Boyertown wins first state playoff game since 1995, routs Olney
RED LION >> The last time Boyertown’s baseball team won a state playoff game, Mitch Peers wasn’t even born yet.
On Monday, though, the sophomore and the rest of the Bears’ lineup came to life.
Making a rare start as designated hitter, Peers swung a big bat in the Bears’ 18-0 five-inning rout of Olney Charter in the opening round of the PIAA Class AAAA baseball playoffs at George Washington High School.
“When I got the DH (designated hitter) spot in today’s lineup, I was really excited,” said Peers, who has spent most of the season nursing a labrum injury. “I wanted to come out and pull through for my teammates because I knew they’ve been working hard all season to get to this point.”
The win serves as Boyertown’s first PIAA win since the 1995 season — a 4-3 win over Coatesville in Class AAA play.
Batting in the five-hole, Peers finished with two doubles, two runs scored and a pair of RBIs in his state debut.
“He’s been swinging the bat good with the JV team,” said Boyertown head coach Todd Moyer, “and he’s swung the bat good for us when he’s gotten his chances pinch hitting. It was good to get him in the lineup and let him have more than a couple of at-bats.”
“All of the practices and the BP (batting practice) has really paid off,” he said with a laugh. “Coach Moyer trusted me to start and was confident in me coming into it.”
With the win, Boyertown will face off against District 2 champion Wyoming Valley West — a 3-1 winner over District 3 runner-up Governor Mifflin — on Thursday in the PIAA-AAAA quarterfinals at a site and time to be determined.
Behind Peers, the Bears’ 11-hit, 18-run showing came in stark contrast to their final stretch in the District 1-AAAA playoffs. After being blanked by Pennridge and then by Downingtown West in the third-place game, Boyertown crossed runs in every inning Monday, including a five-run first inning to set the tone early. All nine of Boyertown’s starting hitters reached base safely as the Bears worked eight walks in the game.
“I think we felt ourselves losing a bit of momentum after districts,” said second baseman Mitch Pinder. “As a team, we weren’t hitting the ball well and weren’t manufacturing runs. Still, we came into this confident. We knew we needed to get back on track.”
Lead-off man Pinder was 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI along with a pair of stolen bases in the first inning. Mike Raineri hit 2-for-4 out of the nine-hole where he scored twice and knocked in a run. Cory Melchior reached base all four times working a walk and being hit by two pitches. The right fielder scored three runs and knocked an RBI double.
“We came out and scored some runs early,” said Moyer. “We weren’t doing that the past few games, so that was really good to see. It’s always good to get a win and break up a losing streak.”
After Olney’s Estanley Tejada hit a lead-off single, Boyertown starter Andrew Bauer settled in. The senior right-hander didn’t let another Trojan reach base across his three complete innings of work, where he struck out five. Grant Fronheiser and Nate Kline each pitched an inning, where they each gave way to just one hit.
Pat Hohfeld will get the ball for the Bears’ PIAA second round matchup with Wyoming Valley West Thursday. Moyer hopes the bats will give the right-hander a similar amount of support as he received Monday.
“Now we’ve got to score some runs for Pat,” said Moyer. “We haven’t gotten him a run in two weeks. Hopefully our guys can do what they’ve been doing — keep the runs against low and put together some offense like we did today.”
