Muhls in the swing, ready to play for Berks championship

Brad Coley, Muhlenberg’s top starting pitcher, headed to the bullpen in the seventh inning Tuesday night and began to throw as Exeter refused to back down in its Berks Baseball League semifinal.

The Muhls had a comfy seven-run cushion after their three-run sixth at FirstEnergy Stadium. The last thing head coach Brian Kopetsky wanted was bring his ace into the game. He wanted to keep Coley fresh for Wednesday’s county championship game against Oley Valley.

Coley, a high-octane senior, had other sentiments.

“Oh, I absolutely wanted to come in,” said the lefty. “I was coming in to slam the door.”

Fortunately for Kopetsky and the Muhls that wasn’t necessary. Senior Sean Levan — the third pitcher of the inning — wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam with a strikeout to preserve the Muhls’ 10-7 victory.

Had the third-seeded Eagles (15-6) tied it up or taken the lead, the second-seeded Muhls (18-2) likely would’ve come back. They hit their way through Exeter’s top two pitchers and probably would’ve kept up the hit parade going had they gotten another chance.

They came into this semifinal with a .325 team batting average, then banged out 13 more hits, building leads of 2-0, 7-2 and 10-3. They had 13 hits in a 9-4 win over Kutztown in the opening round.

“We’ve got a bunch of great hitters,” said Coley, who played left field Tuesday and collected a double and two singles. “I have confidence in every single slot in our lineup that they’re gonna get on.”

That just about happened. Eight different Muhls had hits; eight different guys scored runs.

Kopetsky, who has coached the Muhls for 23 years, says this lineup is as good as any he’s had. He compares it favorably to his 2018 squad, which went 20-3 and won a Berks League championship.

That team batted .324, averaged nearly eight runs per game and was led by Berks Player of the Year Sean Guilbe, who went on to professional baseball.

These Muhls, who now have five .400 hitters in their starting lineup, have been putting up even better numbers. Wednesday they’ll have a chance to match the vaunted 2018 team’s championship resume when it returns to FirstEnergy Stadium for the showdown at 6.

Neither Kopetsky, nor any of his players, are surprised they’re here.

“When we have a decent team (like this), we like to believe we can win our division and get to this stadium to play a meaningful game,” Kopetsky said. “And now tomorrow night they get to play for the biggest one of the season. This group, they’ve got the talent and they’re a pretty special group of kids. They deserve to be in it.”

Gio Cavanna had three hits to push his batting over .400; he’s gone 10-for-11 over his last four games.

Winning pitcher Cameron Burr had two hits and three RBIs to spark the Muhls, who scored twice in the first and never trailed.

They got some help in the first inning from the Eagles, who committed three errors and misplayed a fly ball. Sam Martinez drove in one run with a double and Kenay Rodriguez brought home the second with a sacrifice fly.

The Eagles tied it in the top of the second, Alex Kelsey scoring on Owen Wisner’s sacrifice fly and courtesy runner Jake Miezwinski scoring on a passed ball.

The Muhls took the lead for good with a three-run second, opening the inning with four straight hits off Exeter’s top pitcher, Devin Sheerin.

Cavanna had an RBI double, Burr an RBI single and Levan an RBI single to make it 5-2.

Sheerin, who entered with a 4-1 record and 2.01 ERA, was removed after three innings, and after allowing seven hits and six runs, four earned.

They got to Luke Weller for a pair of runs in the fifth, both scoring on Burr’s double to the gap in left-center. Weller was the starter when Exeter fell to Muhlenberg 11-2 in a Berks crossover game April 25 at Gochnauer Field.

Burr allowed just two hits through five innings but ran into trouble in the sixth, when he gave up consecutive singles to Weller, Nick Sydor and Kelsey, the third hit driving in a run to make it 7-3. Dalton Follweiler relieved at that point and, after hitting the first batter he faced, escaped a bases-loaded jam.

The Eagles rallied in the final inning, trimming Muhlenberg’s 10-3 lead by getting five hits and scoring four runs.

“It got a little nutty there,” said Kopetsky, who saw his team escape bases-loaded jams in each of the final two innings.

“That’s baseball,” said Coley. “Anything can happen at any time. A couple bloop hits and a big blast over my head (in left field) and it’s a ballgame. Pressure came right back, and we were able to lock it back in, which was good.”

The Muhls are now positioned to win the Berks title for the second time in the last four tournaments. They got to the semifinals last year but were turned back by eventual champ Gov. Mifflin in eight innings.

“Every senior on this team, his dream was to bring home this county title,” said Coley, “so now we’ve just gotta go do it.”