Muhls survive early gauntlet with extra-inning road win over Bulldogs
2024 Berks baseball coverage presented by
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A week ago Muhlenberg coach Brian Kopetsky looked at his team’s upcoming schedule with a measure of dread: Five games in six days, including road games at Gov. Mifflin and Wilson.
“It could’ve been an absolute disaster,” he said.
It turned out to be quite the opposite. One day after holding off the Mustangs by one run the Muhls did the same against the Bulldogs, escaping a seventh-inning threat to win their Berks League Division I game 4-3 in eight innings Tuesday.
“It was quite a gauntlet,” Kopetsky said after seeing the Muhls vault into first place in Berks I, along with Exeter, after winning for the fourth time in this five-game stretch, “and we got through it.”
The Muhls (2-1, 4-2) took the lead in the eighth when Josh Smeltzer showed bunt to pull the infield in, then cracked a single through the right side of the infield to score Kevin Rodriguez, who had opened the inning with a single.
The Bulldogs (0-2, 3-3) threatened in the bottom half with Tyler Herbein working a leadoff walk off reliever Lincoln High. Cam Burr, the Muhls’ No. 1 starter, entered and allowed a single to Ryan Marmolejos that sent Herbein to third.
Burr got out of the jam by inducing a groundout against leadoff batter Tommy Hunsicker, then striking out Jack Gabel and Christo Hunsicker to end it.
“That’s not at all how we drew it up,” joked Kopetsky.
High, who retired four batters, earned the win; Burr got the save. Aaden Lopez started and went three innings, allowing one hit and two runs, one earned.
The Muhls had just six hits, none for extra bases, but like the night before in a 4-3 win over Mifflin they did more with less.
Muhlenberg tied it 3-3 in the sixth when Shane Rosenberry, who drew a leadoff walk, scored on Smeltzer’s bases-loaded double play.
The Bulldogs snapped a 2-2 tie in the third when Nick Fiorini hit a leadoff double and scored on pinch-hitter C.J. Fernandez’s two-out single.
Christo Hunsicker and Gabel combined on a six-hitter for the Bulldogs, striking out 10.
One of the keys to the Muhls’ win Tuesday came on Monday when Ethan Weiler pitched a complete game, saving his bullpen. That gave Kopetsky a relatively full stable of arms to use against Wilson and he took advantage, using four pitchers.
“Playing five games in six days, we were trying to figure out how to get through these games,” he said of his pitching staff. “That game by Weiler saved so many arms.”
Things didn’t look great for the Muhls when they opened league play with a 2-1 loss to Exeter at home Friday. Now they have the early lead in Berks I and have checked off perhaps their two toughest road games in league play.
Muhlenberg caught a break Tuesday when Wilson’s top two starters, Matt VanOstenbridge and Ben Kulp, were unavailable after pitching over the weekend.
Wilson faces a jammed schedule starting Friday as it plays five games in six days, including home games against Mifflin and Fleetwood – which is off to a 6-1 start — and at Exeter.
