Hohlfeld delivers Boyertown past Spring-Ford, back to PAC Championship

BOYERTOWN >> In between Friday night’s games, Boyertown senior Mike Hohlfeld could be found standing in the back of the line at the Bear Stadium snack bar.

Seems like the right-hander doesn’t have much issue waiting around.

Hohlfeld got the start on Tuesday afternoon and picked up right where he left off on Friday on the mound on the way to a 5-3 win against Spring-Ford.

“This whole week it was weird, sitting in school, watching it rain,” said Hohlfeld, patiently waiting to dive into a cheeseburger clutched in his hand. “The whole week, I was just thinking, ‘Man, I really want to get out there and play today.’ I’m just glad we were finally able to get out there.”

He pitched into the fifth inning, and was tagged for three runs on three hits and three walks.

Hohlfeld got the Bears on the board first, rolling one to first base to score Austyn Levengood in the top of the third. Then Jake DiCesare drove in Mitchell Peers on the next at-bat to give Boyertown a 2-0 lead. The Bears then crossed two more in the fourth, highlighted by Quinn Mason’s RBI double to left field before coming around to score on an error.

Spring-Ford responded with three runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it 4-3, but stranded the bases loaded.

With the momentum seemingly swinging toward Spring-Ford at that point, Hohlfeld brought it back with one swing of the bat.

Hohlfeld delivered an 0-1 pitch over the wall in left field to give the Bears a 5-3 lead to leadoff the top of the fifth.

“I knew what pitch was coming, he’d been throwing a lot of curve balls,” said Hohlfeld. “I knew if I could get good contact on it, I could at least land something in the outfield.”

Spring-Ford starter Jake Skrocki pitched six innings where he scattered five runs (four earned) on eight hits and a walk. Patrick Jucker finished with an RBI double to go along with a run scored.

Though disappointed his team wasn’t playing into the night, manager Jamie Scheck gave plenty of credit to his team’s willingness to fight back, even when trailing by four runs.

“These kids battle, they don’t get down,” he said. “They’ve been doing it all year. Yes, we’re 18-3, we’ve played ahead in a lot of games. But we’ve battled back from deficits in a lot of games.”

After a first round bye, No. 2-seeded Spring-Ford will open up its District One Class 6A playoff run against the winner of Avon Grove/Plymouth-Whitemarsh next Wednesday.