Boyertown captures PIAA-AAAA Championship over Plum
STATE COLLEGE >> The umpire didn’t even have to flinch.
The entire Boyertown bench, the fan section and the players in the field knew it was over.
Junior starting pitcher Pat Hohlfeld caught Plum’s Jason Maltese staring at strike three down the plate to secure Boyertown the PIAA Class AAAA Championship with a 4-1 win over Plum High School at Penn State’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park on Thursday.
That’s when the celebration ensued.
“That’s probably the ideal finish,” said Hohlfeld afterward of a called strike three. “I immediately started tearing up right there with my teammates around me. I mean, a full season, I don’t think anyone could have asked for a better way to end it.”
“I don’t think I could have gotten out to the mound any quicker,” said catcher Ryan Weller, among the first of the Bears to flock their pitcher.
The win served as Boyertown’s third PIAA Championship, their first since the Bears won the title in Class AAA to close out the 1991 season.
“That’s 25 long years lifted off our shoulders,” said first baseman Ben Longacre. “That’s storybook stuff right there.”
In the end, it was Hohlfeld holding the pen in his right hand Thursday.
The junior right-hander needed only 79 pitches to go the entire seven innings. He kept the Plum hitters off-balance all throughout, occasionally mixing in his off-speed but mostly painting the black of the plate.
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The result served as Plum’s second loss of the entire season — the Mustangs’ previous coming in the District 7 Championship against Norwin.
“That’s a good hitting team we went up against,” said Hohlfeld. “They jump on everything and they can hit the ball hard. I tried not to leave anything hanging over the plate for them to unload on.”
Hohlfeld was touched for six hits, two of which came from Plum standout first baseman Alexander Kirilloff.
Kirilloff — selected No. 15 overall in the MLB Draft by the Minnesota Twins last week — teed off on an RBI triple off the wall in the top of the third inning and ripped a double in the sixth.
The senior’s base-running proved to be just a bit too greedy for his own good, though.
Kirilloff tried for home on his triple, but ran into a brick wall in Weller waiting at the plate.
In the sixth, Kirilloff advanced to third base as men stood on first and third. The next batter, he tagged up and scored on Alexander Terrell’s fly ball to left field to temporarily make it 2-2.
After Boyertown’s appeal that Kirilloff left the bag early was upheld, the Bears could wipe their brow and got out of the jam.
“We made some really big plays to stop them from scoring,” said Boyertown head coach Todd Moyer. “In the third inning, we knew he’d be coming home — he’s fast and he’s aggressive on the base paths. Our relay didn’t panic … they got the ball in and got it to Ryan at the plate.
“That sixth inning was huge for us, too. That killed their (Plum’s) momentum.”
Senior second baseman Mitch Pinder accounted for two of Boyertown’s five hits on the afternoon.
The lead-off man opened the game with a hard single down the third-base line on an 0-2 pitch. Three batter later, Pinder crossed home on first baseman Ben Lonacre’s two-out liner to left field.
Longacre then came around to score on designated hitter Mitchell Peers’ towering triple to straight-away center field.
“That’s what we’ve done all season,” said Pinder. “We got guys on base, strung together some hits and got some runs on the board. That was definitely the start we were looking for.”
His day was far from done.
With one out in the top of the seventh, Pinder gave the Bears some insurance. He knocked an RBI single to left field, scoring shortstop Mike Raineri from third base.
Four batters later with the bases loaded, Peers was hit by a pitch to extend it to 4-1.
“I think that seventh inning really drove it home for us,” said Longacre, who finished his season with a .389 batting average. “We knew we could trust Pat with a lead, especially a three-run lead going into that last inning.”
Aside from Boyertown’s two-run first inning to open the game, Plum sophomore stating pitcher Ryan Kircher was effective throughout. The left-hander threw six complete innings, scattering three hits and four walks to go along with six strikeouts. Reliver Ethan Winesburgh was responsible for both Boyertown runs in the seventh.
At the plate, Maltese finished with a hit and a run scored while Tyler Vivino, Terrell, and Michael Anderson each had a hit.
Now as their storybook season comes to a finish, the legacy of this Bears team will live on forever.
“It was awesome to have that 1991 team reach out and let us know they’re behind us,” said Pinder. “Those were the guys we all heard about when we were kids. Now we get to be in their shoes. We’re now those guys.”
As the visiting dugout emptied out and piled on Hohfeld in front of the mound, there was a team.
A team predicted by many to finish second in the Pioneer Athletic Conference. A team that many said wouldn’t make it out of districts. A team that looked dead in the water headed into states after two straight losses in districts. A team that wouldn’t have an answer to a hitter ranked among the top 15 across the country.
A team that never once listened to the critics.
A team that can now finally stand shoulder-to-shoulder among the Boyertown greats.
