Shorthanded Bulldogs score season-changing win over Mustangs
2024 Berks baseball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
Wilson beat Gov. Mifflin twice last season in division play but it was the third meeting, in the Berks championship game, that lingered with Bulldogs outfielder Nick Fiorini.
The loss simmered on the back burner of his mind for months. Finally, late Monday afternoon, Fiorini was able to douse those inner fires.
With runners at the corners and none out in the ninth inning Fiorini rifled a single up the middle that brought Jack Gabel home and gave the Bulldogs a dramatic 6-5 Berks League Division I victory over the Mustangs at Wilson West Middle School.
“We’ve had this game marked on our calendar since we lost last year,” said Fiorini, reflecting back to that 6-3 loss to Mifflin at FirstEnergy Stadium last May. “We knew it was gonna be a battle all seven innings – it went to nine. We fought and came out on top.”
To watch the game, click here
To do it the Bulldogs (2-2, 6-3) had to beat Mifflin’s best two pitchers, Ethan Grim and Bryce Detwiler – as good a one-two punch as you’ll find in the league.
The Bulldogs had a solid approach at the plate and some tremendous at-bats against Grim, a Division I prospect who had allowed just three hits over three earlier starts covering 15 1/3 innings. They touched him for four straight singles in the two-run first inning and 10 over five innings.
Detwiler entered in the seventh, after the Mustangs (3-2, 6-2) had scored twice in the top half to tie it 5-5.
The junior right-hander, a University of Connecticut infield recruit, wiggled out of a bases-load jam in the seventh and pitched a one-two-three eighth.
He couldn’t get anyone out in the ninth when Gabel, Christo Hunsicker and Fiorini opened – and closed – the inning with three straight singles.
Fiorini came up with a runner on second and one out in the seventh but the Mustangs weren’t about to let Wilson’s RBI leader have a chance at ending the game there; he was intentionally walked.
Two innings later they didn’t have that option.
“That motivated him,” Hunsicker said of Fiorini having the bat taken out of his hands with the game on the line. “He gets fired up from that kind of stuff. He’s a competitor. Standing on first I knew he was going to be able to get the job done. I’m glad he’s on our team.”
The win was especially pivotal for the Bulldogs because they weren’t able to use either of their two top pitchers. Left-hander Matt VanOstenbridge, a Penn State recruit, has a pulled muscle in his upper back and wasn’t available; neither was Ben Kulp, who pitched Friday.
That meant Hunsicker got the start, and he made the most of the opportunity against the league’s most potent lineup. The junior right-hander gave up a first-inning run but continued to avoid big innings by spotting his fastball and keeping the Mustangs off-balanced with his curveball and changeup, and by effectively changing his arm slot. He was charged with four hits and one earned run over five innings.
“I was trying to pitch to contact, (stay) around the strike zone because I knew the defense would make some plays for me,” Hunsicker said, “and they did.”
Hunsicker left the mound with a 4-3 lead after striking out five; he extended the lead to 5-3 with a fifth-inning homer off Grim.
That two-run cushion vanished in the ninth when Travis Jenkins ripped an RBI single to right that brought home Detwiler; Dylan Barrett scored all the way from first when Kulp, the first baseman, threw wildly past third – one of five errors charged against the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs overcame that in the ninth when Gabel led off with a single and Hunsicker cracked his third hit of the day to bring up Fiorini, who had keyed the first-inning rally against Grim with an RBI double.
Just as important were RBI singles from Tommy Hunsicker, the second to snap a 3-3 tie in the fourth, and sacrifice bunts by Tyler Herbein, who moved up runners who eventually scored in the second and fourth innings.
“A few guys got some timely hits today,” said Wilson coach Bill Underwood. “That was something we’ve been lacking.”
Fiorini’s hit was Wilson’s 14th of the day; four of them went for extra bases. It’s unlikely anyone else does that kind of damage against Grim and Detwiler the rest of the way.
“They have a lot of good athletes who get up when they face good pitching,” said Mifflin coach Chris Hole. “They did the same thing last year against Tyler Minick. They’re not gonna shy away from that. Credit to them for how well they swung it today.”
The Bulldogs are still in fourth place in Berks I and get right back at it Tuesday at Exeter but the energy gained from Monday’s thriller should give them a boost going forward.
“A team like that, if we can beat them, that can give us confidence coming into the next few games,” Christo Hunsicker said.
“Big,” said Fiorini of the win. “Big. They’re on top of Berks I. To be able to beat early in the season, it’s huge for us.”
| Gov. Mifflin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | – | 5 | 9 | 3 |
| Wilson | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | – | 6 | 14 | 5 |
| Mustangs | AB | R | H | RBI | Bulldogs | AB | R | H | RBI | |
| Detwiler, ss/p | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | T. Hunsicker | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | |
| Berg 2b/ss | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Gabel, ss/p | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| Barrett, 2b | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | C. Hunsicker, p/ss | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |
| Jenkins, c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Kostelac, cr | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Grim, p/2b | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Fiorini, cf/lf | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| Koehler, 3b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Kennedy, rf | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Adams, rf | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Kulp, 1b | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Radwanski, dh | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Marmolejos, lf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Lehman, lf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Ulrich, cf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Angstadt, ss | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Fernandez, 2b | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| Casantini, 1b | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | Herbein, c | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Wunderlich, cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 38 | 5 | 9 | 2 | 35 | 6 | 14 | 4 |
2B. Barrett, Detwiler, Casantini; Fiorini, Kulp 2. HR: C. Hunsicker. SB: Detwiler. CS: T. Hunsicker. S: Herbein 2, Wunderlich. LOB: Gov. Mifflin 13, Wilson 8.
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |||
| Grim | 5 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 7 | C. Hunsicker | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
| Kowalski | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Gabel | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | |
| Detwiler, L (3-1) | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Snyder, W (1-0) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
WP: C. Hunsicker. HBP: Fernandez (by Grim).
