Nattle, Mull rally No. 4 Phoenixville past top-seeded Owen J. Roberts in extra-innings thriller to reach PAC title game

BOYERTOWN >> The fourth-seeded Phoenixville Phantoms are at it again.

One year after a surprising run to a Pioneer Athletic Conference baseball championship as the fourth and final team in the postseason field, the No. 4 Phantoms once again reached into their late-game bag of tricks during Monday’s semifinal round against top-seeded Owen J. Roberts. Chris Mull’s bases-loaded, tiebreaking two-run single in the top of the eighth helped secure a 5-4 win for Phoenixville and starting pitcher Nico Nattle, who tossed seven brilliant innings against one of the PAC’s deepest lineups.

The Phantoms advanced to Wednesday night’s championship at Boyertown, where they will take on No. 3 Methacton in a rematch of last year’s title game at 7 p.m.

“The same thing happened last year,” said Nattle, who allowed one earned run and struck out seven across seven strong innings. “We were the fourth-seeded Phantoms and we still won it all, so that’s our mindset again.”

With the game tied at 3 heading into extra innings, Phoenixville got singles from Anthony Cervino and Kevin Kingsbury (4-for-5, triple, three runs scored). With two outs, OJR head coach Alex Condello opted to intentionally walk Giovanni Vito — who had tied the game an inning earlier, more on that shortly — to face Mull. The Phantoms right fielder, who was 0-for-2 with a couple of walks prior to that point, lined a 1-0 fastball from Wildcats reliever Dom Billetta into right-center to plate Cervino and Kingsbury.

Mull admitted afterward that OJR sidestepping Vito to get to him only served as more motivation to come through in the clutch.

Phoenixville right fielder Chris Mull reacts after recording the final out of the Phantoms’ 5-4 win over Owen J. Roberts during a PAC semifinal on May 13 at Boyertown. (Austin Hertzog – MediaNews Group)

“Oh yeah, no doubt, just a do-your-job motivation,” he said. “They wanted to face me, so the motivation’s unreal. You want to win the game for Nico. That was my mindset, and I knew if I had an opportunity to win the game that I would make the most of it.

“I was hunting fastball, got first pitch off-speed in the dirt and then I knew I was going to get it. Nico’s in the dugout yelling at me to stay loose, because I tend to tense up a little bit. Just trying to find a gap and not try to do too much. I got really hyped over there. I was really excited and just so glad to win a game.”

With Nattle having reached his 100-pitch limit, head coach Geoff Thomas called on Christian Cervino to close things out. Cervino induced a few heart palpitations in allowing a pair of hits and an RBI groundout, but he got Tyler Nau to fly out to Mull with a runner on third base to end it.

Cervino, who has had some shaky outings on the mound this season, drew on his experience from last year’s PAC championship game when he tossed six innings of relief in Phoenixville’s eventual 5-2, 12-inning win over Methacton.

“Christian came in and did his job like he was supposed to,” Nattle said. “Last year it was the same type of situation and he came in and saved our season. I had more trust in him than myself almost. He had some hard starts at the beginning of this year, and you could see it was clearly affecting his play. To see him come through and be that clutch kid like I know he is, it felt great. I love seeing my teammates succeed.”

After trailing for the first six innings, Phoenixville nearly won this one before the game reached extras. Nattle allowed unearned runs in both the first and second innings before putting up zeroes the next four frames. Though he gave up eight hits, they were all singles, and Nattle yielded very few hard-hit balls.

The right-hander, who threw a no-hitter earlier this season, missed seven games with an injury in 2024, a fact that sat in his mind as he battled against the PAC’s top seed.

Phoenixville starting pitcher Nico Nattle delivers to the plate against Owen J. Roberts during their PAC semifinal on May 13 at Boyertown. (Austin Hertzog – MediaNews Group)

“Missing those games hurt me more than anything, because I love these guys,” he said. “I got the game taken away from me, so I play every game like it’s my last. Going out there, doing my thing and what I’m supposed to be doing really helps me stay calm. Yeah, they scored two early, but they weren’t hitting the ball hard. A few bunts and errors, but they weren’t barreling anything. I was fully confident I could overpower them with fastballs and mix in a few sliders here and there.”

The Phantoms (12-7) got one back in the fifth, when Kingsbury crushed a one-out triple to right field and came home to score on a sacrifice fly by Sam Marsh.

In the seventh, Kingsbury led off with a single, was sacrificed to second and scored on a game-tying double by Vito. Phoenixville took a brief 3-2 lead on a two-out RBI single by Bobby Gray, but the Wildcats (15-5) refused to go quietly and scratched out a third run against Nattle in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI single by Adam Stahl.

Phoenixville’s Bobby Gray reacts after hitting an RBI single in the seventh inning against Owen J. Roberts during a PAC semifinal on May 13 at Boyertown. (Austin Hertzog – MediaNews Group)

Nattle struck out Shane O’Connor to send the game to extras, and instead of feeling demoralized that OJR had staunched the Phoenixville rally, Mull said the lineup couldn’t wait for another opportunity to come through in the clutch again.

“Kevin (Kingsbury) and I were out there in the outfield watching it happen, and coming back into the dugout we were both like ‘Let’s do it, let’s go win this game,’” Mull said. “The mindset wasn’t ‘Oh no, here we go again.’ It was, ‘Okay, we’re going to win this ballgame.’ We had no doubts. We just trusted everyone around us, because our whole lineup can hit.

“It was our game, and we weren’t going home empty-handed. We want another PAC championship, and we’re not letting a number one seed stop us. We’re not letting anyone stop us.”

Phoenixville’s Kevin Kingsbury singles in the seventh inning against Owen J. Roberts during a PAC semifinal on May 13 at Boyertown. He went 4-for-5 with three runs scored. (Austin Hertzog – MediaNews Group)

It was a tough pill to swallow for OJR, who didn’t have a hit leave the infield until the fifth inning yet still felt in control of the game thanks to a pitching staff that bent but never fully broke.

Tyler Brashear pitched the first 3.1 innings, yielding no runs in an effectively wild outing, walking three and hitting a batter while striking out two. Brashear gave way to Lucas Campbell, who induced a rare 5-2-3 double play to escape a bases-loaded jam and ultimately allowed a run on two hits in his two innings.

Dysen Neill was next up, surrendering three hits and two runs in 1.2 innings before Billetta came on to also allow three hits and two runs in an inning of work.

The Wildcats will learn what they can from this one, flush the rest and prepare for the District 1-6A tournament, where they will be a high seed (ranked fifth coming into today) capable of going on a deep run despite Monday’s disappointing loss.

“We’re in a good league, and that’s playoff baseball,” Condello said. “You’ve got to be ready for anything. Phoenixville’s a really good, well-coached team and their pitcher threw a hell of a game. They battled, put together really good at bats and showed a lot of fight. That’s how it is in the playoffs. We’ve got to learn from it, but these guys are still focused and know what they are capable of. We’ll see where it takes us in districts.”

Methacton got the best of Phoenixville during the regular season, a tight 3-2 decision on April 23. Phoenixville also lost to Owen J. Roberts in April, but it’s May now, and the fourth-seeded Phantoms have a different postseason agenda.

“Straight business,” Mull said. “Business is our word these playoffs. We’ve got to go out, do our jobs and win another PAC championship. No one wants to see the fourth-seeded Phantoms again.”