Deven Sheerin-Exeter

Deven Sheerin called it the biggest start of his career. The 6’6, 230-pound right-hander delivered with Exeter’s season on the line. Sheerin struck out eleven and allowed one hit as #15 seed Exeter upset #2 Gov. Mifflin 4-1 in Shillington. “I feel like my fastball was jumping out of my hand,” he said. The (12-9) Eagles advanced to the District 3-5A quarterfinals. They’ll visit #10 Warwick on Monday. The Mustangs blew out Exeter 8-0 and 11-1 in the regular season, but the Berks County champs hadn’t faced Sheerin. The Mount St. Mary’s commit is (7-2) this year with a staggering 97 strikeouts in 44 innings. He’s given up just 15 hits. Gov. Mifflin sent UConn commit Tyler Minick to the mound on Friday. The 2022 Berks Player of the Year piled up ten punchouts and limited the Eagles to two hits in six frames. All four of Exeter’s runs came in the 3rd inning and three were unearned. Minick hit Jake Franek and Gavin Marr. Carter Redding followed with a sacrifice bunt that Minick threw over Xander Velez’s head at first base. It looked like Minick would get out of the jam by only permitting one run to score. However, freshman Joel Ummarino took a very close pitch that was called a ball instead of strike three. Ummarino walked on the next pitch to force in a run. Jake Hafer, another freshman, hit a sinking line drive to left field that knocked in two runs for a 4-0 advantage. Jon Radwanski made a terrific sliding attempt, but the umpires ruled that he trapped the ball. The (18-5) Mustangs got one run back in the bottom of the 3rd when Velez beat out an infield single with two outs. Sheerin hit Matt Koehler to leadoff the 7th inning. After getting one out, Sheerin had reached the limit of 105 pitches. Head coach Justin Freese turned to sophomore Gavin Miller. Following an error on a potential double play ball to second base, Miller struck out Bryce Wunderlich. Freese opted to intentionally walk Minick and load the bases. Promising sophomore Bryce Detwiler grounded out to Luke Giering at second to end the game. Sheerin gave credit to Miller for closing it out. “He’s a character. He competes. He’s got a lot of maturing to do, but the sky is the limit for him,” Sheerin remarked. Freese earned his 300th career victory over 28 years with the Eagles. Exeter went (18-8) a season ago and qualified for the state playoffs. They lost eleven seniors from that club. This year has been more challenging with a young roster. With a win on Monday, however, the Eagles will be headed back to the PIAA tournament. “I love all these guys. I tell them one more, get one more win and we keep playing together,” Sheerin said.