Boyertown’s return to state final a long time coming
BOYERTOWN >> As they were loading up the bus, it wasn’t just equipment they had over their shoulders.
No, the baseball team is carrying much more than that with them up to State College.
“1991. That’s a long time,” said Boyertown shortstop Mitchell Pinder following his team’s win over Cumberland Valley in the state semis on Monday.
Almost 25 years to date since they last won the PIAA state title, the Bears make the trek to Penn State University’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park for the state championship on Thursday at 1:30 p.m.
Click here to read more about Boyertown’s magical run through the 1991 PIAA playoffs.
The only thing standing in the Bears’ way is a team modeled similar to themselves — District 7’s Plum High School, 20 miles east of downtown Pittsburgh.
“We’ve got to bring the same M.O. that we’ve brought the past two weeks,” said Boyertown head coach Todd Moyer. “We’ve got to dig in and battle. Everybody’s got to have tough at-bats. If you make an out, you’ve got to make it a hard out. We can’t give them anything easy.”
Through their PIAA Class AAAA runs so far, Plum is outscoring opponents 14-4 while Boyertown boasts a 25-3 advantage — partially inflated by an 18-0 win over Olney Charter, but nonetheless, impressive.
Right-handed junior Pat Hohlfeld will take the mound for the Bears, boasting a 0.93 ERA along with a 6-3 record to date on the season. Hohlfeld holds a 47-12 strikeout-to walk ratio and has held opposing hitters to a .154 average against him. The junior has appeared in 68 innings on the season, just over 33-percent of the Bears’ pitching. That said, he’s raring to get up to State College.
“I’m used to throwing a lot of innings,” said Hohlfeld, who went all seven innings during Boyertown’s PAC-10 title win over Perkiomen Valley last month. “I’m excited to get there and see how it will go. It’s the state championship game – we know we’ve got to bring our best.”
Moyer has all the faith in the world in the junior.
“He’s been the guy we’ve had on the mound in the big games this year,” said Moyer. “He’s the guy to go with. He’s done well for us all year. Hopefully we can support him defensively and put some runs on the board for him.”
Mixing in impressive pitching to go along with timely hitting, the Bears’ last loss came June 2 in the District 1-AAAA third place game, just two days after falling to Pennridge in the semifinals. Boyertown was shut out in both of those games.
Those two losses seemed to serve as a wake-up call for the Bears.
“You’d think spirits would have been down and we’d be heading in the wrong direction, but we moved past all of it,” said starting catcher Ryan Weller following Boyertown’s win over Cumberland Valley on Monday. “That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re headed to the state championship.”
To date, first baseman Ben Longacre leads the Bears in hits (36), RBIs (20) and doubles (six). Mitch Pinder is hitting .333 on the season while Ryan Jacobs is hitting .323 with Seth Endy following at .310 and Tyler Kreitz at .308.
Leadoff-hitting second baseman Mitch Pinder knocked a key two-run single during the top of the fourth inning against Cumberland Valley Monday.
The Bears have hit only two home runs on the season, but have scored 140 runs while allowing 53 runs against.
Plum heads to State College fresh off a 6-2 win over District 1’s No. 5 seed Marple Newtown to improve to 25-1 overall on the season. The six-run outburst was the Mustangs’ highest offensive output through the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) and the PIAA playoffs.
In the win, Zach Nolan pitched five innings with a strikeout and three walks while Ethan Winesburgh was 1-for-3 with two RBIs and also pitched the final two frames.
Standout first baseman Alex Kirilloff was 1-for-3 with an RBI double and a run scored.
Plum’s last loss — their only of the season — was 7-3 against Norwin in the WPIAL title game on June 1.
This will be Plum’s first trip to the state championship. Prior to this season, Plum last made it to the PIAA-AAAA playoffs during the 2008 season, when the Mustangs lost their opener to Central Mountain. During the 1998 season, Plum advanced to the state quarterfinals before losing to Mount Lebanon.
Right at Home
Plum’s lead-off first baseman Kirilloff was selected with the No. 15 overall pick by the Minnesota Twins in the 2016 Major League Baseball Draft last week on the same day the Mustangs won their state semifinal game 2-1 against Hempfield.
Though affiliated with the Plum baseball team, Kirilloff is home-schooled as part of the PA Cyber School program, a charter school.
He is an excellent combo of size and speed, physically, as evidenced by his lead-off at-bat Monday. The senior opened it up with a single, stole second, took third on an error and then tug up to score Plum’s opening run.
Prior to the semifinal game against Marple Newtown, Kirilloff was batting .513 with four home runs, four triples, 14 doubles and 27 RBI on the season. He had 17 walks and was only struck out once.
Respecting Kirilloff’s ability, Moyer hopes the Bears can keep him tame and challenge Plum to beat them in other ways.
“He’s fast, he’s a left-handed hitter, so we know he’ll be getting up to first base quick,” said Moyer. “But he’s just one guy. Hopefully we can keep him under control and keep the rest of (the Mustangs) from hurting us.”
Kirilloff, who has also spent time on the mound, hovers his fastball between 87 and 90 miles-per-hour.
Pitcher-esque
Boyertown heads to State College with a team ERA of 1.07 on the season. Andrew Bauer (8-1) boasts a 1.34 ERA, limiting Cumberland Valley to just an unearned run on Monday. Grant Fronheiser and Mike Xanthopoulos have both been effective out of the bullpen during the Bears’ postseason run.
Plum shutout all three opponents through the opening rounds to start their District 7 run, outscoring the opposition 9-0.
Field of Screams
The Bears’ sole question mark during the postseason has been their fielding at times. The Bears have committed 44 errors on the season, half of which have come on the left side of the infield.
“We can’t afford to give them any free passes,” said Moyer. “We’ve got to be sound both at the plate and in the field. If we can do that, there’s no reason can’t get it done.”
* * *
Twenty-five years sure is an awful long time.
Though no members of the Boyertown baseball team were even born the last time the Bears hoisted the state trophy a quarter of a century ago, Thursday could be the day that weight is finally lifted off their shoulders.
Boyertown High School stat keeper Ross Smith contributed to this report.
