Ephrata Seems Built to Last

Consistently successful high school sports teams raise this question: Is this cyclical, or something more?

In the case of Ephrata’s baseball team, all evidence points to something more.

The Mounts won their 10th Lancaster-Lebanon League section title of the 21st century last month, sealing it with a 10-run-rule romp over Solanco.

It was Ephrata’s sixth section title since 2010.

Now, the Mounts are a win away from a sixth L-L league tournament title, as they are slated to face Lampeter-Strasburg tonight.

In addition to the six section titles, since 2010 they’ve won the league twice, and the District Three Class 4A title once, in 2016.

“It’s about having a very strong infrastructure,’’ coach Adrian Shelley, in his 21st season, said last month. “We go all the way down to T-ball.’’

The structure — The Program — is indeed a lot of the Ephrata story. But the 2018 Mounts stand out even from the prevailing standards. They’re 19-3, and have avenged two of the three losses. They haven’t lost since April 18. They’ve outscored their opponents 148-54.

They’ve been about as good at the plate and in the field as on the mound. But the biggest reason to believe they could play deep into June in as simple as the old baseball adage that momentum is tomorrow’s starting pitcher.

The Mounts have four of them. Most high school teams are lucky to have two.

The foursome — seniors Adam Schwartz and Nate Young, and juniors Zac McGillan and Hunter Johns — has started all of Ephrata’s games.

Prior to Tuesday’s L-L semifinal against Warwick, their numbers looked like this:

— McGillan is 4-1 with a 1.73 ERA, 44 strikeouts and nine walks in 36 innings.

— Young is 5-0 with a 1.9, 62 strikeouts and 15 walks in 29 innings. (Yes, those strikeout numbers are correct.)

— Johns is 5-1 with a 2.51 ERA.

— Schwartz is 3-1 with a 3.03 ERA.

Schwartz, who will play college baseball at Connecticut, is something like an L-L version of the Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani. Of the 12 runs he’s surrendered this season, six came in two rocky innings in a loss to Elizabethtown on April 5. He also has two saves in two tries, and is hitting .396 with a Ruthian 1.277 OPS.

Young was getting small-college recruiting looks until he hit 88 miles per hour on the radar gun last month and racked up a few double-figure strikeout games.

Pitt, George Mason and UMBC have since been in touch.

As you’d expect, the four aces nurture and push each other.

“It takes some of the pressure off,’’ Young said. “It makes us all want to do better than the others. But you also get to rest your arm once in a while.’’

“You do try to beat the last guy’s performance,’’ added Schwartz, whose fastball has hit 91 on the gun. “It seems like we’ve all been getting better because of it.’’

The Program nudges all of them, and, as Shelley said, it goes all the way down to T-ball.

“There are a lot of quality coaches, a lot of them volunteers, who deserve credit for this,’’ Shelley said.

The Ephrata Baseball Association fields teams for ages 5 to 19, including “travel ball,’’ Little League and the Lanco Midget League. In an era when ever-fewer school districts even field American Legion teams, Ephrata’s legion club, coached by Derek Sipe, won league, state and region championships last summer, and played in the national legion tournament.

“(Sipe) is a great coach, and he runs a great program,’’ said Schwartz.

The Mounts play in a stadium, venerable War Memorial Field, with lights and artificial turf. They have a media guide, in which each player chooses a “character skill’’ — empathetic, humble, relentless, etc. — to include in his bio.

There’s even a character skills coach on Shelley’s staff.

This season could end fast, of course. It’s baseball.

But, even if it does, Ephrata looks like a program built to last.

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