Mercury Baseball Notebook: Hot hitting Spencer leads Pottsgrove in Frontier race

Avery Spencer’s 2021 season started with an O-for.

In Pottsgrove’s first official Pioneer Athletic Conference game against Upper Merion , Spencer went 0-for-3 at the plate.

The rest of the PAC’s pitchers haven’t had as much luck getting out the Falcons’ senior shortstop out since.

Spencer totes a .571 batting average, which ranks second in the league, with three doubles and two triples. He has hit safely in seven straight games for Pottsgrove, including five multi-hit days, while batting .667 during the hitting streak.

“It’s just the same approach going up every single at bat, same routine every single game,” Spencer said. “Consistency comes with doing the exact same thing. I’m just trying to get up every game day and just be ready, be focused when I get to the game.”

Spencer is headed to Radford University next season to play at the Division I level, so his baseball career will continue on after this season. But this is his last go-around with the Falcons, who have risen from perennial basement dwellers to a squad that won the first District 1 playoff game in program history two seasons ago.

Pottsgrove (4-1 Frontier, 4-3 PAC) is one of the leaders in the Frontier Division race after a 3-1 win against Upper Perkiomen and a 4-3 come-from-behind win over Pope John Paul II last week.
The Falcons have gotten strong pitching from Steven Rinda (3.06 ERA) and Ryan Van Bramer (1.27 ERA) and solid production at the plate from guys like Rinda, Yasir Gardner-Sizer and Cooper Fiore alongside Spencer.

“I’m just relaxing, knowing its my last year and last season playing at Pottsgrove,” Spencer said. “I’m just trying to be a leader on the team, lead by example and play hard for the younger kids to let them know what it takes to win and in general be a good athlete, just someone that people can look up to.”

Ramming Rams >> Spencer isn’t the only PAC player tearing the cover off the ball through the first few weeks of the season. The PAC has four other players with at least 15 at-bats batting .500 or better thus far.
Boyertown’s Cole Hertzler leads the way with a .600 average, going 9-for-15 with six walks. Following him are Methacton’s Nolan McCloskey (.550), Spring-Ford’s Jack Kisela (.529) and Perkiomen Valley’s Zach Fusco (.500).

Kisela is part of a Spring-Ford lineup that has a lot of pop, tallying six doubles, five triples and six homers. Spring-Ford is batting .358 as a team and averaging 8.6 runs per game. The Rams totaled 40 runs in three games last week.

Jake Books leads the league with three home runs in seven PAC games. Aydan McNelly (.375) is the league leader with five doubles. Jarrett Gordon (.412) and Cole Casamento (.400) are both among the PAC leaders in average.

“There’s nobody we have on this team that can’t hit the ball out of the stadium,” Spring-Ford’s Billy Bean said after homering against Upper Perkiomen last week. “One through nine we can all hit.”

Phantom Menaces >> Spring-Ford’s pitching has also been impressive, allowing fewer than two runs per game. Jackson Malouf hasn’t allowed an earned run in 10 innings, neither has PV’s Tyler Lapetina. Boyertown’s Tyler Sharayko, who combined with Hertzler for a five-inning no-hitter against Norristown on Friday hasn’t allowed any runs at all in 8.1 innings of work.

But as a whole, no pitching staff has been more dominant than Phoenixville. The Phantoms have allowed six runs in seven games, posting a 0.76 team ERA. They already have three complete games from their pitching staff — two of them shutouts.

Senior Jason Bilotti (0.50 ERA) has logged 14 innings of work, striking out 24 batters while walking just five. Junior Drew Kingsbury (1.17 ERA) has pitched 12 innings, striking out 17 and walking three.
Senior Mike Memmo has given up just two hits in 10.2 innings, striking out 11 and walking three. In his lone start of the season, senior Kade Breisblatt gave up one earned run in six innings.

Last week, Kingsbury, Bilotti, Memmo and sophomore Dylan Antonini combined to allow three hits in three shutout victories, including a five-inning no-hitter from Memmo and Antonini against Pottstown on Friday.

“I am thrilled with our arms,” Phoenixville coach Geoff Thomas said. “Guys are dealing … and doing their jobs. Next man up to top the next. We look forward to the chance to play ball and do our job.”

Double Duty >> Hertzler and Kisela both fall into the category of pitchers who rake. Hertzler (1.91 ERA) has racked up 23 strikeouts in 11 innings to go along with two doubles. His teammate Trey Yesavage (1.65 ERA) has 25 strikeouts in 12.2 innings on the mound and a .450 average with a homer and two doubles at the plate.
Kisela (1.24 ERA), who has a double, two triples and a homer, has allowed two runs in 11.1 innings, tallying 17 strikeouts compared to two walks.

Frontier frenzy >> The PAC Frontier Division was a two-team race in 2019 with a matchup between Phoenixville and Pottsgrove deciding the division on the final day of the regular season.
Upper Perkiomen (3-1 Frontier, 3-3 PAC) thrust itself into the picture this season with a 1-0 win over the Phantoms (4-1 Frontier, 6-1 PAC) on April 14. Since then the Phantoms took down the Falcons, and the Falcons took down the Indians, giving three teams one loss.

Pope John Paul II (2-2 Frontier, 3-3 PAC) is a dangerous squad, nearly taking down the Falcons last week before Pottsgrove plated three runs in the bottom of the seventh for a walk-off win.
Phoenixville and Pottsgrove play for the second time this season on Monday with the winner getting a clear leg up on the division race, but as displayed already no team is safe.

“It’s going quick,” Spencer said the day before the Falcons’ win over PJP. “We need to basically just win our side, keep playing hard on the Frontier side definitely. Hopefully we can steal a few wins from the Liberty side. Basically just playing hard and pitching well against the Frontier will definitely help boost our confidence.”

Liberty Leaders >> Spring-Ford (5-0 Liberty, 6-1 PAC) is the lone undefeated team in division play. The Rams’ lone loss of the season came in a 5-2 crossover defeat to Phoenixville on April 16 and they’ve been dominant ever since.

Spring-Ford ten-run ruled Upper Perkiomen, Methacton and Owen J. Roberts last week, combining red hot bats with dominant pitching.

The Rams hold a two-game lead in the loss column over Perk Valley (3-2 Liberty, 5-2 PAC), Boyertown (3-2 Liberty, 5-2 PAC) and Owen J. Roberts (3-2 Liberty, 4-2 PAC).

Spring-Ford opened its season with a 4-1 win over PV and will get a rematch with the Vikings on Monday. The rivals will meet again on Thursday in a non-league meeting at FirstEnergy Stadium in Reading as part of a series of high school rivalry games being held at the home of the Reading Fightin’ Phils. Next Monday, the Rams play Boyertown, who they beat 3-2 on April, and could have a chance to wrap up the division or already have it in hand by then.

“Just keep winning,” Kisela said of the Rams’ mindset after the win against Upper Perk last week. “One game at a time, don’t take it too seriously and have fun.”

“I think we’ve been working so hard off the field that it’s hard not to have fun during the games. It comes natural to us. We’re working so hard. We want to compete and that’s how you have fun by winning.”

Title Chase >> Like the fall and winter sports, the PAC’s spring sports champions will be decided by regular season record. It’s possible the two top teams already played when Phoenixville knocked off Spring-Ford, 5-2, in a rematch of the 2019 championship game.

The Phantoms are the league’s reigning champs, breaking a 17-year title drought in 2019. Phoenixville is one of just two schools not named Spring-Ford (2011, 2015, 2017) or Boyertown (2012, 2013, 2016, 2018) to win the PAC championship since 2011.