Wilson continues postseason roll, takes out second-seeded Cumberland Valley
There was a time at midseason when it appeared the Wilson Bulldogs wouldn’t make the postseason.
Now they can’t seem to be stopped.
The seventh-seeded Bulldogs erupted for eight fifth-inning runs and routed second-seeded Cumberland Valley 10-0 Monday in a District 3 Class 6A quarterfinal on the Eagles’ home field. The game ended after five innings due to the 10-run mercy rule.
The win was the 11th in 12 games for Wilson, its lone loss this month coming to Gov. Mifflin 6-3 in the BCIAA championship game.
“We did what we needed to do today,” said Wilson coach Bill Underwood, whose team will host 11th-seeded Manheim Township in a district semifinal Thursday at Wilson West at 4:30. “We put the ball in play, got good pitching again, and played good defense.”
Junior Matt VanOstenbridge (6-3) went the distance for Wilson, allowing four hits and a walk over five innings. He struck out four. It was his third win of the postseason.
The Bulldogs (18-7) went up 2-0 in the first, taking advantage of a pair of errors. Cumberland Valley committed five errors.
“They booted the ball around a little bit,” Underwood said. “We knew they had a tendency to not make clean plays, so we told our guys to make sure they put the ball in play, and we were able to do that.”
The game was the first for Cumberland Valley (15-5) in 10 days; the Eagles had a first-round bye.
Cumberland Valley finished second, behind Central Dauphin, in the Mid-Penn Commonwealth Conference.
Wilson put the game away with five run-scoring hits in the eighth. Christo Hunsicker had a two-run double to make it 4-0. Ryan Sekulski had an RBI single to make it 5-0. Jordan Shutter walked with the bases loaded for a 6-0 lead.
Trevor Bilodeau followed with an RBI single and Tommy Hunsicker with a two-run double. Evan Gabaldon’s sacrifice fly make it 10-0.
The Bulldogs stole five bases, with each of the Hunsickers swiping two and Gabaldon one.
“We exposed them with our running game,” Underwood said. “We put a lot of pressure on them to make plays. They shot themselves a little in the foot, and we were able to capitalize with some timely hits, some walks, and were able to pull out a win.”
Tommy and Christo Hunsicker each had two hits, two RBIs and scored two runs. Sekulski had two RBIs.
Earlier in the day, VanOstenbridge was named to the All-Berks team and Sekulski, Nick Fiorino and Tommy and Christo Hunsicker were named to the Berks 1 all-division team.
The Bulldogs are back in the district semifinals for the third time in the last four tournaments. They won district championships in 2019 and 2021; there was no tournament in 2020. Last year they won their opener before being eliminated in the second round.
The top three finishers in Class 6A qualify for the PIAA Tournament.
Manheim Township (13-9) advanced Monday with a 7-5 win at third-seeded Dallastown. The Blue Streaks finished second in Section 1 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League, behind Hempfield.