Brandywine Heights shocks Berks League nemesis Oley Valley, 9-0
MERTZTOWN >> It was a regular season game, still early in April, and by most accounts shouldn’t have meant terribly much to either team in the larger picture. There’s still a ton of baseball to play.
Don’t go telling that to the Brandywine Heights Bullets.
The host Bullets jumped on nemesis Oley Valley for nine runs Monday afternoon and got a four-hit, complete game shutout from senior pitcher Austin Kunkel to rout the Lynx 9-0 in a Berks League Section 3 contest.
You might be able to put a price tag on what beating Oley Valley means to the Brandywine kids, but the cost would be fairly high. The roots go back years, to the current baseball divisional alignment, one that has seen the Lynx dominate Section 3 and handle Brandywine Heights with regularity in the process.
But more immediately, for this current crop of Bullets, are a pair of losing football scores from last season: 17-7 and 15-0.
There is motivation somewhere in that – although certainly no one foresaw Monday’s lopsided result in the offing, which would serve as a siren that the Section 3 race is open for business.
“It’s big, it’s confidence for these kids,” veteran Brandywine coach Chris Cole said. “I mean, you can only tell them so much. You try to build them up. … This is most complete game we’ve played in years, against a quality team like this one.
“Austin Kunkel pitched a great game. Defensively, we didn’t have an error. And we hit. We had 12 hits against a top-notch team. We put those three things together and we did them pretty well. I’m hoping that these kids get confidence out of this, that they can beat anybody on any given day.”
Kunkel’s approach to Oley’s lineup was fairly simple: Get ahead with the fastball, pound the strike zone and mix in the occasional slider to keep the Lynx off-balance.
“Oley’s our toughest competition and I knew we hadn’t beaten them in a few years,” Kunkel said. “I knew I had to bring my best stuff. No pitcher is perfect the whole game but I felt pretty good throughout.
“I’ve never doubted our team. I know we have what it takes to be the best and now we’re at the top and we have to prove that we belong here. Oley’s definitely a great team, but I believe this is our year for the division.”
The Bullets (5-3, 2-0) seized control of the game by scoring four runs on four base hits, combined with one cost Oley error, in the bottom of the third inning to mushroom what had been a 1-0 game into a 5-0 advantage. The Lynx (5-1, 1-1) never recovered.
Dan Butz led off the frame with a single and Drew Swire followed with the same. Ben Flicker sent a chopper up the line that was fielded but thrown wildly into right field, allowing Butz and Swire to score on a three-base error. Flicker moved to second on the heave and third on a balk call against Oley starter Matt Fisher. He crossed on Brett Swire’s sacrifice fly to deep center field to make it 4-0, and the game shifted firmly to Brandywine’s domain.
“A lot of flaws were exposed (Monday) that we need to work on,” Oley Valley head coach Rick Harrison said. “We haven’t lost like this in a league game since … shoot, I can’t even remember. Hopefully, they’ll use this as a wake-up call. We had no intensity, a low energy level. Maybe it’s complacency since we’ve been so successful. But we can’t come out and play like this and expect to beat any team.”
Brandywine tacked on a solo run in the fourth to make it 6-0, then Alex Flicker’s two-run single in the fifth gave the hosts an 8-0 lead and put the issue to rest. Flicker caught Kunkel’s gem.
“Kunkel was working both sides of the plate and had his breaking pitch working today,” Flicker said. “It was easy to catch him today. He was hitting his spots.”
It’s still early in the season, but a big win against a rival who’s held the keys to the kingdom for a few years running could work as the springboard Brandywine needs to wrestle those keys away.
“It was nice to see it happen,” Cole said. “It’s Oley, and we hadn’t beaten them in so long and these kids know it. It was important for them to hit well and play seven strong innings. Hopefully this gets them going.”
Brandywine Heights 9, Oley Valley 0
Oley Valley – 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 4 2
Brandywine Heights – 1 0 4 1 2 1 — 9 10 0
WP: Austin Kunkel LP: Matt Fisher
2B: OV, Tyler Wentzel; BH, Drew Swire.
