KUTZTOWN — If baseball was won by numbers, Pine Grove wouldn’t have been favored in Sunday’s Schuylkill-Berks Legion League Tournament game against Muhlenberg at Kutztown’s Breidegam Field.
Fortunately for the Grovers, baseball isn’t decided by how many players a team has in uniform, but instead by who’s in those uniforms.
Austin Fick pitched seven solid innings and Mark Weinus and Dilan Smith both doubled and scored runs in the sixth inning to lift Pine Grove to a 4-2 victory over the A’s, keeping the Grovers alive in the league tournament.
Pine Grove plays Oley/Topton, which beat Hamburg 8-1 Sunday, at 7 tonight at Breidegam Field for the right to play Muhlenberg again in the league championship Tuesday. Tonight’s winner also clinches a spot in the Region 2 Tournament, which begins next Saturday in Freemansburg.
After Saturday’s 7-6, nine-inning victory over Valley View, Pine Grove manager Frank D’Agostino III wasn’t certain he would have enough bodies to play Sunday’s game. Steve Zimmerman was ejected Saturday and subsequently suspended for Sunday. His suspension was repealed late Saturday night, but league officials said the league’s by-laws prohibit such an action and Zimmerman’s suspension was upheld.
Pine Grove’s Teener League team also had a playoff game scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Sunday, but it was moved to earlier in the day. The Grovers had 11 players on the lineup card Sunday. Muhlenberg had 18.
“We’re used to that, having 12-13 guys. That’s nothing new for us,” D’Agostino said. “We don’t worry about that too much unless we’re worrying about only having nine.”
Those available Sunday did just fine. Fick allowed only four hits and one earned run on Cody Fidler’s RBI single through the infield in the bottom of the third. Fick struck out five and walked four, but used great location and a hard-breaking curve to get out of some tight jams.
The A’s had runners on first and third in the fourth before Fick struck out Eli Klick to end the inning. Muhlenberg then got runners on second and third in the fifth, but Jared Balestrini popped up to short and Devin Keiper lined out to left to strand the runners.
“When you’re a pitcher, you have to learn how to (locate pitches) in those situations,” Fick said. “It came in key tonight in some pretty sticky situations and it got me out of jams.”
The Grovers trailed 1-0 until they scored two runs in the fourth to take a one-run lead. Muhlenberg starter Cameron Weidner issued walks to Logan Levan and Zach Boltz. Levan scored on Smith’s fielder’s choice and Boltz came in on a balk.
Weinus then led off the sixth with a double to deep left-center. He moved to third on a wild pitch before scoring on a double to the right-field corner by Smith, who hit the game-winner Saturday.
Weinus has strung together a few great games down the stretch for Pine Grove. He finished 2-for-4 Sunday, including a perfectly placed bunt single in the fourth.
“He’s been doing a good job. He’s a threat either way,” D’Agostino said of Weinus. “He has a little bit of pop and also has some speed and he can utilize both. He’s tough to defend when he’s hitting the ball hard.”
Muhlenberg and Pine Grove shared the Schuylkill-Berks Legion League crown last season after the Grovers beat the A’s to stay alive and played to a scoreless tie in the second game. That game was called after nine innings, as both teams secured spots in the Region 2 Tournament.
“They executed as they always do. They’re a well-coached baseball team. Frank does a great job,” Muhlenburg manager Phil Raccuglia said. “They’re playing for their lives to stay in this whole thing. We’re playing for a championship, I’ll take that every year. We’ll be here Tuesday. Whoever we play, we play.”
That will be decided tonight. The only other meeting between the Patriots and Grovers came June 5 in Pine Grove, a 4-0 Oley/Topton victory. That game was Pine Grove’s third of the season. Today, it will be Pine Grove’s third game in as many days.
“That’s what we want. No sense in taking a break,” D’Agostino said. “We’re going to jump right out and be ready to go against Oley.”
Game Summary
Schuylkill-Berks Legion League
Playoff Tournament
At Breidegam Field, Kutztown
PINE GROVE (4) — D’Agostino cf 4 0 1 0, L. Levan ss 3 1 0 0, Boltz 1b 2 1 0 0, Weinus lf 4 1 2 0, Smith 2b 4 1 2 2, T. Levan rf 2 0 0 0, Fick p 0 0 0 0, Wolfe dh 4 0 0 0, Soper c 3 0 1 0, Brown 3b 2 0 1 0. Totals 28 4 7 2.
MUHLENBERG (2) — Weidner p 0 0 0 0, Familia p 0 0 0 0, Miller p 0 0 0 0, Kline dh 4 0 0 0, Fidler ss 3 0 1 1, Kuczawa c 2 0 0 0, Balestrini ph 1 0 0 0, Keiper 3b 3 0 1 0, Wanner 1b 2 0 0 0, Feliz pr 0 1 0 0, Sheipe lf 2 0 1 1, Rozzi 2b 3 0 0 0, Klick rf 3 0 0 0, Galloway cf 2 1 1 0. Totals 25 2 4 2.
PG (15-7) 000 202 0 — 4
Muhl (16-4) 001 001 0 — 2
E — Pine Grove 2, Muhlenberg 1. LOB — Pine Grove 9, Muhlenberg 7. 2B — Weinus, Smith, Sheipe. SB — D’Agostino, Smith, T. Levan, Fidler 2, Galloway. S — T. Levan.
Pine Grove IP H R ER BB K
Fick W 7 4 2 1 4 5
Muhlenberg IP H R ER BB K
Weidner L 5 3 2 2 3 4
Familia .1 3 2 2 0 1
Miller 1.2 1 0 0 2 2
HBP — by Fick (Galloway). WP — Fick, Familia. PB — Soper 2. Balk — Weidner. T — 2:16.