Mounts Win League Title

A year ago at about this time, Manheim Township was rolling over Ephrata in the Lancaster-Lebanon League championship game when Adrian Shelley, the Mounts’ coach, surveyed the mood in his dugout and was less than delighted.

“Things got a little noncompetitive,’’ Shelley recalled Monday night at Clipper Magazine Stadium, with a goal medal around his neck.

“I said to the dugout, ‘we got to remember this, because it looks like we’re ready to tuck our tails and jump on a bus and go home.’’’ It was 11-2, Township. Shelley gave the ball to then-junior pitcher Ben Burkey, who “went out there and showed some grit.’’

Shelley gave the ball to Burkey again Monday in the seventh inning of an L-L final that had everything and was as competitive as it gets.

With a little help from his friends, Burkey got the last three outs of a 4-3 victory over Lampeter-Strasburg for the league title, Ephrata’s seventh and its first since 2018.

The offenses were way ahead of the defenses early in this one. L-S (14-7) scored two in the first, thanks largely to a double blistered off the fence in right-center by Jason Long.

Ephrata also scored in the first, the tone set by leadoff man Coy Schwanger’s double to right.

Through three innings, Ephrata led 4-3. Long was 2-for-2 with a double, run and two RBIs. Schwanger was 2-for-2 with a double, an RBI and two runs. Again, that’s through three innings.

“We were having some difficulty with him,’’ Shelley said of Long. “He was hitting some good pitches.’’

File that observation away. After that, the game, and the pitchers, settled in. L-S’s Anthony Turek and Peyton Harsh allowed no more baserunners. Ephrata starter Camryn Simes, a freshman, also sharpened and got through the sixth inning, and the 102-pitch mark, with his team still ahead.

The seventh, before a big crowd on a gorgeous night in a real baseball stadium, was what the postseason is about.

The Pioneers’ Cayden See, the nine-hole hitter, led off the inning with a line drive to center that Ephrata center fielder Ryan Bromirski nearly caught, and then critically kept in front of him, holding See to a single.

Justin White bunted the runner to second. Burkey, relying on a two-seam sinker, then whiffed Harsh, a tough out. That brought to the plate … Long, who had hit the ball hard three straight times. With first base open.

Shelley looked at his coaches and said, “I’m going to put him on.’’

They shrugged and concurred. Long strolled to first, batless.

More sinkers from Burkey led to one more strikeout and a celebratory dogpile around the mound.

“It feels good,’’ said Schwanger, who tore an ACL playing football in the fall and came all the way back from surgery in a matter of months. “It feels good to end your career with something like this.’’

Burkey pointed out that halfway through this regular season, Ephrata (18-4) lost to L-S for the sixth straight time.

“We’ve had a lot of trouble with this team,’’ he said. “Now we have two in a row against them. I barely played a part in it, but it’s amazing.’’

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