Hot-hitting Mustangs slug way to first PIAA championship appearance
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HERSHEY — Dylan Barrett couldn’t find a spot in Gov. Mifflin’s stacked infield this season, not with Bryce Detwiler returning to shortstop, Ethan Grim to second and Matt Koehler to third coming off a county championship.
Still, the junior managed to force his way into the Mustangs’ stacked lineup.
“There’s a lot of talented infielders here,” Barrett said, “(but I was confident) with my hitting (that I would find a spot).”
Barrett, Mifflin’s full-time designated hitter, lifted the Mustangs to the biggest win in program history Monday, his two-run double in the third igniting a 7-2 win over Selinsgrove in a PIAA Class 5A semifinal at Hershey’s Memorial Field.
The Mustangs (23-5), who hadn’t won a state tournament game until a week ago, will play for a PIAA championship Friday.
“Crazy,” said Grim, who will get the ball when the Mustangs face District 6 champ Hollidaysburg at 4:30 at Penn State’s Medlar Field. “We’ve never done it in school history, so let’s go get it done.”
Barrett has been overshadowed in a potent Mifflin lineup by Detwiler, Grim and Travis Jenkins, each of them All-Berks pick, each of whom own gaudy offensive numbers.
Still, there’s no missing Barrett’s bat, which had produced a .500 on-base percentage and .481 slugging average heading into the state semifinals. Hole noticed it early in the season and moved him into a key spot in the order at No. 5, right behind Grim.
“Since the midpoint of the season,” said Hole, “we can’t take him out of the lineup.”
With two on and none out in the third Barrett missed the take sign from Hole but he didn’t miss a chance to spark Mustangs. He ripped a drive over the left fielder’s head for a double that gave Mifflin the lead for good at 2-1; he scored later in the inning on RJ Weaver’s single through the left side.
The Seals (21-3) took the lead in the first without benefit of a hit, Tucker Teats drawing a walk, stealing two bases and scoring on a groundout.
The Mustangs’ frustration mounted in the second when they left the bases loaded. They trailed 1-0 when Barrett delivered. That swung momentum in Mifflin’s favor for good.
“We needed to answer back,” Hole said. “It makes all the difference in the world when you’re the team that’s up by one run, and everybody can relax a little bit. You can tell, (Selinsgrove) started pressing; they started taking bigger swings, trying to get it all back in one.”
Mifflin got an RBI single from Grim for a 4-2 lead in the fourth and Detwiler’s monster, two-run double off the fence in left for a 6-2 cushion in the fifth.
The hard-hitting Seals, even with their top hitter Mason Richter misssing — coach Brett Beiler wouldn’t say why — put pressure on Detwiler, getting a pair of hits in both the fourth and fifth innings.
They had runners on second and third in the fourth but he escaped by punching out pinch-hitter Jake Beddall, then getting a nice play from charging shortstop Aden Reiter on a slow grounder to end the inning.
The Seals opened the fifth with consecutive singles and loaded the bases when Detwiler clipped Ben Gearhart on the heel with a pitch. Once again the big right-hander pulled it together, striking out Griffin Parker and Owen Santiago – each looking at a called third strike.
“I knew we still had a big lead and I just had to trust my pitches to get me out of it,” Detwiler said of the fifth-inning escape. “I varied my looks, and I kept them off-balanced, and it just happened to work.”
“He’s only a junior, but he’s a seasoned veteran,” Hole said, “and he was able to keep his composure in those situations and pitched himself out of some jams there.”
After the inning-ending strikeout, Detwiler glanced toward the Selinsgrove dugout and answered some of the chirping he had heard during the rally.
“I just let my emotions get the best of me,” he said. “It was just an end-game thing. I’m just happy I got the guy out.”
Detwiler ended up striking out eight over six innings to improve to 10-2. Grim pitched a perfect ninth.
Jenkins, the catcher, helped Detwiler out by recording three outs; he threw out base-stealers at second and third and picked off a runner at first to end the sixth.
Detwiler, who went 2-for-4, was also in the middle of another big offensive day. Jenkins, Grim and Koehler also each had two hits as part of a 10-hit attack – the Mustangs’ third straight in PIAA Tournament play.
They struggled for any semblance of offense in the District 3 Tournament, when they batted .113 and scored six runs over four games. They won games 1-0, 3-0 and 1-0 before losing the championship to Mechanicsburg 6-1.
The state tournament has been completely different: They’re batting .375, slugging .575 and have scored 24 runs in 19 innings.
“I feel in districts, we were trying to do too much,” Grim said. “In states, we’re just trying to make history and have fun out there. We definitely loosened up and we’re ready to go play.”
“Our guys today were dialed in,” Hole said. “They wanted to be in this moment and perform under this pressure and I believe they really did well.”
| Gov. Mifflin | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | – | 7 | 10 | 3 |
| Selinsgrove | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 2 | 6 | 4 |
| Mustangs | AB | R | H | RBI | Seals | AB | R | H | RBI | |
| Detwiler, p/ss | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | Hicks, c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Adams, lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Teats, rf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Jenkins, c | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | Domaracki, p,cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Grim, 2b/p | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Gearhart, 3b/p | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Barrett, dh | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Parker, ss | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Reiter, ss | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Santiago, 2b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Lehman, cr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Kline, cf/lf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Koehler, 3b | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Landis, 1b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Berg, rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Beddal, ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Weaver, 1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Abrahims, lf/3b | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Smith, pr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Wunderlich, cf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 33 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 25 | 2 | 6 | 2 |
E: Reiter 3; Gearhart 3, Hicks. 2B: Detwiler, Grim, Adams, Barrett; Abrahims, Landis, Hicks. SB: Weaver, Grim; Teats 3. CS: Santiago, Teats. PO: Abrahims. S: Berg 2; Kline. LOB: Gov. Mifflin 9, Selinsgrove 8.
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |||
| Detwiler, W (10-2) | 6 | 6 | 2 | 22 | 2 | 8 | Domaracki, L (6-2) | 5 1/3 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 5 | |
| Grim | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Gearhart | 1 2/3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
WP: Domaracki, Gearhart. PB: Hicks. HBP: Gearhart 2 (by Detwiler), Abrahims (by Detwiler).
