Tyler Minick power show carries Gov. Mifflin into Berks championship game
Tyler Minick trains and prepares for baseball games as hard and as well as anyone.
Sometimes, though, you just have to improvise. Like Saturday afternoon in his second at-bat when he saw a knuckleball out of the hand of Fleetwood’s Sam Reimert.
“I didn’t even know he had a knuckleball,” said the Gov. Mifflin senior.
No matter. Minick smacked it out of the ballpark for a home run.
Next time up the University of Connecticut recruit saw a fastball he liked.
“That was down and away and he rocked it,” said Fleetwood coach Rolland Green of a Minick blast that sailed about 375 feet over the fence in left-center at FirstEnergy Stadium. “He’s strong.”
Minick hit the ball ever harder in his final at-bat, a wicked line smash that nearly tore the glove off the hand of Tigers shortstop Jake Karnish. It went for a single.
Minick’s power show wasn’t over. He completed it with a shutdown seventh inning, striking out a pair of batters to preserve the top-seeded Mustangs’ 9-7 win in a Berks Baseball League semifinal.
The save rounded out a day that saw him go 3-for-3 with a walk, two stolen bases, and four runs scored. Shohei Ohtani, eat your heart out.
“He’s a special athlete,” said Mifflin coach Chris Hole of the 2022 Berks Player of the Year. “He does so much for our team.”
The Mustangs (17-4) will play second-seeded Wilson – a team that’s beaten them twice this season – for the league championship Monday at 6:05 at FirstEnergy Stadium.
“It’s the match-up that I think most people expected,” said Hole.
Seeing the Berks I champion Mustangs playing for their record 15th Berks championship isn’t a surprise; they were the pick from Day 1.
Getting past the fifth-seeded Tigers (13-8) proved to be a little more difficult than thought. The Mustangs blitzed them 12-0 a month ago but this time the Tigers would not back down, even after Mifflin put up three runs in a bat-around first.
The Tigers answered with two in the second and then – after Mifflin scored twice in its half – two more in the third.
Mifflin extended its lead to 9-5 in the fifth, only to see the Tigers put up two more in the sixth when Matt Novotny lost the plate, walking four batters, including one with the bases full.
“They’re a scrappy team,” Minick said. “They were confident and they didn’t roll over. So, props to them.”
Green was intent on emptying his bullpen if needed to slow down the hot-hitting Mustangs and nearly did, using four pitchers in the first three innings. The last of them, Ryan Moser, allowed just a pair of unearned runs over the final three innings, but those were the ones that ultimately did in the Tigers.
“(We thought) we were gonna have to play perfect baseball,” Green said, “ and unfortunately we were just a little short.”
Fleetwood became the first team this season to score more than six runs against Mifflin. Bryce Detwiler, who earned his league-leading seventh win by pitching the first four innings, didn’t have his best stuff. Novotny needed more than 50 pitches to get through the fifth and sixth.
That’s why Minick left the game in the sixth and headed to the bullpen, where he warmed up to pitch the seventh.
He hasn’t pitched a lot this season – just 16 innings before the postseason – but that sure didn’t seem to affect him Saturday. He came out throwing gas. You could tell by his body language that he wanted to light up the Tigers and he did.
He faced three batters. Threw eight pitches. Struck out the last two guys.
“He was pumping it,” said his catcher, Travis Jenkins. “I think he hit 94 (mph) there. I wasn’t expecting it. He did the job, came in, closed it. You can’t ask for much more from him.”
Minick has homered three times in two playoff games; he has seven for the season. He’s scored 30 runs and stolen 21 straight bases. He’s batting .462, slugging .981 and has an OPS of 1.554, more than double the league average.
“It’s just great to come out here and play my best, especially in a big playoff game,” he said. “I just come out and do my job for the team.”
Minick is still burning from seeing Mifflin knocked out in the opening round of the league playoffs last year, and from being injured and unable to help his team in districts. That fire was evident Saturday.
“Big-time players come up in big moments,” Hole said, “and that’s exactly what he did for us today.”
| Fleetwood | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | – | 7 | 8 | 1 |
| Gov. Mifflin | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | x | – | 9 | 12 | 0 |
| Tigers | AB | R | H | RBI | Mustangs | AB | R | H | RBI | |
| Noll, 1b/p | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Minick, ss/p | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | |
| Hilburt, 3b | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Detwiler, p/ss | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | |
| Karnish, ss | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Velez, 1b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Dilbeck, p | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Tobin, cr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Reimert, p | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Jenkins, c | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |
| Moser, p | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Koehler, 3b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Soumas, lf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Troche, dh | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| Szilli, rf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Lehman, cf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Loy, 2b | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Radwanski, lf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Sobjack, cr | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Grim, 2b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Brey, cf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Novotny, p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Young, c | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Wunderlich, rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Williams, ph | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Unger, ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Totals | 28 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 30 | 9 | 12 | 7 |
E: Karnish. 2B: Detwiler, Velez. 3B: Loy, Karnish. HR: Minick 2. SB: Minick 2, Jenkins 2, Detwiler. CS: Brey LOB: Fleetwood 7, Gov. Mifflin 7.
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |||
| Detwiler, W (7-1) | 4 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | Dillbeck, L (1-3) | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Novotny | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | Reimert | 2/3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Minick, S (3) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Noll | 2/3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Moser | 3 1/3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
HBP: Brey (by Detwiler); Troche (by Reimert), Radwanski (by Reimert).
