Battle-tested Tigers a state title contender no one saw coming
2024 Berks baseball coverage presented by
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The Fleetwood Tigers would seem an unlikely state semifinalist. They finished second in their division and were just one game above .500 in late April.
They don’t have any Division I players, or any pitchers who can throw 90 mph. They don’t have any .400 hitters — heck, no one on the team has hit a home run.
Take a closer look and you’ll see a gritty, fundamentally sound team that competed with some of the top teams and best pitchers in Pennsylvania.
“We held our own against all the Division I schools,” said Fleetwood coach Jon Chwatek, whose team finished behind Twin Valley in Berks II. “(I thought that) if we can play with these boys, we can play with anyone in the state at our level.”
The Tigers lost to Berks League champ Wilson and its ace, Penn State recruit Matt VanOstenbridge, 1-0 in a league crossover.
It faced Gov. Mifflin and University of Connecticut recruit Bryce Detwiler twice, losing 11-10 and 5-3. The Mustangs have reached the PIAA Class 5A semifinals; the Bulldogs reached the state tournament in 6A.
“If you can compete in Berks County with the 5A and 6A schools, you can certainly compete in the district in 4A, and in states,” said the first-year head coach.
And the Tigers have.
After a 3-2 loss to eventual Class 4A champ East Pennsboro in a semifinal they beat James Buchanan for the third and final state berth, then opened the PIAA Tournament by beating District 7 champ North Catholic 3-2 and Montour 5-3.
Now they face another upstart, Indiana, in a PIAA semifinal Monday at 4 at Bellefonte’s Governor’s Park. The winner will play for the state championship Thursday afternoon at Penn State.
The Little Indians (15-10) are similar to the Tigers (17-10) in many ways. They entered the District 7 Tournament as the No. 9 seed but caught a break when No. 16 Blackhawk knocked off top-seeded Belle Vernon in the opening round.
The Indians took advantage, shutting out their next two opponents before a 7-5 loss to North Catholic in the district title game.
Indiana’s pitching staff is led by Texas Tech recruit Greg Minnick, who earned wins in the first two rounds of districts and then again Thursday in a 6-5 win over East Pennsboro. He is 3-0 with a 1.82 ERA and 67 strikeouts over 34 2/3 innings.
The Indians’ staff also includes Ryan Okopal, who’s 7-1 with a 2.30 ERA, and Sullivan VanHoose, who has a 1.50 ERA over 23 1/3 innings.
“In 4A, I’d take our pitching staff over anybody in the state,” Indians coach Dan Petroff told the Pittsburgh Union Progress. “We have five or six guys that we haven’t even used yet. We’re very deep.”
Like Fleetwood, Indiana hasn’t had much previous success in the state tournament: It hadn’t won a game until last year. Fleetwood’s opening-round win over North Catholic was its first since 2008.
Both teams also pride themselves on run prevention. Fleetwood is allowing 3.6 runs per game, Indiana 2.8.
The Tigers play sound defense; the Indians have been even better, committing just 33 errors in 25 games.
Fleetwood has leaned heavily on senior right-hander Liam Hilburt, who’s gone 10-1 with a 1.61 ERA. He pitched the final five innings Thursday to earn the win in relief against Montour; he pitched a complete game to beat North Catholic. He is 5-0 in the postseason with four complete games in four starts.
Because of the four-day gap between games, all pitchers will be eligible to throw.
Both teams have taken their lumps along the way but gotten better late in the season. Fleetwood was 8-7 on April 24 but has won 7-of-10 win (each of the losses coming against state qualifiers). Indiana was 9-8 on May 7; it has won 6-of-7 since.
The teams have plenty of common opponents. North Catholic beat Indiana three times before losing to Fleetwood. The Little Indians beat Montour 11-0 in the district semifinals and scored twice in the seventh Thursday to eliminate the last team to beat Fleetwood — East Pennsboro.
Fleetwood has three seniors who are set to play college baseball – Aiden Soumas at Kutztown, Dalton Young at Ursinus and Nate Seidel at Alvernia – but doesn’t have the big-time prospects Indiana boasts.
The Tigers’ best player, Ben Ryan, will play at Division I Quinnipiac. He’s batting a team-best .417 with six homers, 24 RBIs and 16 runs scored.
Young, a catcher, leads Fleetwood in batting (.380) and slugging (.519) and is tied for the team lead with 18 RBIs.
First baseball Nick Noll leads the team in on-base percentage (.495) and runs scored (18) and is batting .370).
Soumas is batting .316, shares the team lead with 18 RBIs and has scored 17 runs. Seidel is batting .341 with 17 RBIs and 17 runs scored.
