Berks III-leading Oley Valley Lynx have hit on a winning formula

It’s appropriate that Oley Valley baseball coach Jeff Pinder gives lessons at The Hitting Club in Boyertown.

His Lynx are just that: A hitting club.

They put the bat on the ball consistently Thursday afternoon, spraying 13 hits around Owls Field as they outlasted Wyomissing 9-7 in a Berks League Division III game.

Despite a roster that includes just two seniors the Lynx (7-2, 9-7) find themselves atop Berks III with two weeks left in the regular season. They’ve done it with young pitchers – two of their top three starters are freshmen – and a deep lineup that includes five .300 hitters, two at .400 or better.

“This offense is good when they’re all clicking,” Pinder said. “When we execute, when we do the stuff that we need to do, we’re good.”

They Lynx were good Thursday when they put up a three-spot in the first inning against Wyomissing ace Matt Kramer and continued to put guys on base – 18 in all. Mix in five stolen bases, a couple of well-executed bunts and a sacrifice fly and you can see how they wore down Kramer, who reached his pitch limit during the sixth when the Lynx tacked on three run to expand their lead to 9-5.

Eight different players had hits; four had multiple hits, including winning pitcher Chase Kegerise, who went 3-for-3 to raise his batting average to .400. Paul Petersen went 2-for-2, reached three times and drove in a pair.

“We hit the ball well today,” Pinder said. “That’s the best we’ve hit the ball in probably two weeks. I was pleased with our approach at the plate. We executed what we needed to execute and we got runs in when we needed to.

“We’ve been struggling with runners in scoring position; today we didn’t. Today we got ‘em in. I’d like to get more in, but I’ll take what we did today.”

The Lynx are batting .310 as a team and averaging 6.0 runs per game – both figures considerably better than last year’s team, which upset top-seeded Gov. Mifflin in the opening round of the Berks League playoff last season and knocked off Wilson in the semifinals.

The Lynx spend a lot of time in the offseason in the batting cage, and it’s paying off.

“We work on situational hitting a lot,” said Petersen, an all-division pick last year as a sophomore.  “Just put the ball in play. Do what you can. Get the ball in play and score a run.”

That’s what Petersen, who’s batting .392 with a team-leading 16 RBIs, did against the Spartans (4-5, 6-8). He ripped a double to left in the first, reached and scored in the third, had an RBI single in the two-run fourth – when Oley took the lead for good – and had a bases-loaded sac fly in the sixth.

Kramer shook off a rough first inning – when the Lynx scratched out three infield hits, including a bunt single – and struck out the side in the second.

The Lynx, who do their best to put the ball in play and limit strikeouts, kept the pressure on the rest of the way.  Kramer, who had struck out 37 over 23 innings coming in, recorded just five strikeouts and none after the second inning.

“We didn’t know much about him,” Petersen said. “We just had to wing it, and we did a pretty good job.”

The Spartans got their licks in, for sure. The got an RBI triple from Drew Eisenhower in the two-run first and an RBI double from Chase Eisenhower in the two-run second, when they took their only lead at 4-3.

Kegerise settled down after that. He retired the side in order in the third and fourth innings and allowed just two hits after the second inning, giving his guys time to build a winning cushion.

Oley Valley graduated All-Berks pitcher Luke Macdonald – also one of its best hitters – and a couple of other all-division picks. Their play has been inconsistent – they’ve dropped one-run games to Tulpehocken (7-8) and Schuylkill Valley (6-8) in the last week – but when they’ve been on, they’ve been on.

Pinder attributes the inconsistency to the number of freshmen in the lineup.

“We have some kids (who) have been thrown into the fire,” he said. “We’re still learning the game. It’s: ‘Learn on the run.’ And they are. We’re ahead of where I thought we would be.”

Oley Valley, looking for its first division title since 2018, has a two-game lead over Berks Catholic (5-4) and Hamburg (5-4) with three league games remaining. It plays both teams next week – Monday against Hamburg, Wednesday at Berks Catholic – then closes with Berks IV leader Brandywine Heights. If the Lynx beat both the Hawks and Saints they’ll clinch the division.

Reifsnyder, who’s batting a team-best .409 with 19 runs scored, is confident.

“We don’t strike out as much as (we did) at the beginning of the season,” he said. “Now we’re starting to put the bat to the ball, and some people found their swings that needed to, and we’re looking good.”

Oley Valley	3	0	1	2	0	3	0	–	9	13	1
Wyomissing	2	2	0	0	1	1	1	–	7	9	2

Lynx	AB	R	H	RBI		Spartans	AB	R	H	RBI
Reifsnyder, 3b	3	2	1	0		D. Cruz, ss	4	1	1	0
Cappellano, 2b	2	2	1	1		D. Eisenhower, cf	4	1	1	2
Petersen, ss	3	2	2	3		Kramer, p/2b	4	1	2	1
Hoffman, 1b/p	4	0	2	1		Froelich, cr	0	0	0	0
Kegerise, p/1b	3	0	3	1		B. Ziegler, dh	3	1	1	0
Fries, cr	0	0	0	0		Sensenig, 2b	0	0	0	0
Firek, dh	4	0	1	1		Macrina, rf	3	0	0	1
Palmiotti, cf	0	0	0	0		Noey, c	2	0	0	0
Remmel, rf	3	0	0	0		Raunenzahn, 3b	3	1	1	0
Auge, c	3	1	1	0		C. Eisenhower, lf	2	2	1	0
Drobel, lf	4	2	2	1
Totals	29	9	13	8			29	7	9	5

E: Hoffman; Noey, Cruz.  2B: Petersen; C. Eisenhower, P. Ziegler.  3B: D. Eisenhower.  SB: Auge 2, Reifsnyder, Kegerise, Petersen; Kramer, Noey.  CS: Fries. S: Cappellano, Auge.  SF: Petersen.  LOB: Oley Valley 7, Wyomissing 4.  DP: Oley Valley.

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K			IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
Keterise, W	5 1/3	7	6	3	2	4		Kramer, L	5 2/3	11	9	7	1	5
Hoffman, S	1 2/3	2	1	1	0	2		Scheirer	1 1/3	2	0	0	0	0

WP: Kegerise 2.   PB: Auge.  HBP: Petersen (by Kramer), Reifsnyder (by Kramer), Cappellano (by Kramer), Remmel (by Scheirer); Noey (by Kegerise).