Fleetwood maintains hot start with win over Conrad Weiser in Berks II opener
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Fleetwood is off to one of its best starts in years but first-year coach Jon Chwatek knows things are about to get tougher.
“The boys are playing really well right now,” Chwatek said after Tuesday’s 7-3 win over visiting Conrad Weiser in a Berks League Division II opener, “ but we have the hardest part of our schedule coming up.”
The Tigers have more wins than any team in the Berks League. They are 6-1 after seven games for the first time in seven years. They share first place in Berks II with Twin Valley and Daniel Boone, each of which won its league opener.
The Tigers got another strong outing from sophomore Wylie Loy, who struck out eight over five innings Tuesday. He allowed five hits, walked just one, and allowed one run. Loy has struck out 19 over 17 innings and has allowed just one run in three appearances.
“He’s throwing the ball really well, throwing a lot of strikes, pitching to contact and we’re making plays behind him right now,” Chwatek said after the Tigers played error-free ball in beating the Scouts.
Nick Noll and Nate Seidel each had three hits Tuesday, Dalton Young had two hits and two RBIs and Liam Hilburt had a single, double, a stolen base and scored twice. The Tigers totaled 12 hits.
Young leads team with a .500 batting average. Aiden Soumas is batting .450 with a team-leading seven runs. Seidel is batting .440 and leads the team with eight RBIs.
The strong start is a bit of a surprise for the Tigers, who graduated six starters, including three all-division picks, among them their top starter (Jake Karnish) and their closer (Ryan Moser).
Despite a mostly new pitching staff Fleetwood has been excellent at run prevention, allowing just 2.42 runs per game, third-best in the league. It has a staff ERA of 1.45.
“Our pitching has been stronger than anticipated,” Chwatek said, “and they’re really starting to have some fun and hit the ball well.
“I knew we were gonna hit, and I knew we were gonna play defense, it was just whether or not we were going to throw balls low enough in the strike zone to either miss or get hits that we can play defense on.”
Hilburt leads the pitching staff with a 3-0 record and 1.40 ERA.
The Tigers got a two-run single from Seidel and an RBI single from Young Tuesday to take a 3-1 lead in the first inning.
Noll’s RBI single made it 4-1 in the second. Young’s RBI triple in the third made it 5-1; he scored on an error to extend the lead to 6-1.
Fleetwood entered the day ranked No 3 in the District 3 Class 4A power ratings; Conrad Weiser (0-1 Berks II, 4-3) was No. 7.
Weather-permitting, the Tigers play at Gov. Mifflin Wednesday, at Daniel Boone Thursday and at Pottsville Saturday. They’re on the road again Monday and Wednesday, at Twin Valley and Wilson, respectively.
“The boys are playing really well right now but we have the hardest part of our schedule coming up,” Chwatek said. “We have five hard games in a row, and they’re all away.”
The Tigers edged Twin Valley for the division title last season and finished 13-9 after losing to Mifflin in the league semifinals and to East Pennsboro in a District 3 opener.
Following the season Rolland Green, who coached the Tigers for 22 seasons and won 226 games, resigned.
