Liam Hilburt’s patience rewarded as Tigers come up big late, beat Scouts
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Liam Hilburt spent most of Friday night on the wrong side of a shutout. The Fleetwood right-hander gave up a third-inning run, then watched as Conrad Weiser’s Evan Rittle shut his team down.
Hilburt remained patient and confident that his team would find a way to break through.
“It was tough, but my arm felt good, everything was working,” the Tigers’ ace said, “so I just kept going out there every inning, throwing as best I could.”
Hilburt’s patience was rewarded when the Tigers broke through in the sixth inning, back-to-back triples by Nate Seidel and Aiden Soumas igniting a 5-2 Berks League Division II win over the Scouts in the Berks County Showcase at Owls Field.
“Our team’s always calm in these situations, that’s what’s best about us,” said Hilburt of the Tigers (4-5 Berks II, 10-7), who trailed 1-0 heading into the sixth. “We just shorten up our swings, try to put everything in play, and that’s what happened, that’s how we got those runs.”
Rittle, a junior right-hander, was superb through five innings, allowing just two singles and striking out six. He was backed up by his defense with center fielder Sam Arnold and second baseman Aiden Rodriguez making key defensive plays to keep runs off the board.
Rittle made a heads-up play himself in the first when courtesy runner Gabe Seidel tried to score from third on a delayed steal; Rittle threw him out at home.
The Tigers finally broke through in the sixth when Nick Noll drew a leadoff walk and scored on Seidel’s liner into the left-center gap that rolled all the way to the wall. One batter later Soumas hit a ball in exactly the same spot for another triple.
“Once Seidel hit that triple, the dugout was full of energy,” Hilburt said, “and then right back Aiden hit one; we just knew we were gonna win then.”
Fleetwood took a 3-1 lead when reliever Evan Miller walked Brayden Sobjak with the bases loaded.
“That’s all it takes for us, is that third look (at a pitcher),” said Fleetwood coach Jon Chwatek said of his team’s three-run sixth.
The Tigers opened the top of the seventh with four straight hits and plated two more runs.
Hilburt came within one batter of a complete game but ran out of pitches when Rittle singled with two outs in the seventh. He was removed after exceeding the PIAA limit of 100 pitches.
Hilburt ended up allowing six hits over 6 2/3 innings with five strikeouts and improved his record to 5-1. Crane Cromer came in to record the final out to pick up his first save.
“(Liam) was spotting up all game,” said his catcher, Dalton Young, “some calls went a little against him, (but) he battled through that adversity and pitched a great game.”
The loss was the fourth in five games for the Scouts (2-7 Berks II, 6-9) who saw their slim hopes of making the District 3 Tournament fade further with the loss. Even if they win their final five games they might not make the 10-team Class 4A field; they came into play Friday No. 14 in the power rankings.
Conrad Weiser has five games left, including games against Berks II leader Twin Valley, Berks III leader Berks Catholic and Berks IV leader Kutztown.
Some tough losses in crossover games cost Weiser a chance at the postseason. It lost 7-6 to Berks I leader Gov. Mifflin in nine innings, 9-7 to Berks I contender Wilson and 4-1 to Muhlenberg, which is also contending for the Berks I title.
The Tigers entered play Friday No. 8 in the Class 4A power ratings. They have two games remaining, against Daniel Boone and Muhlenberg.
