Shorthanded Gov. Mifflin falls short in district baseball semifinal

With one fateful swing of the bat, Gov. Mifflin went from a favorite to win its first District 3 baseball championship to an underdog in the Class 6A Tournament.

The Mustangs pounded teams all season, winning their first 19 games and a Berks League Division I title. They were powered by hard-hitting Tyler Minick, the Berks Player of the Year.

When the junior shortstop strained his oblique taking batting practice a week before the Class 6A Tournament opened the earth shifted and the Mustangs were no longer on top.

They didn’t miss Minick when they beat ninth-seeded Hempfield in the quarterfinals but they certainly could have used his lethal bat at the top of the lineup Tuesday afternoon, when they were edged by fourth-seeded Manheim Township 7-6 in a district semifinal at Rulon Griffith Field.

In a tight game where one play could change the outcome, Mifflin didn’t have the University of Connecticut recruit available to make the kind of game-changing plays championship teams need.

“Any time you lose a game by one run you feel like your best player could’ve made a difference,” said Mifflin coach Chris Hole. “Every game, you feel like (Tyler’s) good for one to two hits.”

Minick scored 27 runs in 18 games and has a presence, whether he’s at the plate, in the field or on the mound, where he also excels.

Catcher Darien Troche said the Mustangs aren’t making excuses even though they’re shorthanded; they remain confident even with the league’s top hitter stationed on the bench.

“Tyler’s a great player,” Troche said. “I still feel like we’re a great team without him in the lineup. It’s really hard not having him, but at the same time we know that we can get by.”

Minick is unlikely to be available Thursday when the Mustangs (20-3) play in a third-place game that could either end their season or send them to the PIAA Tournament for the second straight year. They’ll be home again to play No. 3 Cumberland Valley, a 9-8 loser Tuesday to Warwick.

The Mustangs scored three times in the first inning but never fully recovered from a six-run meltdown in the second which saw them set up the Blue Streaks (20-4) by misplaying a sacrifice bunt that led to four unearned runs.

That inning also included three walks — one with the bases loaded — and a passed ball that allowed another run home.

“We just let things snowball,” said Hole.

After Township’s first two batters reached against freshman Ethan Grim in the second, Ty Jenkins sacrificed. First baseman Jon Radwanski had a chance for a force at third but was charged with a throwing error that loaded the bases.

The Blue Streaks tied it 3-3 when Ryan Flury walked with the bases loaded, went ahead on Fisher Druck’s bases-loaded groundout, then went up 6-3 on Ben Shenosky’s two-run single to center.

The Mustangs came back with three of their own to tie it in the bottom half of the inning, with Mason Woolwine and Troche delivering two-out RBI singles. Troche’s hit knocked out starter J.T. Weaver, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing for Mifflin.

Druck took over on the mound and was lights out the rest of the way, finishing the game with 5 1/3 scoreless innings, and six strikeouts. He retired 10 straight at one point and was in trouble just once, when Mifflin had two on with one out in the sixth. Druck got out of it when he started an inning-ending double play on a comebacker to the mound.

“He did what he had to do, worked ahead, did a great job,” said Township coach Matt Kirchoff. “He’s a never nervous kid.”

The Blue Streaks snapped the 6-6 tie in the sixth when Druck walked, stole second and scored on Shenosky’s two-out single.

Kirchoff never thought Druck would finish the game when he handed him the ball in the second. He had a pitcher warming in the late innings, ready to take over in case the Mustangs threatened.

“He didn’t put (the baseball) in my hands, he kept it in his,” said Kirchoff, “which is fantastic for a high school senior to go and have that (kind of) performance.”

Druck, who hadn’t thrown in nearly two weeks, improved to 5-1 and lowered his ERA to 1.69. He has struck out 55 in 41 1/3 innings.

The Mustangs nearly got to him in the seventh. Woolwine led off with a smash that was caught on the warning track in dead center. Alexander Velez followed with a single. Troche lofted a fly ball into shallow left that looked like it was going to fall, but Jenkins, the left fielder, made a diving catch to bail out Druck.

“We came out today knowing what we could do,” Troche said. “I wouldn’t say (we felt like) the underdog. We knew that Manheim Township is a great team, a stacked program, great coaching from top to bottom. I mean, those kids are athletes; we knew what we were coming out to face. We knew we had to play a great game.”

Kirchoff said his players didn’t forget about last season, when Mifflin ended Township’s season at 20-2 with a 4-2 win in the quarterfinals at Neffsville.

“There were some folks from last year’s team that reached out to us, to let ’em know that they were gonna be watching,” he said.