Downingtown’s Zettlemoyer outduels Hohlfeld for 3rd place
Bears meet District 12 champ Olney in PIAA first round
Last Thursday afternoon’s District 1 Class AAAA third place game between Downingtown West and Boyertown developed into a tense pitching duel between the Whippets’ Joey Zettlemoyer and the Bears’ Pat Hohlfield. The pair went toe to toe in a very impressive battle of aces.
But, the Bears blinked first, and they paid for it. Two costly Boyertown errors in the bottom of the sixth inning led to a gamewinning RBI single from John Paul Bell and the Whippets went on to a 2-0 triumph.
Downingtown West (203) will enter state playoff action Monday against District 11 champion Easton at Lehigh University at 4:30 p.m.
Boyertown will open against District 12 champion Olney.
“Honestly I was just looking for something to drive up the middle,” Bell said. “And he gave me a fastball down the middle and I went straight up the middle with it. We had a lot of confidence with Joey on the mound that he would hold them until we could break through.”
Zettlemoyer allowed the Bears (17-5) eight hits on the day, but he stranded nine Boyertown runners and got tough when the Bears put men in scoring position. The senior consistently painted the outside corner of the plate and changed speeds effectively to keep the Bears off balance. Hohlfeld matched him pitch for pitch, however, allowing the potent Whippett attack just two hits in his five-plus innings of work, setting the Whippets down in order four times.
But in the sixth, the Bears came undone behind their pitcher.
J.J. Freeman led off the inning for West and hit a grounder to second base that was misplayed by Boyertown’s Seth Endy, putting Freeman on first with no outs. Robbie Note then lofted a fly ball to center for the first Downingtown West out. Drew Britt came up and hit a ball to the hole at shortstop, but the throw to second by Michael Raineri was dropped, and the Whippets were in business with men on first and second with one out.
The Boyertown miscues were not over, however. Ryan Giordani lofted a soft fly to right field that three Bears converged on, but could not catch. The Bears did force Britt at second on the play, but the Whippets had first and third with two out and the dangerous Bell striding to the plate. The Bucknell recruit ripped a Hohfeld fastball to center, scoring Freeman to give the Whippets a 1-0 lead.
“John Paul is our leader,” said Downingtown West coach Dave Oleszek. “He is our vocal leader and he backs it up on the field. He has come though for us all season and he is our star. That hit was the difference today.”
Nick Campana followed
with an RBI single of his own, scoring Giordani, and the Bears were in a 2-0 hole with just three outs left against Zettlemoyer.
The Bears had runners on in the first, second and third innings but Zettlemoyer escaped with no harm. The Whippet ace did not walk a batter and retired the first batter in every inning. The Bears stranded another runner in the fifth inning and in the top of the sixth it looked like Boyertown would finally plate a run.
With two out, Mitch Peers hit a grounder to shortstop that Giordani fielded, but his throw went past first base and Peers was awarded second base with two out. Endy followed with a infield single to put two runners on, but Zettlemoyer got Jordan Shustack to fly to short left to end the closest thing the Bears had to a real threat.
“I was hitting my spots and I knew it was a matter of time before our lineup broke through,” Zettlemoyer said. “I have so much confidence in these guys and I think we have a team that can compete with any in the state. Today was a tight game but we came through when we had to. It would have been nice to get those runs in the first inning but a win is a win.”
Boyertown also left a runner on in the seventh inning when Tyler Krietz laced a two-out single but Zettlemoyer struck out Ryan Jacobs to end things.
“We just left too many men on base all game,” Boyertown coach Todd Moyer said. “We had chances but could not get the big hit, and then we let them have some opportunities in the sixth inning, and their pitcher made real good pitches when we had men on base.”