Mustangs complete mission, top Bulldogs to win Berks baseball championship (updated with box score)

(This story will be updated later tonight with additional details and postgame reaction.)

Gov. Mifflin claimed the baseball championship it felt it should have won a year ago, beating Wilson 6-3 Monday in the BCIAA title game at FirstEnergy Stadium.

The top-seeded Mustangs (18-4) beat a Wilson (15-7) team which had beaten them twice earlier this season and Bulldogs ace Matt VanOstenbridge, who shut them out less than 10 days ago.

The championship is the second for MIfflin in three years and its record 15th overall.

Recent champs
2022	Muhlenberg
2021	Gov. Mifflin
2020
2019	Wilson
2018	Muhlenberg
2017	Wilson
2016	Gov. Mifflin
2015	Gov. Mifflin
2014	Reading High
2013	Oley Valley
2012	Fleetwood

Mifflin went into the tournament as the top seed last season but was stunned in the opening round by eighth-seeded Oley Valley.

Mustangs leader Tyler Minick, who was injured late last season and couldn’t play in the postseason, vowed his team would win the championship this year and he followed through.

The Mustangs didn’t hit VanOstenbridge (4-3) hard — or much at all — but they got runners on base and took advantage fielding lapses by the Bulldogs to take early command.

They scored in each of the first three innings to build a 5-1 lead despite getting just two hits.

VanOstenbridge left after five innings and allowing five hits and six runs, three earned. He walked three and struck out seven.

Ethan Grim (6-2) went five-plus innings, allowed three hits and one run and turned the ball over to Minick in the sixth after hitting the first two batters. Minick retired the next three batters to preserve the 6-1 lead.

The Bulldogs did touch Minick for a pair of runs in the seventh, on Nick Fiorini’s two-run triple.

Bryce Detwiler reached on an error and scored on Travis Jenkins’ line single to right to make it 1-0 in the first.

Mifflin went up 3-0 in the second when courtesy runner Ty Tobin and Minick both scored when Alexander Velez reached on a two-out strikeout/wild pitch. Detwiler, one batter before Velez, also reached on a strikeout/wild pitch to load the bases.

Wilson got its first run in the third, when Tommy and Christo Hunsicker each had infield singles Evan Gabaldo reached on an error — the Mustangs’ first of the tournament. Tommy scored on Ryan Sekulski’s bases-loaded liner to left. Grim struck out Fiorini to end the inning and avoid further trouble.

The Mustangs scored twice in the third off VanOstenbridge without benefit of a hit. Matt Koehler walked, advanced on a throwing error, and scored from third when he beat the throw home on Grim’s grounder to the right side against a drawn-in infield. Grim scored to make it 5-1 on Bryce Wunderlich’s groundout.

Wilson and Mifflin play against Friday when the District 3 Tournament opens. Both are expected to get opening-round home games.

Mifflin beat Wilson 5-4 the last time they met in the league championship game. The Bulldogs’ won their title, and 11th overall, in 2019 when they beat Hamburg.

Wilson	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	–	3	5	2
Gov. Mifflin	1	2	2	0	1	0	x	–	6	5	1

Bulldogs	AB	R	H	RBI		Mustangs	AB	R	H	RBI
T. Hunsicker, 3b	4	1	1	0		Minick, ss/p	4	1	1	1
Gabaldon, 2b	3	0	0	0		Detwiler, 2b	3	1	0	0
C. Hunsicker, 1b	2	0	1	0		Velez, 1b	4	0	0	0
Wentzel, ph	0	1	0	0		Jenkins, c	3	0	2	0
Sekulski, rf	3	1	1	1		Troche, dh	2	1	1	0
Fiorini, lf	3	0	1	2		Lehman, cf	0	0	0	0
Fernandez, df	2	0	0	0		Koehler, 3b	1	1	0	0
Shutter, c	2	0	1	0		Radwanski, lf	3	1	0	0
Sensenig, dh	2	0	0	0		Grim, p	2	1	1	2
Ruiz, ph	1	0	0	0		Wunderlich, rf	2	0	0	1
Bildeau, ss	2	0	0	0		Unger, ph	1	0	0	0
Gabel, ph	1	0	0	0
Totals	25	3	5	3			25	6	5	4

E: Gabaldon, Bilodeau; Detwiler. 3B:Fiorini.SB: Detwiler, Grim.  CS: Ruiz; Jenkins. S: Koehler..  LOB: Wilson 9, Gov. Mifflin 7. 

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K			IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
VanOstenbridge, L (4-3)	5	5	6	3	3	7		Grim, W (6-2)	5	3	1	1	2	7
Kulp	1	0	0	0	1	0		Minick	2	2	2	2	0	2

WP: VanOstenbridge 2. HBP: Fernandez 2 (by Grim), Fiorini (by Grim), Shutter (by Grim).