Fast start, ‘shiny record’ meant little at the end for Gov. Mifflin
A program-record 19-game winning streak to open the season.
The best regular season record in program history.
The No. 1 seed in both the Berks League and District 3 Class 6A Tournament.
All window dressing, says Gov. Mifflin baseball coach Chris Hole. The Mustangs came up short when it counted most, and that’s the bottom line.
“If they gave out prizes for 20-win seasons, there’d be more of a feeling of accomplishment,” said Hole, “but that’s not what you hang your hat on.”
| Mifflin’s top seasons | W-L | Coach |
| 2002 | 23-2 | Mike Mitchell Jr. |
| 1999 | 22-5 | Ed Williamson |
| 2021 | 21-7 | Chris Hole |
| 1975 | 20-3 | Mike Kostewa |
| 2022 | 20-4 | Chris Hole |
| 2015 | 20-8 | Chris Hole |
The Mustangs (20-4) lost in the opening round of the league playoffs, were knocked off in the district semifinals and came up short of a return trip to the PIAA Tournament.
At the end they had little to show for the best regular season in program history other than a Berks I title and some impressive hitting and pitching lines.
“If you asked any of our players, they’d tell you: The record is nice but the memories come from competing for and winning championships,” Hole said. “The fact that we won 20 games — that just doesn’t do it for me and I know it doesn’t do it for my players, either. It’s really not about that record. (We didn’t do) what we set out to do.”
Perhaps the Mustangs were their own worst enemy. They entered the season with just four return starters and no one with much experience on the mound. They graduated 13 seniors from a team that won a county championship. Repeating last year’s 21-win season was a high bar.
In some ways the Mustangs surpassed 2021, as least during the regular season. They scored 10 or more runs in five of their first seven games and didn’t allow more than four runs until their ninth game.
Tyler Minick and Alexander Velez crushed the ball and combined with freshman Ethan Grim to form the best starting rotation in the league.
Minick, despite several nagging injuries, had an incredible junior season and was named Berks Player of the Year.
He had both the best batting average (.500) and lowest ERA (0.93) in the Berks League, a double Shohei Ohtani will likely never match.
If Minick hadn’t run away with Player of the Year honors Velez, also a junior, would’ve claimed the honor.
He led the league in wins, going 8-0 with two saves and a 1.54 ERA.
And he was a terror at the plate, too. He was second in the league in batting at .453, led the league with 32 RBIs and was among the league leaders with a .505 on-base percentage and a .640 slugging average.
The team compiled a league-best .330 batting average and averaged a league-high 8.2 runs per game. Five full-time players batted .329 or better; two part-time batters were over .300.
The Mustangs were stingy on the other end, too, allowing just 3.3 runs per game; the pitching staff combined for a 2.09 ERA.
They did all of that with just two seniors — all-division center fielder Mason Woolwine and left fielder Michael Marmolejos — in the starting lineup.
Even more impressive they did it with three freshmen playing key roles: Third baseman/shortstop Bryce Detwiler, an all-division pick who batted .339 with a .461 on-base percentage; Grim, an all-division pitcher who went 6-1 with a 1.54 ERA; and right fielder Travis Jenkins, who was third on the team with 20 RBIs.
The shiniest line on the Mustangs’ resume might be a midseason win against Muhlenberg, when each team entered with an unbeaten record — the only two teams in District 3 at the time without a loss. The Mustangs prevailed as Velez started and won and Minick homered twice, the first to lead off the bottom of the first.
Mifflin was on the cusp of an unprecedented 20-0 regular season finish before Exeter rallied from four runs down to win 16-10. That turned out to be the beginning of the end, though the Mustangs didn’t realize it at that point.
Minick was dealing with an arm issue at the time and had trouble throwing the ball, leading to a costly error in the game. He had already been shut down as a pitcher by that point.
A week later, as the Mustangs were preparing for the start of the district tournament, Minick strained his oblique; he didn’t appear in a game again.
Mifflin lost four of its final five games, including 6-1 to eighth-seeded Oley in the Berks quarterfinals. The Mustangs, who had a lot of down time before and after the Berks playoffs, went three weeks between wins before beating Hempfield 12-2 in a district opener.
They weren’t the same team without Minick on the field; he can change a game as a hitter, fielder, pitcher or baserunner. His absence showed in a 7-6 district semifinal loss to Manheim Township and a 7-4 loss to Cumberland Valley in a state qualifier.
Hole never once brought up Minick’s injury but it can’t be overlooked. The shortstop, pitcher and leadoff hitter is a rare talent and already one of the most accomplished players in program history.
The win over Hempfield gave the Mustangs a second straight 20-win season and the sixth overall in program history, but that did little to soothe the late-season disappointment.
“I said consistently (throughout the regular season) it was never about having some short of shiny record, or a winning streak,” said Hole, “we just wanted to be playing our best baseball at the right time and peaking at the right time, and we were not able to do that.
“We would rather be a .500 team (during the regular season) but playing good baseball at the (end) and winning championships.”
