Muhls’ ‘secret weapon’ Ethan Weiler goes the distance in thrilling win over Mustangs
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Ethan Weiler spent his entire sophomore season pitching for Muhlenberg’s JV squad. Even there he wasn’t the top pitcher on the staff.
He didn’t get his first varsity start until Monday, and that was more out of necessity than anything else; it was the Muhls’ fourth game in five days. The pitching staff was spent.
Weiler was as surprised as anyone to see Muhls coach Brian Kopetsky hand him the ball for what could be the toughest assignment of the season: Facing defending Berks League champ and preseason favorite Gov. Mifflin on the Mustangs’ home field.
“If you would’ve said two months ago I’m pitching against this team I wouldn’t have believed it,” the junior admitted after going the distance in the Muhls’ thrilling 4-3 Division I win.
Weiler’s eyes were moist from the emotion of the moment following the game but during it he showed none of that. He didn’t appear nervous during his first start he sure didn’t show it. Not when the Mustangs took the lead with a second-inning run. Not when they loaded the bases with two outs in the third. Not after they scored twice to take a 3-2 lead in the sixth.
And certainly not in the seventh, after the Mustangs pushed the tying run to second base with one out, or when Kopetsky opted to intentionally walk Ethan Grim with two outs, placing the potential go-ahead run on base.
“He’s got ice water in his veins,” Kopetsky said, confident in his decision to trust Weiler.
The 6-2 right-hander was calm enough to sneak a 3-2 fastball past Dante Casantini to end it, setting off a wild celebration by the Muhls, who knew full well what they had accomplished in knocking off the Mustangs (1-1, 4-1).
“They’re one of the top teams in the district,” Kopetsky said of Mifflin, which was No. 2 in the District 3 Class 5A power ratings before Monday’s game. “I told them: ‘If you want to be considered one of those (top) teams then you have to go toe-to-toe with them.”
That hasn’t been easy for the Muhls (1-1, 3-2) over the years. They had lost five straight times to Mifflin. They hadn’t won at Rulon Griffith Field since 2017 when Gavin Moody – whose two-run double in the seventh gave the Muhls the lead – was a third-grader.
“There was an energy (in our dugout),” Kopetsky said. “They just came in here, played hard.”
The Muhls had to come from behind twice to win it and they had to do it against one of the league’s top pitchers, Ethan Grim, a Division I prospect who was lighting up the radar guns behind home plate with a mid-90’s fastball.
Grim had struck out 19, with just two walks, over nine innings in his first two starts. He had allowed just one hit.
He didn’t allow much Monday, either. He struck out the side in an overpowering first, pitched to the minimum batters through three innings and allowed just two hits over his 6 1/3 innings while striking out nine.
The Muhls, to say the least, made the most of their chances. Heck, they finished the game with one runner left on base. That was due in part to three double plays, in part because of Grim’s dominance.
Eli Keller doubled home Cam Burr to tie it 1-1 in the fourth, took third on the throw home, then scored the go-ahead run on Kevin Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly.
The Mustangs, to their credit, came up with two runs in the sixth to take a 3-2 lead, and were efficient themselves. Casantini laid down a sacrifice bunt to push Grim to third; he scored from there on Nate Radwanski’s sacrifice fly. After Joey Berg scratched out an infield hit Bryce Wunderlich ripped an RBI double to center to give his team the lead.
The Mustangs couldn’t hold that lead. Grim allowed a leadoff walk to Keller, then was let down by his defense. Rodriguez hit a grounder to short but Radwanski, the second baseman, dropped Bryce Detwiler’s throw for an error, opening the door for a pair of unearned runs and the Muhls’ unlikely comeback.
“(This is) just a reminder that we’re not going to roll over everybody, no matter who we have on the mound,” said Mifflin coach Chris Hole, whose team had outscored its first four opponents 43-5. “This is the first game that we have been challenged, but you need that. You need to see what you have and how guys respond in tense moments.”
There were plenty of tense moments for Weiler, who saw 14 Mifflin batters reach base (on nine hits, four walks and an error) and 10 of them advance to scoring position. Nine of them were stranded. Two others were erased on double plays.
None of the heavy traffic seemed to bother Weiler. He stuck to his game plan, which was to keep the Mustangs on their heels with a non-stop assortment of changeups and curveballs. When he showed his modest 75 mph fastball he was able to spot it on the corners for strikes.
“Ethan hits his spots so consistently,” said his catcher, senior Shane Rosenberry. “(He showed) you don’t need to throw 90 mph like Grim does to succeed. We saw (Dalton) Follweiler last year win Pitcher of the Year doing the same exact thing. (Ethan) knows what he has and he ran with his stuff.”
Weiler surprised the Mustangs. They had no idea what they were go to see, and that’s the way Kopetsky wanted it. When he announced over the weekend that Weiler was getting the start he told his guys it was Top Secret. He didn’t want to tip off the competition.
“Knowing what we were going up against tonight I thought this was our best shot,” Kopetsky said, “to get a guy up there who was going to change speeds and keep them off-balanced. He has a different kind of mix. He’s pitched to the game plan and did his thing.”
“I was nervous at first,” Weiler said after learning he would start against Mifflin, “but after I thought about it I (was) like: ‘All I’ve gotta do is be myself and go do my thing and I’ll be fine. Coach has a lot of faith in me and lets me go out there and do my thing.”
| Muhlenberg | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | – | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Gov. Miflin | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | – | 3 | 9 | 3 |
| Muhls (3-2) | AB | R | H | RBI | Mustangs (4-1) | AB | R | H | RBI | |
| Ca. Burr, 2b | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Adams, lf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Rosenberry, c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Barrett, ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Keller, ss | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Detwiler, ss | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Rodriguez, 3b | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Jenkins, c | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Lopez, rf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Koehler, 3b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Smeltzer, 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Grim, p/2b | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| G. Moody, cf | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Kowalski, cr | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| High, dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Casantini, 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Cipolla, lf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Radwanski, 2b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Berg, dh | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| Wunderlich, rf | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| Totals | 22 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 26 | 3 | 9 | 3 |
E: Rodriguez, Detwiler, Radwanski, Adams. 2B. G. Moody, Keller, Wunderlich, Berg, Grim, Jenkins. CS: G. Moody. S: Casantini, Jenkins. SF: Rodriguez, Radwanski. LOB: Muhlenberg 1, Gov. Mifflin 9.
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |||
| Weiler, W 1-0 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Grim, L 1-1 | 6 1/3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | |
| Weaver | 2/3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
WP: Weiler. HBP: Ca. Burr (by Grim).
