In tight Berks III baseball race, it’s next man up for Wyo, Berks Catholic

Wyomissing’s chances in Division III of the Berks Baseball League took a big hit in December when Ryker Jones went down with a knee injury in the Spartans’ PIAA football semifinal against Neumann-Goretti.

Jones, a third baseman and pitcher, was projected to be one of the top baseball players in the league but he’ll miss the entire season rehabbing a torn ACL and sprained MCL in his left knee.

“Losing Ryker was huge,” said Spartans’ baseball coach Dave Voigt, whose team figured to be batting for the top spot in the division with Jones at the top of their order and on the mound.

The Spartans aren’t the only Berks III team that entered the season short-handed.

• Berks Catholic lost its top hitter, Kevin Lawlor, when he went out with a torn ACL in a District 3 basketball semifinal against Octorara. He’s out for the season.
• Oley Valley opened play late last month without one of its best players, senior Chase Reifsnyder, who missed the entire basketball season after breaking his hand in soccer.
• Hamburg is without right fielder/pitcher Connor Gruber, who will miss the season after tearing his ACL in soccer.

Reifsnyder is back at the top of the Lynx’s lineup and swinging a hot bat. He’s helped the Lynx take the early division lead, with a pair of league wins, over division rivals Wyomissing and Schuylkill Valley. Reifsnyder has gone 6-for-11 with six runs scored and three steals.

The Lynx, who tied the Hawks for first place last season (but lost the division tiebreaker), have a long way to go, as does every team in the division.

The defending champ Hawks are off to the worst start in the division – they’re 0-2 in league play, 1-6 overall – after being picked as the preseason favorite.

Right now, Berks III is wide open and promises to offer the best race among the league’s four divisions.

“If I were a betting man, I would put my money on Berks Catholic,” said Voigt. “It’s a game of pitching, and they have it. With (Parker) Nein and (Derek) Brynildsen (at the front of their rotation) that gives them a little bit of an edge.”

Pitching is Voigt’s biggest concern. In senior lefty Matt Kramer he’s got a No. 1 who can match up with the league’s best. Behind that, his staff is untested.

He was projecting Jones, who came on strong as a pitcher late last season, as his No. 2. Jones struck out 16 batters over 12 innings.

There’s no replacing Jones’ sweet left-handed stroke. He batted .382 as a sophomore with a team-leading 15 RBIs, a .545 slugging percentage and a 1.015 OPS. He also led the team with 10 stolen bases.

“He’s just a really good hitter,” Voigt said. “He’s fast, and he’s got a cannon for an arm. Now we have a very good freshman (Chase Eisenhower replacing him), but nevertheless he’s a freshman.”

Berks Catholic has a big hole in its lineup, too. Lawlor was one of the best hitters in the league last season, when he batted .400 with 19 RBIs and 19 runs scored in 21 games. He had a team-best .538 slugging percentage.

“He (was gonna be our) cleanup hitter and second baseman every day,” said Saints coach Brandon Shurr. “It’s really tough to replace that.”

The Saints have the best overall record in the division at 6-1 but that has more to do with their pitching than their hitting. They have held five of their seven opponents to three runs or less (and won all five games).

They’re sure to miss Lawlor’s bat.

“When it first happened I was really sad, because that’s like my best friend,” said Nein, a basketball teammate who realized the injury was serious when he saw it. “I knew that the younger guys (on our team) would step up and fill the role.”

Jones had surgery Jan. 13. He should be back early in football season, if not by the season opener.

That means he’ll miss the spring and summer football camp circuit, vital for recruiting, though schools haven’t been shy about going after him. He has received more than half-a-dozen football scholarship offers, from Army and several Ivy League schools, and is on the radar at Penn State, Northwestern and others.

He has the potential to play college baseball, as well, but losing his junior season and what likes a full summer of travel ball will be hard to overcome.

The Spartans’ baseball team will have trouble overcoming his loss. One of their other projected starting pitchers, Birkley Ziegler, has an arm injury and can’t throw (though he’s in the lineup as a DH).

In their 8-4 win over Berks Catholic earlier in the week Voigt had two freshmen and four sophomores in his starting lineup.

“As soon as word got out, everyone was down about it,” Voigt said of Jones’ injury. “We realized there’s nothing we can do about it, so we have to move on.”