No silver linings for Gov. Mifflin in District 3 championship game
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Silver medals don’t always come with silver linings. Chris Hole reminded his Gov. Mifflin baseball team of that Tuesday night as they huddled in the outfield grass at FirstEnergy Stadium.
“The only way you can feel this bad is by battling yourself into a position to play a game of this magnitude,” Hole said after the Mustangs lost to Mechanicsburg 6-1 in the District 3 Class 5A championship game.
The Mustangs (20-5) put themselves in position to claim their first district baseball championship by winning three close playoff games but ran into a buzzsaw with gold on the line.
Mechanicsburg and its ace left-hander, Reese Young, were just too good. The defending champs played error-free defense and came up with timely hitting to win their eighth straight district playoff game over two seasons.
They got to Mifflin’s best pitchers, Ethan Grim and Bryce Detwiler – who had combined for 21 scoreless innings through three district victories — for eight hits and six runs.
Jeff Lougee, a Duke recruit, homered for the third straight game, giving the second-seeded Wildcats (20-3-1) a 3-1 lead in the fifth.
Young, who will play next season at Division I North Alabama, was his usual dominant self, throwing a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts. He improved to 11-0 and went over 100 strikeouts for the second straight year.
If there was a silver lining for the top-seeded Mustangs it was the fact that they actually scored; no team had done that against Young in District 3 play the last two seasons.
He admitted he was a bit surprised when Bryce Detwiler, a junior committed to the University of Connecticut, slapped a hard single past him and into center field in the third inning to pull the Mustangs within 2-1. That snapped Young’s 30 2/3 scoreless postseason innings streak.
“I was shocked when he hit it,” Young said, “it was hit very hard. I wasn’t expecting that. But he’s a great player and it happens. He came out, he wanted to play.”
The Mustangs started well, with Grim striking out five of the first six batters. The seventh batter, Drake Dawson, hit a slow roller to the left side and reached on third baseman Matt Koehler’s throwing error.
Hole and the Mustangs protested; they thought the ball went off Dawson’s foot and should’ve been ruled a foul ball.
Grim said the call didn’t cause him to lose focus but he did walk the No. 8 and 9 batters to load the bases, then allowed a two-run single to leadoff batter Grady Weaver.
“We didn’t make a play on that and they capitalized,” Hole said of the error, which led to two unearned runs. “That changed the early dynamic of the game.”
With Young on the mound that 2-0 deficit looked huge, and it turned out to be enough runs to win it, though Mifflin did threaten. The Mustangs had two on and two out in both the third and fourth innings but couldn’t punch through.
The crafty Young, who’s now an incredible 29-2 in his career, was able to escape both jams. He cruised through the final three innings without allowing another hit and finished the game with 105 pitches.
“His changeup’s pretty good,” Grim said, “he could throw a slider whenever and then he had a nice fastball to go with it.”
“He did a fantastic job,” Hole said of Young. “That fastball-slider combo was as tough as we expected. When we had a couple opportunities we didn’t take advantage of it, but credit to him. He’s a great pitcher and he minimized the damage in the several of the innings when we got some guys on and that’s what a good pitcher does.”
Grim allowed just three hits and struck out 10 but the back-to-back walks in the decisive second, plus the error – one of three by Mifflin – did him in.
“Ethan battled,” Hole said. “He navigated a very tough lineup. (He) hung a curveball to Lougee, who’s a fantastic hitter, (and) he put a good swing on it. But overall, you give up just a couple hits, you put your team in a position to win, and that’s what he did for us tonight.”
The loss was the second for Mifflin at FirstEnergy Stadium this season and third in a showdown game. It lost to Wilson 10-3 in a game that decided the Berks I title in early May and fell again to the Bulldogs 10-3 in the BCIAA championship game two weeks ago.
The Mustangs’ season continues Monday when they open play at home in the PIAA Tournament against the District 12 runner-up.
“We still have something to play for,” Hole said. “We’ve come up short at several different levels this year but we’re still a 20-5 team and we still have something to play for next week. That has to be the focus now.”
| Mechanicsburg | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | – | 6 | 8 | 0 |
| Gov. Mifflin | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Wildcats | AB | R | H | RBI | Mustangs | AB | R | H | RBI | |
| Weaver, lf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Detwiler, ss/p | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Lougee, ss | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Adams, lf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Nailor, 2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Jenkins, c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| L. Mark, cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Grim, p/2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Patrick, 1b | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Barrett, dh | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Bencievenga, rf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Wunderlich, cf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Dawson, c | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Leaman, cr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Rizzuot, cr | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Koehler, 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Matarresse, dh | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Berg, rf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Young, p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Casantini, 1b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| D. Mark, 3b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Bourland, ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Reiter, 2b/ss | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Eshbach, ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 30 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 23 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
E: Koehler, Detwiler, Adams 2B: D. Mark. HR: Lougee. LOB: Mechanicsburg 7, Gov. Mifflin 5.
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |||
| Young, W (11-0) | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10 | Grim, L (6-3) | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 10 | |
| Detwiler | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
WP: Young. HBP: Adams (by Young).
