Salem CC opens its baseball season with a loss, but top of the lineup, three late hard-throwing relievers impress
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT — A lot of baseball players when they enter into a circumstance for the first time, whether it’s a new career, a new team, a new season, they’re secretly hoping to make a big splash with the first opportunity they get to impress.
It’s more a dream, but it’s magical when they pull it off.
Salem CC freshman Yen Rodriguez lived the dream Friday in the Mighty Oaks’ 7-5 season-opening loss to Ocean.
The highly prized signee from Vineland couldn’t have dreamed for a better start to his college career. The first chance he had to make a play in the outfield, he helped gun down a runner at the plate to end the top of the first inning. Then he led off the bottom of the first with an inside-the-park home run, a feat to open the season Oaks coach John Holt said he hadn’t experienced in 30 years in the game.
“It’s amazing, I don’t see a different way to start it off,” Rodriguez said. “I got a lot of love from my teammates. They trusted me when I went up to the plate. I did my job; they trusted me. Once I got that ball in right field, threw the guy out, they loved me and I love them, and that’s our job.”
Most of the time, the dream of hitting a homer in your first at bat entails driving a ball far over the fence. Think of what it meant to the Phillies’ Weston Wilson last year or any of the other 135 guys who homered in their first at bats in the big leagues. Only three were inside-the-park homers and probably none of those outside of Heinie Mueller – a Phillie in the late 1930s – led off their team’s season.
Rodriguez, whose high school career started with a walk, did hit three over-the-fence homers in the fall, but with the way the wind was blowing straight into the Carneys Point Rec field Friday, it was doubtful anyone was going to get one out of the park on this day.
A switch-hitter batting righty to open the season, he sent a ball into left centerfield that Eli Santiago got a late jump on. Centerfielder Tom DeMarco tried to bail out his leftfielder, but couldn’t get to the ball and when he finally did retrieve it, his throw to the plate was well up the line and Rodriguez easily ran under it.
“It was a half-swing and I see a fly out that’s probably 200 feet high,” he said. “I’m going to second hustling as hard as I can thinking that’s a fly out and as soon as the left centerfielder dove for it and didn’t get it, I was like I’ve got to hustle even faster to get to home plate.
“Hitting it out of the park is one thing, hitting it inside is way harder. As soon as I got to the field today my teammates were like ‘we trust you, you’re going to hit a home run first pitch.’ I was like ‘I don’t think I’ve got that power.’ As soon as I hit it, they all came up to me and said you hit it and I was like I appreciate that, guys; you trust me.”
He had a full head of steam coming into third and there was no way Holt stopping him.
“He busted it out of the box; that’s the only reason that happened,” Holt said. “If he doesn’t hustle, it’s a double. We preach going hard out of the box. He bought in.”
He ended up going 3-for-5 with a homer, double, three runs and two RBIs in his first college game.
The Oaks never led in the game, but threatened in the eighth and got Rodriguez to the plate with another chance to deliver. He came up with two outs and bases loaded, a triple short of the cycle, with the go-ahead run at first. There was every expectation in the dugout he was going to deliver again.
Even if Rodriguez only kept the line moving and didn’t clear the bases, Nick Ciesielka, who had three hits in his first three at-bats, was right behind him with similar expectations. Batting left-handed for the first time in the game against a right-handed reliever, the freshman struck out chasing a high 3-2 changeup to end the threat.
“He got me,” Rodriguez said. “All props to the guy. It was a great pitch.”
Later in the game, the last three pitchers Holt used in relief – Aiden Ewe, J.D. Wilson and Sean Kelby – impressed with their velocity and command.
Ewe, a sophomore right-hander from Pitman, threw 31 pitches in two innings with 26 of his 27 fastballs topping 90 mph and maxing out at 95. Wilson, a freshman right-hander from Pennsville, threw a 16-pitch eighth and hit 90 with 13 of his fastballs. Sean Kelby, a 6-foot-5 freshman lefty from Delaware coming off elbow surgery, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.
Ewe is a converted catcher learning how to pitch and as he continues to learn his role on the mound will expand. Wilson will be an end-of-game guy. Kelby figures to be a starter.
The Oaks and Vikings were scheduled to conclude their series with a doubleheader at Ocean CC Saturday – with Kelby starting Game One – but the games were postponed due to advancing weather. The next time the Oaks take the field will be Monday to open their 10-game trip to Myrtle Beach. Sophomore right-hander Ryan Silnik will draw the Monday night start against Cairn University JV.
Last year, they opened their season on the Myrtle Beach trip and went 4-5. They were 3-5 there the year before. There is no set target record for this year’s swing.
“We just want to come back better than we are right now,” Holt said. “Continue to compete, continue to work on things, continue to get those innings under our belt so when we come back we’re ready for conference play.”
OCEAN CC 7, SALEM CC 5
| Ocean (1-0) | 201 | 211 | 000 | 7 | 7 | 1 |
| Salem (0-1) | 101 | 010 | 200 | 5 | 10 | 3 |
Cover photo: Salem CC baseball coach John Holt explains the grounds rules at the Carneys Point Rec Field during the lineup card exchange before Friday’s season opener against Ocean CC
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