Salem CC baseball continues late-season roll, sweeps doubleheader, series from Camden CC; softball swept for second straight day
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT – Fueled by two strong complete games from its pitchers, the Salem Community College baseball team dumped Camden CC 10-2 and 12-4 Saturday to sweep its third consecutive doubleheader and the three-game weekend series with the Cougars.
Freshman lefthander Sean Kelby allowed four hits and tied his career high with nine strikeouts in the first game. After giving up a walk to load the bases in the third inning, he retired 12 in a row and 14 of the last 15 batters he faced.
Sophomore righthander Aiden Ewe took a one-hitter into the seventh inning of the nightcap before running out of gas, but the converted catcher still finished with a five-hitter and six strikeouts in his first career complete game.
“They’re starting to hit their strides,” Mighty Oaks coach John Holt said of the two pitchers. “They both have worked very hard to get where they are. They’ve gradually gotten better and better throughout the year and today they get two complete games and get length out of them. That was huge for us with the schedule we have coming up.”
The sweep extended the Mighty Oaks’ winning streak to a season-best six games. It’s their longest streak since a six-gamer April 30-May 8, 2021. They have won nine of their last 10 to pull within three games of .500 (17-20). It’s the closest they’ve been to .500 since March 24 (7-10).
“It’s nice anytime to get a sweep,” Holt said, “but where we are with our schedule and where we are with what we’re trying to do, we’ve got to worry about one game at a time. We can’t worry about sweeping series.
“Our approach is let’s win inning by inning because when we get too big it can become a little bit too much. If we were worried about just winning today, let alone trying to make up a 10-game under .500 thing that’s overwhelming. But if you’re just worried winning today then it kind of seems a little bit more doable.”
To qualify for the playoffs a team must finish .500 or better either overall or within the region. With 12 games left, the Mighty Oaks must go 8-4 to make it and the last three games are against current JUCO D-III No. 3 RCSJ-Gloucester.
“I feel good about where we are as a team,” Holt said. “In the approach we have adopted with it, win or lose, we’re just trying to get better every game and we’re trying to learn even from the losses.
“The carrot’s there, it’s attainable, but at the end of the day we can’t get too big. We’ve got to stay with the focus and the approach that we have.”
With a tight margin for error, the pitchers feel additional responsibility to be sharp each time they go to the mound.
“As the season is starting to go on and we’re winning games I feel like we’re getting more pumped up and I feel like we have to give it our all,” Ewe said. “We have to give more than what we’re doing.”
“When we’re pitching good everything follows – the hitting, the fielding – and I feel like we’re really in a groove and feeding off each other right now,” Kelby said. “It definitely was a different approach than when I was out here in the beginning of March. There is a responsibility. We needed that sense of urgency.”
The Mighty Oaks rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to win Game One. They tied the game with Angel Velez’ RBI single in the third and took the lead in the fourth on Nick Ciesielka’s RBI triple and Demetrius DeRamus’ second sacrifice fly of the game.
They broke it open with six runs in the fifth, highlighted by Cole Dawson’s two-run double and Velez’ two-run single. Velez was 3-for-4 with three RBIs in the game and had five hits in the doubleheader.
Ciesielka, Matt Murphy and Dane Thomas all had a pair of hits in the game.
The Mighty Oaks took control of the nightcap with six runs in the second inning. Yen Rodriguez had a two-run single in the inning, while the other runs scored on a series of errors and DeRamus’ third sacrifice fly of the twinbill.
They added four in the in the fifth and two in the sixth on a two-run double by Thomas.
Thomas, Velez and Murphy all had two hits in the game.
With Ewe throwing what he agreed was his best six innings of the year – and he allowed two hits and fanned 12 in six innings against Bergen last Saturday – the lead looked even more formidable.
His defense helped preserve the gem with several web gems. The Oaks turned a double play in the first inning and in the sixth second baseman Dawson knocked down a chopper headed for the outfield and got the out at first and then Murphy laid out after a long run in left to flag down the last out of the inning.
Salem softball swept
SCRANTON, Pa. – The Salem CC softball team ran into another team headed to the Region XIX playoffs Saturday and met the same fate as the day before, this time getting swept at Lackawanna College 10-8 and 8-2.
The Mighty Oaks (24-10) led twice in the opener, but couldn’t overcome a five-run fourth inning. They put together a three-run rally in the sixth on Courtney Hoggard’s two-run double and Vaye Savage’s RBI single to get within 10-8. They had the go-ahead run at the plate with two outs in the seventh, but couldn’t bring it around.
Hoggard had two doubles among her three hits and drove in three runs. Ella Hayes had three hits and Savage had two hits and two RBIs.
Hoggard gave the Oaks a 2-0 lead in the second game with a two-run double in the third, but once again Lackawanna put together a big inning, scoring seven in the fourth, to take control. The Falcons sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning and took advantage of four Salem errors.
Salem coach Angel Rodriguez praised his team’s defense in its doubleheader sweep by Delaware Tech on Friday, but the Mighty Oaks were charged with seven errors in the nightcap and 12 in the twinbill. Only six Lackawanna’s runs in the doubleheader were earned, none in the second game.
Haylee Pickrell was the only Salem player with multiple hits in the nightcap. She was 2-for-3.
They’ll look to get back on the winning track Sunday in a home doubleheader with Ocean starting at noon.
Riverview Sports News 