Salem CC baseball make strides on multiple fronts in scoring first doubleheader sweep since February 2022
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT – The Salem Community College baseball team and two of its pitchers trying to find their way all took big steps forward Saturday afternoon.
Starting pitchers Sean Kelby and Aiden Ewe both pitched historically into the seventh inning of their games and behind them the Mighty Oaks scored their first doubleheader sweep since February 2022 in beating Bergen CC 12-3 and 4-2.
The Mighty Oaks had won two games in one day during their trip to Myrtle Beach in March, but their two wins over the Bulldogs was their first true twinbill takedown since sweeping Rockingham (N.C.) CC on Feb. 20, 2022. They have won three in a row.
“It’s a step forward,” Oaks coach John Holt said. “These guys are growing up as a team. We’ve got a lot of young guys here and they’re buying in. They’re buying into playing like a team. It’s a good time to start coming together.”
Kelby, a well-traveled freshman left-hander, pitched into the seventh inning for the first time in as near as he figures six years in the opener. His teammates rewarded him by batting around in the fifth and sixth innings to break open a close game.
Ewe, a hard-throwing sophomore right-hander and converted catcher, worked the longest outing of his career. He had a no-hitter with 10 of his 11 strikeouts over the first 4 2/3 innings. His longest outing previously was 4 1/3 innings in a no-decision at Lehigh Carbon CC on March 26.
“We needed those guys to step up and they did,” Holt said. “They both wanted the ball today. There’s something to be said when guys want to put the team on their back and they did. With what we’ve got this week, we needed to get length out of our guys and they gave us that length today.”
“I thought today was a big step for the team,” Kelby said.
Perhaps for no one in particular as much as him.
Kelby’s old enough to be finishing a college career much less start one. He went to Towson out of high school, then Delaware, fell out of baseball after tearing ligaments in his pitching elbow and foregoing Tommy John surgery, worked for a couple years, but missed the game and in 2022 had the operation before landing on Salem’s doorstep this winter.
Holt gave him a shot because he throws hard. He’s a 23-year-old with freshman eligibility, which means he could be a 27-year-old senior somewhere down the road, but that’s not his path. His plan is to hook on with an independent league team after this season to get his timeline back on track.
“I wanted to do a lot this year and as you’ve seen through the games there’s been a lot of stuff I have to acclimate to for the past 5-6 years of not playing,” he said. “Today was a big step. I was kind of learning how to pitch again while I was out there.
“That was a big thing when I was going earlier. I’d get so worked up for the game you go out too hard and by that second or third inning it’s wearing down on you.”
He hears the clock is ticking, but he’s determined to keep playing.
“I’m still young,” he said. “You see guys in the major leagues making their debuts at 29, 30, 31 years old. For me, if I’m making that progress as I’m seeing it, I know what I’m capable of.”
Kelby gave up a home run in the second inning, but that really was his only mistake as he and Bergen starter Luixander Polanco were locked in a pitcher’s duel for four innings.
Polanco’s first time through the Salem order was easy with a pickoff and double play allowing him to face the minimum through three innings. The second time wasn’t so kind. Demetrius DeRamus’ RBI single tied the game in the fourth, then the Mighty Oaks erupted for five in the fifth and six in the sixth.
Matt Murphy and Cole Dawson had two-run singles in the fifth inning. Yen Rodriguez highlighted the sixth when he hit a bases-loaded triple to right field and scored when the relay throw to get him at third got away. DeRemus and Murphy both had two hits in the game.
Kelby gave up just three more hits after the homer through the sixth and while he wasn’t overpowering every time the Bulldogs tried to put something together he grinded through to turn them away. He wanted to go the distance, but came out after loading the bases in the seventh.
“I felt better (as the game went on),” he said. “I don’t know if it’s jitters or just getting comfortable, but usually that third or fourth inning I start feeling loose with the arm. At that point today it was like let’s go all the way here.”
Ewe, meanwhile, came to the Oaks as a catcher. He grew up catching, loved the position and that’s all he wanted to do. Then one day last year he starting throwing off the mound and was hitting “some pretty high numbers” on the radar gun, so he figured he’d give pitching a shot. Once he did, he said, “it just started to take off.”
Holt put him in three games last year, but never for more than an inning.
He always threw it hard, but his command was lacking. He had 37 walks in 19 innings coming into Saturday’s game. He changed his approach against the Bulldogs – he didn’t rely on the fastball, he gave up the hitch in his windup and he stopped looking at the radar gun – and had only three walks in six innings. He struck out the side in order in the first.
“Today he pitched,” Holt said.
“I made a few adjustments,” Ewe said. “I realized I was kind of all over the place just throwing it rather than being a pitcher. I usually go up on my toe, but I got rid of it today. I figure why not try something new. I feel like I need to be more accurate and it turned out definitely a lot more accurate.
“I’m fired up. I’m locked in now. I feel like that’s all I needed to do was make a little adjustment and it’s go time now.”
Ewe needed to be sharp because the second game was close throughout, but the Mighty Oaks used the long ball to prevail.
Rodriguez hit a leadoff homer in the first and it stayed 1-0 until DeRamus’ two-run homer in the fifth. Bergen made it 3-1 in the sixth, but the Mighty Oaks got the run back in the bottom of the inning on back-to-back doubles by Lee Rodriguez and Dane Thomas.
Salem travels to Bergen Monday to complete the series. Woodstown’s Ben Foote is expected to draw the start.
Riverview Sports News 