Grizzlies ‘get over the hump’ with state title
NEW HANOVER >> For a good portion of the past 40 years, the Bear-Cubs were considered the Boyertown community’s pre-eminent Junior American Legion baseball program.
Berks County League championships, state regional and state-championship tournaments were the standard forged by the BearCubs under the direction of such legendary coaches as Barry Trate, Bob Houck and Lee Mecherly. The Grizzlies, in the meantime, were perceived as the community’s “other” Junior Legion program — one representing the area’s Montgomery County portion — toiling away while the Bear-Cubs were racking up wins and championship memorabilia.
That status has changed in recent years, the Grizzlies taking their place among Pennsylvania’s Junior Legion powers. It reached a crest last month when they finished as the state’s 2019 champions in a sweeping post-season.
“We’re not also-rans any more,” manager Jeff Miller said Monday, while team coaches and players gathered at their home field for an informal get-together. “We’ve had a wave of success the last few years, getting to states in 2014 and 2015. But we didn’t get over the hump.”
The Grizzlies answered that shortfall this summer ... and in dominating fashion, too. They closed out with a 10-game win streak featuring victories in the Berwick Regional and the Pa. State Championship at Homer City.
Of particular note at the state level was Boyertown’s 5-0 sweep. It turned the championship round into a two-horse race with Uniontown by eliminating Northampton, 6-5, in the tournament’s second championship-qualifier game, then needed just the first game of the possible two-game title round to dispatch Uniontown ... a departure from other doubleelimination tourneys, where the eventual champion sets up sets up a three-team final insuring it will have to play just once on the last day.
“We said we weren’t going to do that,” Miller recalled. “In the regional, we won through the losers’ bracket. We wanted to stay up, and have somebody needing to beat us twice.”
Ironically, the pivotal game of the Grizzlies’ statelevel posteason was the one they didn’t win.
A 5-1 loss to North Parkland on July 20 punctuated their sweep of the TwinCounty League playoffs — they capped it with a 3-2 win over the Norchester Big Dawgz — and stemmed a six-win run, three of them at the end of the regular season. But Boyertown got back on track the next day, edging the Roslyn Bluehawks 2-1 with its winning run plated in the bottom of the seventh, and stayed on the rails the rest of the way.
That game exemplified a practice the Grizzlies worked to perfection down the stretch. They scored walk-off victories in six of their last 10 games, underscoring their 10-0 mark in one-run affairs.
“The kids are big into the team concept,” Miller said. “Any one of them could get an RBI or do the job in the field.”
“We practiced and worked hard,” Cole Kratz, a hitting (2-for-4, one RBI) and baserunning (two steals) star in the championship-qualifier win over Northampton, added. “The new players stayed loose ... they didn’t get down in close games. And our leadership showed them how to work.”
Another “character” game for Boyertown was a regular-season meeting with Spring City on June 12. Trailing by a 9-1 count through four innings, the Grizzlies worked back for a 10-9 victory fueled in large part by a six-run fifth.
“We were hoping to make them fight us to win,” Kratz recalled.
To be sure, the Grizzlies didn’t come into the 2019 campaign with an abundance of experienced talent. They had only a handful of returning players — Ethan Ferraro, Eric Keebler and David Wagner — meshing Cullen Nesbitt, Nathaniel Wilson and a crew of newcomers.
That demographic notwithstanding, the Grizzlies became a team that compiled a 30-5 record for the season (14-2 in the TwinCounty League). Boyertown went 3-0 in the TCL playoffs, again going the walk-off route in the July 15 title game by overtaking Norchester for a 3-2 extrainning victory.
“We focused on competing,” Miller said. “We had a talented group of players who played extremely well.”
The title game outcome — secured by Keebler’s single in the bottom of the ninth — fueled Miller’s feelings about his Grizzlies making the big finish.
“To me, that said ‘Maybe we can do it,’” he said. “They showed up, and it bled through.”
“After winning the league, and once we won the playoffs, we felt we had a chance to make it through regionals,” Ferraro, the winning pitcher in the state championship game, added. “After the first loss, the next win was a walkoff. That had us feeling we could do it.”
A key to Boyertown’s success lay in its pitching staff. With Miller’s two assistant coach/sons, Kyle and Keith, keeping track, the Grizzlies went into the final rounds of states with sufficient arms available.
Young was the winning pitcher in the team’s first game with Uniontown and Northampton. Kratz got the decision in the tourney opener against Plum Post 980, and Zach Rothermel got the win when the Grizzlies faced the Bear-Cubs in the winners’ bracket final ... one they took by a 3-1 verdict.
“That’s a testament to the way our assistants managed the pitch counts,” Miller said. “On the final day, we had almost everyone available.”
At the plate, Kratz provided a potent bat at the top of the order, compiling a .530 average. He hit a resounding .462 in the state tourney, headed by a 3-for-3 and two doubles in Boyertown’s game with the Bear-Cubs.
“At the beginning of the year, our hitting struggled,” Ferraro recalled. “By the end, we showed we could get hits and bunts down.”
The Grizzlies will have one more opportunity to be recognized for their 2019 state championship. They will be honored at to the Philadelphia Phillies’ Aug. 30 home game with the New York Mets as part of the club’s annual Champions Night festivities.
Already, they’re looking ahead to 2020 and the prospect of repeating as state champions. While Berwick will be the host team for states, Boyertown is hoping to be the site for one of the Pa. regional tourneys.
“Next year, we have the opportunity for eight guys coming back,” Miller said. “That’s a base to build on.”
And the enthusiasm for a repeat title is well-founded.
“At the closing ceremony,” Kratz noted, “Max Kneidinger (teammate) said to me, ‘Let’s do this again’.”