Williams Valley's Cayden Witmer delivers a pitch (Photo by Eli Doyle).

MINERSVILLE — Cayden Witmer set the tone on the mound, and Williams Valley did just enough at the plate to finish the job and punch its postseason ticket.

Witmer struck out seven over 6.1 strong innings as Williams Valley defeated Minersville 4-2 in a Schuylkill League Division II baseball game Monday at Del Hauck Field, clinching a spot in the league playoff tournament.

“Honestly, he’s been our go-to guy throughout the season,” Williams Valley coach Steve Barner said of Witmer. “He got kind of tired out there toward the end, Mason Bowser came in and slammed the door. It’s nice to have a couple guys you can rely on throwing strikes.”

The Vikings broke through in the third inning, stringing together quality at-bats to plate three runs. Fletcher Thompson delivered an RBI single, and Witmer added a two-run single before being thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.

Williams Valley added another run in the fifth, with Thompson again involved as part of a steady offensive effort that produced six hits. Gavin Deiter added a sacrifice fly to give the Vikings a 4-0 lead through five innings.

Thompson finished with two runs and an RBI, while Cam Berger chipped in two hits from the bottom of the order, and Williams Valley continued to apply pressure throughout.

“We start seven freshman and sophomores, and two seniors,” Barner said. “We’re a young team. “I was talking to someone else when we started the season 8-1 and he kind of made a big deal of it. And I was like, we’re going to have some road bumps. We’re young and we went through a rough patch, and it was kind of a combination of. eight game in two weeks. And trying to piece out pitching and cover all the games and we kind of offensively stopped getting on base. We weren’t hitting the ball, walking, or just getting on base.”

On the mound, Witmer was in command from the start, keeping Minersville off balance with a mix of pitches and working efficiently through the lineup. He carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning before Jude Plesnarski broke it up with a single, one of the few clean hits the Miners were able to produce against him.

Mason Bowser came on to record the final two outs and secure the win.

Minersville pushed back late, scoring in both the sixth and seventh innings to tighten things up. Nolan Plesnarski led the way with two hits and an RBI, while Jayce Rizzardi also drove in a run. Defensively, Cam Rogers delivered one of the game’s top moments with a diving catch in left-center field that kept the deficit from growing.

Luke Toth took the loss for the Battlin’ Miners, allowing four runs (three earned) over five innings, while Jude Plesnarski provided solid relief to keep his team within striking distance. Despite the late push, Williams Valley’s early execution and Witmer’s steady outing proved to be the difference as the Vikings locked in their playoff berth.

“We qualified for district already and now qualify for leagues tonight,” Barner said. “We just have to keep winning and trying to up our seed in both, and that can only help us. They’re ready to go, they understand all that stuff.”

Game Summary

At Del Hauck Field

WILLIAMS VALLEY (4) — Hubler cf 3 1 0 0, Thompson c 4 2 1 1, Witmer p-rf 3 0 1 2, Rautzahn 2b 3 0 0 0, Deiter lf 4 0 1 1, Trawitz 1b 3 0 0 0, Green ss 3 0 1 0, Schaeffer dh 2 0 0 0, Bowser rf-p 2 0 0 0, Berger ss 2 1 2 0. Totals 27 4 6 4.

MINERSVILLE (2) — N. Plesnarski 2b 4 1 2 1, C. Rogers 3 0 1 0, Correll 1b 3 0 0 0, Sukeena ss 2 0 0 0, Rizzardi 3b 3 0 1 1, B. Rogers c 2 1 0 0, J. Plesnarski dh-p 2 0 1 0, Toth p 0 0 0 0, Halupa cr 0 0 1 0, Ryan rf 3 0 0 0, Cutler lf 2 0 0 0, Leshko ph 1 0 0 0. Totals 26 2 5 2.

E — Williams Valley 0, Minersville 1

LOB — Williams Valley 7, Minersville 5

2B — Berger

SB — Thompson

SF — Deiter

Williams Valley

Minersville

HBP — by Witmer (Sukeena). WP — Witmer. PB — B. Rogers. T — 1:43.