Oley Valley baseball hangs on for victory against Kutztown

Apr. 18—With a commanding four-run lead heading into the seventh inning of a Berks Baseball League Division III-IV game on Wednesday night at Kutztown, getting the final three outs proved troublesome for Oley Valley.

The Cougars scored three runs on four hits and had the tying run on third base with two outs.

Senior Paul Petersen, pitching in relief for left-handed starter Tim Fries, got Kutztown senior Kole Schuler to hit a grounder back to the mound that secured a 5-4 win for the Lynx (3-1 Berks III, 5-4).

"They do step up when they have to; it's just that they do make it a little close sometimes for me," Oley Valley coach Jeff Pinder said. "We were a little sloppy today, and we made a lot of mistakes. Base running and defensive-wise, we made some miscues.

"We just have to clean up the mistakes so we don't have to make it that kind of a game."

Fries, a sophomore, earned the win for the Lynx, striking out 10 strikeouts. He gave up one run on seven hits and a walk.

Fries' lone walk of the night came with a runner on second base prior to the start of the Cougars' rally in the seventh. He was substituted out of the game due to a high pitch count, according to Pinder.

At the plate, Fries went 3-for-4 with an RBI single that capped off a three-run sixth inning that gave Oley Valley a 5-1 lead.

"I felt comfortable," Fries said. "I did my same game routine, got myself under control and felt good from the beginning. It started off a little rough, but after the first two innings I was locked in."

In addition to Fries' RBI, the Lynx scored on a passed ball and junior Luke Petersen hit an RBI single in the sixth. The win is Oley Valley's third in a row — the Lynx defeated Berks Catholic 7-1 on Saturday and Schuylkill Haven 8-5 on Tuesday.

"I felt like our offense was good," Fries said. "We've been picking it up this week. We've been hitting this whole week and I'm so proud of everyone. We started off rough, but now we're picking up the bats and everyone's doing so good."

Once Fries exited the game with one out in the seventh, Kutztown (4-1 Berks IV, 6-6) started elevating its offense.

With the bases loaded and two outs, junior Colin Diehl hit a run-scoring single before senior Colin Hamm hit a single to shallow right field that scored two.

The Cougars' first run of the game came on a fielding error in the fourth inning that scored Diehl from third and tied the game 1-1.

Kutztown finished the game with four errors and Oley Valley had two.

"We made too many mistakes early," Cougars coach Tim Mertz said. "There were too many pitch-catch mistakes that cost us the game. We lost 3-2 there (at Oley) as well and it was the same deal: couldn't field the ball, couldn't throw the ball, couldn't catch the ball.

"We have to clean up some of that stuff. In certain games, I don't feel like our confidence level is where it should be. Tonight, in this game, we battled, but in key spots we just didn't make the play we needed."

Junior Colten Mathias took the loss for Kutztown. He had one strikeout over six innings.

Paul Petersen got the Lynx on the board first in the top of the third when he hit an RBI single that scored Fries from third.

Oley Valley broke the 1-1 tie in the fifth when sophomore Gryffin Cappellano smacked a hard-hit fielder's choice grounder to the pitcher that allowed senior Bradley Auge to score from third.

Fries had three strikeouts and allowed just one hit in the bottom of the fifth, and also had three strikeouts in the sixth while allowing two hits.

He made strong work of his off-speed pitches throughout his start and retired several batters on tantalizing curveballs.

"I think I went to my curveball more than others," Fries said. "I was really feeling that today. I was trying to work on my changeup a little bit because earlier in the week it wasn't working. So I was trying to get that located and it started working for me at the end, but definitely my curveball (was strong)."

"He's a gamer," Pinder said. "He goes out and he just competes, and that's the best thing about him is that he'll compete against every single batter. And I know that's the effort I'm gonna get every time he goes to the mound.

"He's gonna work and work and work, but tonight was a little bit different. He was very sharp with his off speed pitches, which was very good."