Hohlfeld, Boyertown advance to PIAA Class AAAA semifinals
POTTSVILLE >> Todd Moyer had one thing he was seeking from his Boyertown squad this spring.
“Coach said at the beginning of the year he needed 12 guys who wanted to be out there,” Pat Hohlfeld said following the Bears’ PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinal game with Wyoming Valley West.
Moyer got what he was looking for over the next three months. And as a result, Boyertown stands one game away from playing for a state championship.
Masterful pitching by Hohlfeld, coupled with timely hitting by the offense, fueled the Bears’ 4-2 victory over the District 2 champion Spartans Thursday. The District 1 fourth seed will now play Cumberland Valley, District 3’s third seed, Monday at a site and time to be determined.
“We’ve played a lot of close games this year,” Moyer noted, “and we did things early that panned out as championship baseball.”
Boyertown faced a Wyoming Valley West program that had been a state-level power for a decade. The Spartans (15-3) played in the AAAA title game last year — they lost to North Penn in extra innings, 4-3 — and had been in the state-level playoffs six of the past 10 years … that in addition to winning the District 2 crown seven times in that span.
Hohlfeld ends it with a K! Boyertown is on to PIAA AAAA semifinals with 4-2 win over Wyoming Valley West pic.twitter.com/SsYaWrr7kT
— Austin Hertzog (@AustinHertzog) June 10, 2016
But the Bears dealt with them the way they’ve faced opponents all season long.
“We go one out at a time,” Moyer said. “We tried to focus on what we do, make them earn their at-bats. And he (Hohlfeld) did that.”
Boyertown’s junior righty did that in a big way, too. Facing a lineup that boasted six players hitting .300 or better, Hohlfeld held Wyoming Valley to three hits and issued just one walk while striking out five.
Tyler Yankosky was the primary thorn in Boyertown’s side, hitting a pair of doubles that drove in the Spartans’ runs in the fourth and sixth inning. By that time, however, Boyertown had built a 4-0 lead that proved enough to advance it to the state semifinal round.
“They can hit,” Hohlfeld noted. “Before practice Wednesday, we’d heard their 3-4-5-6 hitters were batting over .300. That’s the meat of their lineup.
“I just tried to locate my pitches.”
The Bears were able to put the Spartans down in order in three of their first five at-bats. They came close to doing that in the seventh, a baserunner reaching on an error, the lone one thwarting the plan.
But Hohlfeld came into the frame with a renewed sense of purpose. He fanned WVW’s David McCue and Justin Montalvo in the process to close out the Spartans’ season.
“He’s done that for us,” Moyer recalled. “Even with the errors, he stayed focused and controlled the damage.”
Boyertown got on the board with two out in the second inning, courtesy of a Ryan Weller home run. Weller drove a 1-0 pitch from Wyoming starter Grant Powell over the left-center field fence.
“That was a good momentum builder, a big hit like that,” Hohlfeld said.
“It was nice to see Ryan get us started,” Moyer added. “He’s been hurt and struggling, but he got a big one there.”
The Bears added two more in the top of the third … again with two out. Mitch Pinder (2-for-3) bunted his way on base, then came around off Ben Longacre’s double. Mitch Peers then singled up the middle to plate Longacre.
Boyertown went on to load the bases in the frame, Cory Melchior singling and Weller drawing a walk.
In the fourth, the Bears padded their lead with Michael Raineri (single) coming around off Pinder’s sacrifice bunt, a stolen base and Tyler Kreitz’s sacrifice fly to left.
“It was pretty cool, the way we kept rolling,” Hohlfeld said. “Everybody did good.”
NOTES >> Ryan Hogan scored both the Spartans’ runs … the first after doubling, the second after reaching base on an error. … Hohlfeld had Montalvo’s number in a big way, fanning the Wyoming Valley leadoff batter four times. … The game, starting an hour later than the announced 5:30 p.m. time, was completed in a breezy 1:37.
