Feel good win

Salem CC bounces back from a tough loss the day before in a big way, erupting for 20 runs, 17 hits

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – The thing about baseball is it’s such an everyday game it gives you a chance to jump back on the horse after he bucks you off hard.

After losing in the most painful way possible the day before, the Salem CC baseball team enjoyed its most prolific outing of the season Tuesday, bouncing back in a big way to crush undermanned Luzerne County CC, 20-2.

The Mighty Oaks (12-20) scored 20 runs for the second time this season, but this time they did it with a season-high 17 hits. They had a 10-run inning. Twelve of their 14 batters had at least one hit and all 14 reached base at least once. When Lee Rodriguez ripped an RBI double in the sixth, it guaranteed every spot in the lineup having at least one hit, one run and one RBI.

Demetrius DeRamus had two extra-base hits and his leadoff home run touched off the 10-run third. Matt Murphy went 3-for-3 and had two hits in the big inning. Jared Vandersteur had two hits and three RBIs. Cole Dawson went 2-for-2 and Mike Ochmanski had two RBIs.

“It’s a feel good win,” leftfielder Murphy said. “Everyone did their jobs today. J-Mac (John McAllister) pitched a hell of a game. Will (Jones) came in and pitched his butt off. When you have guys coming in throwing strikes, getting outs, it’s kind of easy to just put bats to ball. When you get a lead like that everything’s smiling for everyone and everything’s good.”

Most of the time. The Mighty Oaks had a seemingly comfortable lead like that the day before, but couldn’t hold it. Bergen CC scored 11 runs over the final three innings and scored five in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Oaks 14-13. That’s what made bouncing back against the winless Trailblazers such a big deal.

“It hurt, without a doubt, it stung a little bit, but there are lessons to be learned from it,” Oaks coach John Holt said. “That’s what I try to enforce with these guys, that at the end of the day every loss is an opportunity to learn something from it. 

“We’ve made that mistake a few times, kind of sitting back on our heels once we got a big lead and we’ve gotta stop that. We’ve got to attack. We’ve got to stay in the game. We’ve got to have a bulldog mentality the rest of the way.”

Both pitchers the Mighty Oaks used in the seven-inning game had strong showings.

Sophomore McAllister retired nine of the first 10 Trailblazers he faced and took a no-hitter into the fourth inning. He gave up just two hits, two runs and struck out eight in five innings. 

The two runs he allowed came to open the fourth inning after watching the 10-run third. He tried to stay warm down in the bullpen as the inning extended. When he went back out, he gave up a slicing leadoff single to Brandon Smith and a triple into the rightfield corner by Bruce Leatherman, but he retired the next three batters with only the one other run scoring.

“Everything was all good,” McAllister said. “The day really went planned how I wanted to. I showed up early and then came out for my guys. It’s kind of like a confidence boost for me because most of the time it’s a struggle for me to find the zone and I just wanted to fill the zone up, keep the strike percentage up and give my guys a good chance.”

Jones followed McAllister and pitched the final two innings. The freshman from Wilmington gave up back-to-back one-out singles in the sixth and got all six of his outs via strikeout. He has yet to give up an earned run in four career appearances (five innings).

“It felt good,” Jones said. “Actually, I was a little sick this morning, got sick a couple times, but Coach Holt told me yesterday I was going to throw and I don’t get very many opportunities to throw so I knew I had to come out here and just give it my all.”

The Oaks got it started early scoring three runs in the first highlighted by an RBI double by DeRamus and an RBI single by Murphy.

They sent 15 batters to the plate in the third inning. The first eight all reached safely and scored. Besides DeRamus’ leadoff homer, the Oaks got a two-run single by Ochmanski, an RBI single by Dawson, an RBI double by Yen Rodriguez, sacrifice flies by Nick Ciesielka and Ben Charbonneau and a two-run single by Vandersteur.

The Trailblazers (0-7), who had only nine players available, spoiled the shutout with two runs in the fourth. The Oaks got the runs back in the fifth on Vandersteur’s RBI double and run-scoring single by Joe Fekete, then rounded out with scoring with five in the sixth.

It was the Oaks’ fourth win in their last five games as they look to make a late-season run for the playoffs. It also the fourth time in the last five games they scored 10 runs or more.

“A lot of people were frustrated with yesterday,” Murphy said. “Coach told us before the game if you’re frustrated take your frustration out on the other team and just focus on one day at a time and that’s what we did. That’s what we’re trying to do for the rest of the season trying to make the playoffs, focus on just one game at a time, one pitch at a time.”