Tranformed Bulldogs playing for another unexpected baseball championship
Wilson baseball coach Bill Underwood took a few moments at Monday’s practice to remind his guys how fortunate they were to be practicing on Memorial Day.
Most high school baseball teams around the state are done for the season; their players have moved on to their summer clubs.
The Bulldogs still have business at hand: They play Cedar Cliff Tuesday at 7 at FirstEnergy Stadium for the District 3 Class 6A championship; next week they’ll play in the PIAA Tournament.
“It’s a rare opportunity,” senior catcher Jordan Shutter of playing this late into the calendar.
Rare, and unexpected. Five weeks ago the Bulldogs were 7-6 and on the outside looking in at the playoffs.
They dropped three straight at midseason, including a 4-2 loss at home to Conrad Weiser, which finished last in Berks II.
“I couldn’t have expected us to be here,” said senior outfielder Ryan Sekulski, “but we didn’t drop our heads. We kept our heads up, we kept our energy up.”
Shutter, if asked in late April, wouldn’t have predicted the Bulldogs (19-7) would end up playing for both the Berks League and District 3 championships.
“Right at that moment, I’d say no,” he said. “We were in that little bit of a slump. We picked it up right after that. We’re on a little bit of a roll.”
It’s more than a “bit” of a roll: The seventh-seeded Bulldogs have won 12 of their last 13 games and have been completely transformed as a team. They’re pitching better, fielding better and mostly hitting better.
Over their last 13 games they have batted .316 and averaged 7.6 runs per game. In their first 13 games they batted .276 and averaged 5.5 runs.
Shutter leads the team in batting at .377. Leadoff batter Tommy Hunsicker, a junior, is batting .356 and shares the team lead with 23 runs scored. Junior Nick Fiorini is batting .333 and leads the team with 23 RBIs, a .575 slugging percentage and a 1.001 OPS. Sophomore Christo Hunsicker is second on the team with a .365 batting average, second with a .513 slugging average and second with a .931 OPS. Senior Rafael Fernandez leads the team with a .450 on-base average and is tied for the team lead with 23 runs scored.
The Bulldogs changed their approach at the plate, stopped swinging for the fences and started concentrating on getting on base, making contact, and forcing their opponents to make plays in the field.
Baserunners don’t advance and fielders don’t make errors on strikeouts but put the bat on the ball and good things will happen.
Wilson batters had eight hits against Cumberland Valley. The second-seeded Eagles, playing at home, committed five errors, leading to four unearned runs and a 10-0 quarterfinal loss.
The Bulldogs struck out just three times against 11th-seeded Manheim Township, collected eight hits and won their district semifinal 4-2.
They have outscored their opponents 19-6 in three district wins.
The Bulldogs finished third in Berks I, behind Gov. Mifflin and Muhlenberg, but entered the postseason playoff-ready after facing the likes of Exeter’s Deven Sheerin, Gov. Mifflin’s Tyler Minick, Muhlenberg’s Dalton Follweiler and Fleetwood’s Jake Karnish during the regular season.
They started to see some light at the end of the tunnel on April 26 when they beat Exeter 11-2. Three weeks earlier they gave up eight first-inning runs and lost to Sheerin and the Eagles 11-1 in five innings.
“After beating Sheerin — one of the best pitchers in the county — that really led us to beat some other good teams and showed that we can handle anybody,” Sekulski said.
The Bulldogs showed they were for real late in the season when they beat Gov. Mifflin twice, the second time 1-0 when Matt VanOstenbridge pitched a two-hitter.
The junior lefty will be on the mound Tuesday when the Bulldogs face the fifth-seeded Colts (17-6). He’s been outstanding all season, with a 1.60 ERA and 86 strikeouts over 61 1/3 innings. He’s been even better in four postseason appearances, going 3-1 with an 0.35 ERA and 25 strikeouts over 19 2/3 innings.
“He’s pretty much been locked in every single game,” said Shutter, his catcher.
The Bulldogs are catching a team that’s just as hot as they are. The Colts are 9-1 in May and beat ninth-seeded Red Lion 4-2 in the semifinals. (Red Lion did everyone else in the bracket a favor, taking out No. 1 Central Dauphin 8-0 in eight innings in the quarterfinals.)
Junior right-hander Luke Minimum started and won against Red Lion, striking out seven in a complete game. He also started and won the district opener, striking out nine over 5 2/3 innings in a 6-2 win over 12th-seeded Northeastern.
Minimum is 7-2 with a 1.83 ERA and 61 strikeouts over 53 2/3 innings. He’ll be available to throw Tuesday, as will all of the pitchers on each team.
Cedar Cliff has gone 15-2 since a slow start. It’s only losses in that stretch came to Central Dauphin and State College.
Cedar Cliff last won a district championship in 2019, taking the Class 5A crown. It has won four championships; Wilson has won three.
Wilson won the 2021 Class 6A title but none of the current seniors saw much time on that senior-loaded powerhouse.
Sekulski saw time in right field for that team, which finished 22-3.
“As a senior, my last ride, it’s awesome to play for a district championship,” he said. “I can’t say that this team’s more talented than that team, but I would say we have as much energy and we’re playing just as well as they did. So I hope we can bring it home.”
