Red-hot Bulldogs hold off Muhls, head to Berks League championship game
Three weeks ago the Wilson Bulldogs didn’t look like a team that would be playing for any championships this season. They had lost three in a row, were in fourth place in their division and were struggling to stay above .500.
They juggled their batting order, changed their approach at the plate and . . . voila!
“We’ve all locked in a little bit more,” said junior Tommy Hunsicker, who had three hits Saturday as the Bulldogs erased an early deficit and held off Muhlenberg 6-5 in a Berks Baseball League semifinal at FirstEnergy Stadium. “That’s made a difference.”
The win sends the second-seeded Bulldogs (14-6) into Monday’s championship game with an eight-game winning streak.
They’ll face top-seeded Gov. Mifflin, a team they’ve beaten twice during their hot streak. And they’ll likely have their ace, Matt VanOstenbridge, on the mound for the 6:05 start back at FirstEnergy. He went the first six innings of a 1-0 win over the Mustangs last week.
With VanOstenbridge, who started and won Thursday’s quarterfinal against Oley Valley, unable to pitch the Bulldogs turned to senior Nick Crocona.
He came through with his best effort of the season, going six innings without a walk. He allowed just one earned run and improved to 5-0, best on the team.
“That was a big plus,” said Wilson coach Bill Underwood. “We needed him on the mound, and he’s done a great job keeping us in ballgames, throwing strikes.”
Muhlenberg (13-8) scored twice off Crocona in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead but the Bulldogs answered with a bat-around inning, scoring four times to take the lead for good at 5-3.
“We knew we weren’t done (after falling behind),” Hunsicker said. “We knew it was a matter of time. We just kept rippin’ after that with a bunch of hard-hit balls.”
Hunsicker had an RBI single in the inning, as did Jordan Shutter. Crocona walked with the bases loaded to push home the tying run. After a pitching change, No. 9 hitter Mason Sensenig was hit by a pitch, forcing home the go-ahead run.
Crocona settled in after that and pitched his best ball. He retired the side in order in the fifth and allowed only a single in the sixth. He threw 90 pitches and admits he was tiring in the latter stages of the game but dug deeper.
“If you can go six innings against a team like Muhlenberg, that’s very impressive,” said Hunsicker.
The Muhls made a gang of mistakes: They committed three errors, lost four runners on the basepaths, had a pair of passed balls and their pitchers hit four batters. Still, they hung in and almost pulled it out.
They put together a two-out rally in the seventh, getting RBI singles from Gio Cavanna and Eli Keller before Ben Kulp recorded the final out for a save.
It ended up as the third one-run win in Wilson’s winning streak. The Bulldogs haven’t been beaten since losing to Central Dauphin on April 22, a loss that dropped them to 7-6.
“We’ve been able to rally as a team, get the bats going,” Crocona said. “Also we’ve had some good pitching performances. We were able to put it all together.”
Underwood said his hitters have stopped swinging the fences and instead have tried to make contact and force the action. It’s worked: The Bulldogs are averaging 8.2 runs during their winning streak; prior to that they were averaging 4.9.
“We were taking (too many) ‘Daddy hacks’ when we were behind in the count,” Underwood said. “We (have urged them to) take team swings. If you get to two strikes, it becomes a team at-bat. We’ve talked about choking up and putting the ball in play.”
The Bulldogs are back in the championship game for the third time in the last four tournaments; they last won it in 2019. They lost to Gov. Mifflin 5-4 the last time they made it, in 2021.
| Muhlenberg | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 5 | 9 | 3 |
| Wilson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | x | – | 6 | 8 | 4 |
| Muhls | AB | R | H | RBI | Bulldogs | AB | R | H | RBI | |
| Burr, 2b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | T. Hunsicker, 3b | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |
| Cavanna, rf | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Gabaldon, 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Keller, ss | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | C. Hunsicker, 1b | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| Rosenberry, c | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Sekulski, rf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Wilson, 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Fiorini, lf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Patton, dh | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Fernandez, cf | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| K. Rodriguez, 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Shutter, c | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| Hatt, lf | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Ruiz, cr | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Lopez, cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Crocona, p | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Cipolla, ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Kulp, p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Sensenig, dh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
| Bilodeau, ss | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 29 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 25 | 6 | 8 | 6 |
E: Hatt, Lopez; Gabaldon, Fiorini, Shutter, Bilodeau. 2B: C Hunsicker. SB: Burr 2, Cavanna 2. CS: Cavanna; T. Hunsicker. LOB: Muhlenberg 4, Wilson 7. DP: Muhlenberg 1, Wilson 1.
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |||
| Smeltzer, L (1-1) | 3 1/3 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 4 | Crocona, W (5-0) | 6 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | |
| High | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Kulp, S | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| C. Moody | 2 2/3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
WP: B: Smeltzer. PB: Rosenberg 2. HBP: Fernandez (by Smeltzer), Sensenig (by High), Fernandez (by Moody), Gabaldon (by Moody).
