‘Gamer’ Jack Gabel ‘does whatever it takes’ to lift Bulldogs to Berks championship
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Nick Fiorini saw it last year when Jack Gabel, then a freshman, became a fixture in Wilson’s starting lineup during the postseason.
He noticed the bat, the poise, the ability to stay in the moment when Gabel stroked a walk-off hit in the 10th inning of the Bulldogs’ District 3 opener against Penn Manor.
“We knew he was a gamer and he can do whatever it takes,” Fiorini said.
Fiorini and the Bulldogs saw it again Monday when’s Gabel’s home run off the foul pole sparked a five-run third inning that carried third-seeded Wilson to a 10-3 win over top-seeded Gov. Mifflin in the BCIAA championship game at FirstEnergy Stadium.
| Berks championships | Total | Most recent | |
| Gov. Mifflin | 15 | 2023 | |
| Muhlenberg | 13 | 2022 | |
| Wilson | 12 | 2024 | |
| Boyertown | 9 | 2001 | |
| Fleetwood | 6 | 2012 | |
| Reading High | 4 | 2014 |
Gabel’s three-run homer erased an early 2-0 deficit and sparked the Bulldogs to their first league championship since 2019 and 12th overall.
“That home run started everything for us,” Fiorini said of the blast down the left-field line that put the Bulldogs (16-6) on top 4-2. “A huge, huge hit.”
The Mustangs (17-4) jumped on Wilson ace Matt VanOstenbridge for a pair of first-inning runs, Travis Jenkins delivering a sacrifice fly that scored Bryce Detwiler and Dylan Barrett following with an RBI single to plate Branson Adams.
The picture looked bleak for Wilson, which was facing one of the league’s hardest throwers and top pitchers in Division I prospect Ethan Grim.
The Bulldogs didn’t see it that way.
“Never had a doubt,” said Fiorini, a senior and captain along with Tommy Hunsicker and Matt VanOstenbridge. “I didn’t think we were gonna fold over and quit. We’re a bunch of ‘dawgs. We’re never gonna give up.”
“Our team has great energy,” Gabel said. “When we’re down, we keep each other up,”
Gabel drew a five-pitch walk in his first at-bat. Next time up, after Hunsicker had cut the lead to 2-1 with an RBI single, Grim started Gabel off with three straight offspeed pitches, each out of the strike zone.
“I knew he has all that ‘velo,’ ” Gabel said of Grim. “When it got to 3-1 I got my pitch. It feels great when you don’t feel it at all.”
The only thing Gabel felt was a little anxiety; he feared the ball would twist foul. It didn’t, smacking directly into the foul pole, 330 feet from home plate.
“I did not think it was going to stay fair,” he said, “but that one had a lot of backspin and thankfully it stayed fair.”
Suddenly the Bulldogs were up 4-2.
“That was a huge turnaround,” Hunsicker said. “It completely shifted it in our direction. We just cruised from there.”
Wilson got a fifth run in the inning when Cooper Kennedy’s pop fly fell behind second base for a run-scoring double.
That five-spot boosted everyone, including VanOstenbridge, who had a shaky, 26-pitch first inning. Wilson coach Bill Underwood came out during the inning in an attempt to get him re-focused.
“He was telling me it was only two runs; we had plenty of game left to play,” VanOstenbridge said. “We hit Grim the last time (a 6-5 win at Wilson in mid-April; I knew) we’ll do the same thing (this time). I kind of locked in (after that), put up a bunch of zeroes and our bats did the work. We kept them to three runs and our bats carried us through”
The Bulldogs pulled away, scoring twice in the fifth and twice in the sixth to build a 9-3 lead.
Grim allowed seven hits and eight runs, seven earned, over 5 1/3 innings. He was roughed up by Wilson in a midseason outing, allowing 10 hits and five runs over five innings.
The Bulldogs have been the only lineup to solve him this season. He has allowed 17 hits over 37 innings in his other eight outings.
“Ethan’s a good pitcher,” Underwood said, “(but) our guys have the confidence to go out there and put the ball in play. They’re not too intimidated. They understand what he brings to the table.”
Hunsicker had two hits and scored three runs; he has a team-leading 29 runs in 20 games. Fiorini had two hits to push his batting average to .444; he scored twice and drove in his team-leading 28th run (in 22 games). Gabel drove in five runs; he’s now second on the team in batting (.389), runs scored (25), RBIs (21) and slugging percentage (.583).
“Their (lineup is) tough, one-to-nine,” said Mifflin coach Chris Hole. “They swing the bats pretty well. Our first-pitch strike percentage was about 30 percent. You can’t get behind hitters of that quality and allow them to get into fastball counts.”
VanOstenbridge earned the win to improve to 4-1 but he allowed eight hits over 5 1/3 innings; he hadn’t allowed more than four hits in any of his previous six starts.
“We’re confident in Matty,” Gabel said. “We had it in our heads that he would settle down, and that’s what he did. We knew he could get it done.”
Gabel finished it, striking out three over 1 2/3 innings to give Wilson a three-game sweep of Mifflin. The Mustangs, who will go into the District 3 Class 5A Tournament later this week as one of the favorites, are 17-1 against all other opponents.
The Bulldogs will go into the Class 6A Tournament as the No. 4, with a first-round bye and a home-opener on May 20. In the meantime they’ll be able to enjoy their biggest win in years.
“This is what we work for all year,” said Hunsicker, who was also a starter on Wilson’s league-championship basketball team. “To end my career in Berks county in both sports with a win is amazing. It’s everything I dreamt of.”
“We lost a few games (this season) but we never had a doubt that we were gonna make it here,” Fiorini said. “We did, and we got the job done.”
| Wilson | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | – | 10 | 10 | 1 |
| Gov. Mifflin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | – | 3 | 8 | 1 |
| Bulldogs | AB | R | H | RBI | Mustangs | AB | R | H | RBI | |
| T. Hunsicker, 3b | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Detwiler, ss | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Gabel, ss/p | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | Adams, rf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| C. Hunsicker, 1b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Jenkins, c | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Fiorini, cf | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Grim, p/2b | 4 | 0 | 2 | ||
| Kennedy, rf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Hohl, cr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Bodnar, ph | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Barrett, dh | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| VanOstenbridge, p | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Reiter, 2b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Ulrich, lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Weaver, p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Marmolejos, lf/ss | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Koehler, 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Fernandez, 2b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Guigley, cr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Herron, cr | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Casantini, 1b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Herbein, c | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eschbach, ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Berg, lf | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | ||||||
| Wunderlich, cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 28 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 27 | 3 | 8 | 2 |
E: Fernandez; Reiter. 2B: Kennedy, Bodnar; Grim. HR: Gabel. SB: T. Hunsicker 2. S: Herbein 2. SF: Jenkins. LOB: Wilson 4, Gov. Mifflin 9.
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |||
| VanOstenbridge, W (4-1) | 5 1/3 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Grim, L (5-2) | 5 1/3 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 7 | |
| Gabel | 1 2/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | Weaver | 2/3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Glucknis | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
PB: Herbein 2, Jenkins. HBP: Marmolejos (by Grim).
