Josh Smelzer looks like an ace as Muhlenberg squeeze out district opener
2024 Berks baseball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
Brian Kopetsky has a good poker face.
The Muhlenberg baseball coach had an ace up his sleeve Friday but didn’t show it until late in a District 3 Class 5A Tournament opener against Manheim Central.
With the Muhls’ No. 1, Cam Burr, struggling to command his offspeed pitch and less than his usual dominating self Kopetsky went to little-used Josh Smeltzer with the game tied in the top of the seventh.
The senior left-hander delivered three shutout innings and gave his team time to scratch across a ninth-inning run to pull out a 6-5 victory over the 10th-seeded Barons at Gochnauer Field.
“He’s never pitched in that type of situation (before),” Kopetsky said of Smeltzer. “I could see the pulse (going) today.”
Smeltzer didn’t look like a guy who had thrown just 7 2/3 innings and taken the mound only three times this season. He was composed, attacked the strike zone, and hit his spots.
“Everything felt like it was in place,” Smeltzer said. “Mechanics were there. Pitches were there. Movement was there. So, it was good.”
The seventh-seeded Muhls (14-7) led 3-0 in the second and 5-3 in the third but couldn’t put the Barons away; they stranded runners in scoring position in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
They finally broke through in the ninth when shortstop Eli Keller led off with a walk. Shane Rosenberry was instructed to bunt him over but never had a chance as right-hander Nolan Book lost the plate and walked him on four pitches.
Kevin Rodriguez followed by looping a ball to the left side, barely over the outstretched glove of shortstop Chase Book, for a single that loaded the bases.
Keller, stationed on third, was reminded to look for a passed ball. The first offering to Aaden Lopez bounced past catcher Carter Kyle and Keller took off. He slid home to end it, giving Muhlenberg a first-round win over Manheim Central for the second straight year. The Muhls have eliminated the Barons three times in the last four tournaments.
“Our guys (are) always fighting to the end,” Keller said, “always wanting to keep going, always want to keep hitting and scoring and we just kept the energy up. I’m proud of my guys.”
Burr has been practically unhittable this season. He had not allowed more than one earned run in any of his first six starts; he had struck out 10 or more in half of them. The senior right-hander was coming off a six-inning performance in the Berks League playoffs against Fleetwood in which he allowed just four hits and a run.
He started quickly Friday with two hitless innings but hung a slider to Nolan Book with a couple runners on in the third and Manheim’s three-hole hitter didn’t miss it. The homer – just the second allowed all season by Muhlenberg – tied it 3-3.
The Barons (13-9) plated single runs in the fourth and sixth to tie it. Burr left after throwing 85 pitches and allowing more than three runs for the first time all year. He entered the game with an 0.95 ERA.
“Give them credit,” Kopetsky said of the Barons. “They put barrels on baseballs and put a lot of balls in play. We made a lot of plays (on defense) today.”
Seeing the Muhls scratch across the winning run came as no surprise; that’s what they do. They’ll play little ball with the best of them.
Seeing Smeltzer on the mound in a tight situation, in a playoff game, with the season on the line? They falls under the unexpected category.
He threw his first pitch of the season less than three weeks ago. He was expected to be one of the Muhls’ top starters but came out of a season-opening scrimmage with tightness in his shoulder. He played first base but his throwing was limited throughout the season because of triceps tendonitis.
He began to work his way back to the mound in late April. He made his first start May 3 against Southern Lehigh, going four innings. Wednesday, in a tune-up exhibition against Ephrata, he threw again and Kopetsky realized he had a card he could play in a key situation.
“He looked phenomenal (against Ephrata),” the long-time Muhls skipper said. “He’s a good, smart pitcher. Today, he was kind of painting.”
The Muhls have been a little thin on the mound all season. Kopetsky was hoping to use Keller as his closer but arm issues have limited him to shortstop. He planned to have Smeltzer follow Burr in the rotation but that didn’t go as planned, either.
Smeltzer looks ready now. He threw 22 of 32 pitches Friday for strikes and had the Barons popping up his offspeed stuff.
He gives Kopetsky one more card to play as the Muhls advance in the tournament. Next comes second-seeded Mechanicsburg – a 6-0 winner over Elizabethtown — on the road Monday afternoon.
“If I need somebody in the same type of situation,” Kopetsky said of Smeltzer, “he’s the guy.”
| Manheim Central | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 5 | 6 | 1 |
| Muhlenberg | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | – | 6 | 12 | 1 |
| Barons | AB | R | H | RBI | Muhls | AB | R | H | RBI | |
| Mylin, rf/p | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Burr, p/2b | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Watson, cf | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Keller, ss | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| N. Book, ss/p | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | Rosenberry, c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| C. Book, 2b/rf/ss | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Batista, cr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Garber, 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | K. Rodriguez, 2b/3b | 5 | 2 | 4 | 0 | |
| Groff, 3b | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | Lopez, rf | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Thompson, lf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Smeltzer, 1b/p | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| Travitz, p/2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | High, 3b | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | |
| Lowe, p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | C. Moody, 1b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Kyle, c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Cipolla, lf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Totals | 34 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 35 | 6 | 12 | 5 |
E: Travitz 2. 2B. Lopez. HR: N. Book. SB: Mylin, Groff; Lopez, G. Moody, Smeltzer. S: Cipolla. SF: G. Moody. LOB: Manheim Central 7, Muhlenberg 8.
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |||
| Travitz | 3 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 3 | Burr | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | |
| Mylin | 2 1/3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Smeltzer, W (1-0) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Lowe | 2/3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||
| N. Book, L (0-1) | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
WP: N. Book, Mylin. PB: Kyle; Rosenberry HBP: Mylin 2 (by Burr), N. Book (by Smeltzer); Smeltzer (by Travitz).
