Push for the playoffs

Penns Grove baseball starts its run towards a playoff spot, Schalick’s Sparks collects 100th career hit, Pennsville’s Palverento spins second straight no-hitter and more

MONDAY BASEBALL
Penns Grove 13, LEAP 3
Pennsville 9, Salem 1
Cumberland 2, Schalick 0

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE – Everyone knows the surest way to jinx a no-hitter is to talk about a no-hitter while a no-hitter is going on.

Penns Grove freshman Dylan Hyatt was cruising along with a no-no two outs into the third inning Monday against LEAP Academy. No sooner had somebody around the dugout slipped and said something about the gem then – BOOM – it was gone.

Hyatt gave up a solid double to Dwayne Perez and coach Chuck Weigle went to get him, not for any punishment but to save him to pitch later in what is a big week for the Red Devils’ playoff hopes. Luckily, they had a big lead at the time and went on to win 13-3 in five innings.

Hyatt threw 49 pitches, setting him up to be able to pitch against LEAP again Wednesday at Rutgers Camden. He struck out five and didn’t walk any, but hit three. He faced three hitters in the first thanks to a pickoff, walked the leadoff man in the second and then struck out the  next three.

“I pulled him right after he gave up the hit to save his arm for the rest of the week,” Weigle said. “He’s got potential to be good., the potential’s there. He’s one of the better arms that I’ve seen as a freshman coming through this school in the past few years.”

It’s a big win for the Red Devils (3-12) to start a big week. They have eyes on a South Jersey Group I playoff spot and they’re currently No. 17 in power points – 11 behind cutline-riding Clayton – with three games to play before Saturday’s cutoff date: Group 3 Camden Eastside (2-6), LEAP (1-11) and Wildwood (10-8).

Their playoff push took a hit when they lost Friday’s game with Clayton to weather, but they have an opportunity to make a move this week. Clayton has three road games left before the cutoff at Wildwood, (10-8), Pennsville (13-7) and Glassboro (5-11).

Understandably, the Red Devils will be doing “a lot” (with emphasis) of scoreboard watching over the next four days.

They haven’t been in the playoffs since 2021.

“It would be awesome for these guys to make it,” Weigle said. “The last few seniors, get them another game in before they graduate, and for the handful of freshmen that we have, I think that’d be a great experience; get them in there, get them playing (and) impacting them wanting to come back and play.”

In addition to his pitching, Wyatt went 2-for-2 with two RBIs. Chase Wills, the projected starter in Thursday’s game with Wildwood, went 3-for-3 with four RBIs. Ethan Brooks had two doubles and two RBIs and Elijah Crespo had a triple and drew three walks.

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP 1 POWER POINTS
(Top 16 teams qualify for playoffs)
1. Audubon (15-7) 486, 2. Gloucester (16-6) 449, 3. Pitman (16-5) 421, 4. Pennsville (13-7) 409, 5. Woodstown (12-8) 382, 6. Schalick (10-9) 312, 7. Cape May Tech (10-9) 311, 8. Haddon Twp. (7-12) 3-7, 9. Buena (6-16) 289, 10. Wildwood (10-8) 265; 11. Gateway (8-12) 244, 12. Paulsboro (6-15) 240, 13. Maple Shade (7-11) 234, 14. Glassboro (5-11) 189, 15. Salem (4-12) 166, 16. Clayton (3-12) 147, 17. Penns Grove (3-12) 136, 18. Camden Academy Charter (8-3) 128, 19. LEAP (1-11) 51.

PENNSVILLE 9, SALEM 1: Peyton O’Brien went 3-for-3 with three RBIs and four Pennsville pitchers combined to hold the Rams to four hits. Starting pitcher Jacob Grant also had three hits for the Eagles, which Chase Burchfield, the fourth of the Pennsville pitchers, drove in a pair of runs.

Chase Davis had three hits for Salem and drove in the Rams’ only run.

The Eagles (13-7, 5-0) travel to Pitman (16-5, 6-1) Tuesday for a game that should decide the Tri-County Classic Division title. Pennsville won the earlier meeting 11-1.

CUMBERLAND 2, SCHALICK 0: The Colts pushed across runs in the first and fifth innings and two pitchers kept the Cougars off the scoreboard on four hits.

Josh Bondine drove home both of the Colts’ runs, the first with a bases-loaded walk and the second on a two-out single. Kameron Fiorani scored both runs.

The Cougars (10-9) threatened a couple times in the game, but couldn’t get the timely hit. J.T. Fleming opened the game with a double, but was stranded after two hard line-outs to short and a fly to left. They also had runners in scoring position in the third and seventh.

SOFTBALL
Atlantic Tech 6, Schalick 3
Cinnaminson 2, Woodstown 1
Glassboro at Penns Grove
Pennsville 19, Salem 0

PENNSVILLE 19, SALEM 0: Savannah Palverento homered and pitched a four-inning no-hitter, coming within a full-count walk with one out in the third inning of a perfect game. She threw 47 pitches, 30 for strikes.

