.

They’ve grown up in the shadows of the Mustangs and Berks I rival Wilson, the two most dominant programs in the Berks League over the past decade. They wanted to show they can play ball, too.

“I feel like we’ve always been looked at as under Wilson, and Mifflin, and the big schools,” said Hannahoe, the Eagles second baseman and one of their captains, “and I feel like we just proved ourselves this week.”

Three days after beating the Bulldogs the Eagles came away with the biggest win of the season, rallying from an early deficit to top the unbeaten Mustangs 16-10 in a nine-inning marathon at Rulon Griffith Field in Shillington.

The Berks I champion Mustangs (11-1, 19-1) were bidding for a rare perfect run — something none of the veteran coaches around the league can ever remember happening before.

It would have been an incredible feat, a season for the ages, and the Mustangs were on their way after a bat-around first-inning that put them on top 6-2.

The Eagles (8-4, 13-5), angling to get a home opener in the upcoming District 3 Class 5A Tournament, kept hanging around. They entered the seventh down 10-7 and needed a big inning to pull it off; Hannahoe helped deliver it.

He stroked a two-run triple to right, then scored on Luke Weller’s sacrifice fly to tie it.

“I knew what I needed to do,” Hannahoe said of the at-bat that ignited the Exeter dugout. “I’m the No. 1 hitter on this team and the coaches believe in me, and I needed to believe in myself that time, and I did. I stepped up and did what I needed to do to help the team.”

Two innings later the Eagles leadoff hitter put his team up for good, his RBI single sending Evan Franek home and igniting what became a six-run inning. Weller followed with an RBI single, Nick Sydor a two-run double and Devin Sheerin an RBI double.

That rally silenced the Mustangs, who have been dominant all season as they’ve chased history. They had outscored their competition four-to-one through 19 games and averaged 8 1/2 runs per game.

They had allowed more than five runs just once, in a 9-7 win over Garden Spot. They had averaged just over one error per game. Thursday they committed five, leading to six unearned runs.

“A lot of uncharacteristic things bit us today,” said Mifflin coach Chris Hole. “We preach pitching and defense, and both those areas were not our strong suit today. The defense definitely let us down, and let us down in some key moments.”

The Mustangs committed three errors in a three-run second inning helped the Eagles get back in the game, closing within 6-5. They committed an error that opened the door for the three-run seventh.

The Eagles made the errors look bigger by smacking the ball around the park for 16 hits — all while facing three of Mifflin’s top pitchers.

Weller — who’s now batting .500, with 26 RBIs — Hannahoe and Alex Kelsey each had three hits. Franek reached base in each of his five plate appearances, stole three bases and scored four runs.

The offensive outburst was no fluke. The Eagles have scored 10 or more runs nine times this season. They did it in late April when they beat Central Dauphin — at the time the top-ranked Class 6A team in the district — 11-7. Mifflin entered play Thursday ranked No. 1 in Class 6A.

“We ran into a very good team,” Hole said. “They have some really tough hitters in that lineup, and they made us pay today. When we made those defensive miscues, a lot of guys came up with some big hits, especially there at the end.

“Credit to them for staying in the game. We were floating by there in some of those middle innings and they were able to tie it up and make us pay in extras.”

The win was all the more impressive because neither Exeter’s top pitchers, Sheerin or Weller, were available; they pitched in wins earlier in the week.

“We did not play well for the first four or five innings,” said Exeter coach Justin Freese. “When we got the game to 10-7, Brady pulled everybody in and said, ‘This is our game to win.’ He’s been a tremendous leader; Luke’s been a tremendous leader.”

The Mustangs should still be the top seed when the Berks League playoffs open next week, but the air of invincibility they created by going undefeated this long has been dented.

“It’s huge to ruin that undefeated season,” Franek said. “It really shows everybody in the county that we are a force to be reckoned with.”

“We’re motivated to be the best team we can,” said Hannahoe, “and we want to beat every team that we can. So we’re gonna fight, and we did.”