Oley Valley Wins Western Berks Junior League Championship
The Oley Valley Youth League Western Berks baseball team capped a very successful season with a thrilling 9-3 victory over Morgantown in the league championship game. Oley finished the regular season with a record of 11-2 to win their division and was the second overall seed for the playoffs. They beat Elverson 13-2 and Spring 4-2 in the first two rounds to advance to the Championship game against previously unbeaten Morgantown.
Leading 1-0, Oley saw its lead evaporate after a 3 run outburst by Morgantown in the 4th. Oley responded and plated 6 runs in the top of the 5th to regain the lead on clutch hitting by Marco Pangarzzi and Casey Miller. Steven Koenig shut down the strong bats of Morgantown the rest of the way to get the win in relief behind strong defense of Tim Shores, Zach Eddinger, Blake Willman and Brett Koperna, who threw out 3 base runners attempting to steal.
“The core of this team has played together for three years now and has been very successful winning 4 local tournament championships, a Youth League Championship last year and now a Western Berks Junior League Championship”, commented Head Coach Tim Shores. He also credits the fact that as an organization the Youth League headed by baseball commissioner Karen Campbell, is on the same page in terms of coaching philosophy, “Between myself, Ron Eddinger and Gary Koenig, these players have had the same coaches since they have been 7 years old and playing T-Ball and we all have stressed the same fundamentals and coaching philosophy. These boys play the game right and are a pleasure to coach.“
Western Berks Junior League is comprised of 11 teams from Berks County ages 13-15 and is run by league commissioner John Smith.
The Oley Valley team is comprised of:
Players - William Adams, Collin Davidson, Zachary Eddinger, Jacob Edwards, Jeffery Hart, Matthew Hopple, Logan Kauffman, Steven Koenig, Brett Koperna, Scott McManus, Casey Miller, Marco Pangrazi, Timothy Shores, Damon Steinmetz, Blake Willman
Coaches – Tim Shores, Gary Koenig, Ron Eddinger, Barry Willman, Brian Hart, Karen Campbell
The names are as follows:
First row (L to R): Colin Davidson, Zach Eddinger, Tim Shores, Damon Steinmetz, Jeff Hart, Bret Koperna
Second row (L to R): Marco Pangrazi, Logan Kauffman, Casey Miller, Jacob Edwards, Blake Willman
Back row (L to R): Barry Willman (coach), Wil Adams, Brian Hart (coach), Matt Hopple, Tim Shores )head coach), Steven Koenig, Gary Koenig (coach)
Not in picture: Ron Eddinger (coach), Karen Campbell (coach), Scott McManus