It was Palverento’s second straight no-hitter, having blanked Wildwood over five innings in her last start. She has not allowed a hit in her last 9 1/3 innings.

“Savannah has done a great job working the last two games,” Eagles coach Beth Jackson said. “She had one at-bat get away from her tonight and walked the girl, otherwise she’d have had a perfect game. She’s been working hard to improve her pitching game; she just started a couple years ago.”

Her homer was an inside-the-parker that scored three runs in the Eagles’ nine-run second inning.

Avery Watson had two hits and three RBIs; Cara Hoyt drove in three runs; Reagan Wariwanchik and Bella Farina had two hits apiece and Kylie Harris has two hits and two RBIs.

CINNAMINSON 2, WOODSTOWN 1: Kayla Meenan raced home from third on an infield grounder with one out in the bottom of the tenth to decide the game. Meenan was placed at second base as the ghost runner, was sacrificed to third and came home on Delaney Kroll’s grounder to third.

The Wolverines (10-7) loaded the bases with none out in the top of the tenth, but couldn’t get them home as the Pirates framed two strikeouts around a force out at the plate.

Cinnaminson (16-7) scored an unearned run in the fourth inning and the Wolverines tied it in the sixth when Tulana Mingin came around on Ellie Wygand’s sacrifice.

ATLANTIC TECH 6, SCHALICK 3: The Cougars took an early lead with three runs in the third inning, but the Redhawks scored five over the last three innings to get the win.

Schalick senior Taylor Sparks picked up her 100th career hit in the game with a single in the fourth inning. She is now 100-for-218 for her four-year career (.459). Abby Willoughby, Ally Shrimp, Cloe Elliott, Rachael Irizarry and Lucianna Virga also had hits for the Cougars.

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP 1 POWER POINTS
(Top 16 qualify for playoffs)
1. Audubon (11-4) 406, 2. Buena (14-5) 389, 3. Pennsville (13-4) 367, 4. Haddon Twp. (13-6) 351, 5. Woodstown (10-7) 310, 6. Pitman (10-7) 287, 7. Maple Shade (10-5) 286, 8. Palmyra (8-8) 229, 9. Paulsboro (9-7) 223, 10. Cape May Tech (8-10) 192, 11. Glassboro (5-13) 189, 12. Clayton (5-11) 186, 13. Schalick (7-7) 167, 14. Gateway (4-10) 156, 15. Salem (4-12) 145, 16. Wildwood (2-11) 114, 17. Camden Academy Charter (6-4-1) 110, 18. LEAP (5-11) 72, 19. Penns Grove (0-8) 52.

GOLF

BRIDGEWATER TWP. — Schalick sophomore Jaxon Weber shot 92 at Raritan Valley Country Club in his first experience in the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions.

The South Jersey Group I medalist, playing as an individual, got off to a slow start, making 8 on his first hole (No. 5), but he came right back with a par. He parred five of his last seven holes on the back nine, including three in a row (14-16), and six of his last 10 overall.

SCHALICK GIRLS 230, OLMA 230: Schalick’s Hannah Widdifield was the medalist at White Oaks CC (51), with the only birdie in the round on the 400-yard par-5 third. The Cougars won the team playoff by two shots (Cali Fisler 61 and Sarah Pagnanelli 61 to a 61-63 for OLMA.

BOYS TENNIS
CINNAMINSON 3, SCHALICK 2
Evan Kozuch (C) def. George Gould, 6-3, 6-3
Drew Harvey (C) def. Jesus Espinoza, 7-5, 4-6, 10-7
Davi De Brito Melo (C) def. Conor O’Toole, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1)
Rocky Monticolo-David Santana (S) def. Nathan Costa-Colby Warwick, 6-2, 6-4
Kaden Barnes-Cayden Brzozowski (S) def. Michael Crandall-Daman McGee, 6-4, 3-6, 10-7
Records: Cinnaminson 9-4, Schalick 10-6.

WEST DEPTFORD 4, PENNSVILLE 1
Nate Bassett (WD) def. Gabe Schneider, 6-1, 6-3
Maddox Efelis (Pv) def. Carter Watson, 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 10-7
Andrew Eagle (WD) def. Brody Wiggins, 6-4, 6-3
Chase Struzynski-Aiden Bardon (WD) def. Noah Bohn-Noah Flitcraft, 6-2, 6-2
Carter Weber-Allen Eastlack (WD) def. Sawyer Humphrey-Luke Chamberlain, 6-2, 6-2
Records: Pennsville 14-3, West Deptford 14-3.

CLEARVIEW 5, WOODSTOWN 0
Andrew Crawford (C) def. Tim Schwienbacher, 6-2, 6-3
Nanda Guntupalli (C) def. Drew Stengel, 6-1, 6-1
Gabe Bruno (C) def. Erich Lipovsky, 6-0, 7-6 (7-1)
Travis Lyons-Joey Lindenbaum (C) def. Ben Stengel-Joseph Kurds, 6-3, 6-1
Tucker Chestnut-Jackson Dickler (C) def. Mason Shimp-Luke Shaw, 6-1, 6-1
Records: Woodstown 10-4, Clearview 13-3.