Grand opening

Pennsville’s O’Brien spins five-inning no-hitter to open South Jersey Group I playoffs, Eagles run past Gateway 10-0; Wood returns to lineup

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I BASEBALL PLAYOFFS
Thursday’s results
No. 1 Audubon 14, No. 16 Camden Academy Charter 3
No. 8 Haddon Twp. 8, No. 9 Buena 1
No. 5 Woodstown 3, No. 12 Maple Shade 1
No. 4 Pennsville 10, No. 13 Gateway 0
No. 6 Schalick 3, No. 11 Paulsboro 1
No. 3 Pitman 13, No. 14 Glassboro 0
No. 7 Wildwood 2, No. 10 Cape May Tech 1
No. 2 Gloucester 16, No. 15 Penns Grove 3

Second Round (May 29)
Haddon Twp. at Audubon
Woodstown at Pennsville
Schalick at Pitman
Wildwood vs. Gloucester

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – Most pitchers after throwing a no-hitter in a big game are going to do something like say they’re going to Disney World. What does Pennsville’s Peyton O’Brien do when he throws a no-hitter in a playoff game? He loads up in the car with a bunch of teammates and heads down the highway to Woodstown.

O’Brien certainly was a king of the hill Thursday. He pitched a five-inning no-hitter as the Eagles blanked Gateway 10-0 in the opening round of the South Jersey Group I baseball playoffs.

The victory sets up a second-round meeting at home with county rival Woodstown. And that is the reason O’Brien was so anxious to head down the road after spinning his gem.

“The job’s not finished yet,” he said. “First round of the playoffs, of course that’s huge for us, but that’s nowhere near where we want to end.

“It was kind of last minute (to head down to Woodstown). Our game was at noon and we got done super early; we got done around 2. They started at 3 and we got on our baseball group chat and said let’s go. Everyone was on board with it so we went.”

It didn’t surprise Eagles coach Matt Karr, who said his player “eat, sleep and breathe baseball and know the magnitude” of the second-round matchup.

About seven or eight Eagles perched on the right field to watch the Wolverines take out Maple Shade, 3-1. Their second-round game is scheduled for Wednesday. Karr expects the atmosphere will be “electric.”

“They definitely knew (the Eagles were there),” O’Brien said. “A couple of the kids still had their Pennsville stuff on, but we were talking to them a little bit.”

O’Brien was on Thursday, hitting spots and touching velocity. He threw 81 pitches – 50 for strikes – struck out seven, walked four and allowed five base runners.

His defense came up big twice to help preserve the gem.

In the second inning, Tony Tacconelli hit a ball in the hole between first and second. Diving first baseman Cohen Petrutz got enough glove on it to deflect it to second baseman Logan Streitz and O’Brien got the out picking a low throw to his backhand side covering first. 

Then in the fifth, Ryan Seber lined out hard to centerfielder Luke Wood for the final out of the game. It was the hardest ball the Gators hit all game and only the second one that got out of the infield.

It was the first no-hitter O’Brien had thrown in high school and his first since a seven-inning travel ball no-no the fall of his sophomore year.

“It was awesome,” he said. “I didn’t throw as many strikes as I wanted – I had gotten into some deep counts and walked a couple batters – but it felt good in the first playoff game to go out there and throw well.

“I was so amped up for the game. The game was at 12 today, so I was just looking forward to it the whole day and to go out there and throw a no-hitter was just awesome.”

With the next game six days away and pitch counts reset, O’Brien is likely to start the game against Woodstown. But the Eagles have options.

Wood returned to the Eagles’ lineup after a lengthy battle with a lower back injury and his presence seemed to energize the team. Earlier in the week coach Matt Karr wasn’t certain if the versatile junior would be back at all, but he was there Thursday and batted three times.

He was hit with a pitch in his first plate appearance since April 28 and scored on Streitz’ two-run single that gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead. He struck out with bases loaded in the second and reached on an error and later scored in the fourth.

“He made his return today and it was absolutely awesome,” Karr said. “I didn’t really talk to the kids about it. I always write the lineup on the white board in our locker room and I was a little delayed doing that because I was just confirming he was going to play and when I wrote the lineup down and put him in the 2 slot the energy in the room just went to another level.

“That’s our leader. He’s our guy. When he’s with us, you feel like we’re the best version of us and the guys fed off that. The energy today was just unbelievable in the clubhouse and the dugout. Just having him back around us and on the field was a huge lift.”

The Eagles pounded out eight hits and took advantage of eight walks and three Gator errors. Streitz and Connor Stern both had two hits and three RBIs, and Chase Burchfield drove in a pair of runs.

“The energy was just different,” O’Brien said. “The last couple weeks for us have not been that good and we came out today and I just felt like we wanted to be there, we were excited to be there, everyone was just going crazy. No one was feeling bad for themselves today, everyone was up. We just really wanted to win.”