Emotional ending

Daily’s double delivery does in Woodstown; Lions win first sectional title in 50 years with seventh-inning rally

GROUP I SECTIONAL FINALS
Monday’s Games
North I: Pompton Lakes 5, Pequannock 0
North II: Dayton 4, Brearley 0
Central: Point Pleasant Beach 6, Shore 0
South: Gloucester 5, Woodstown 4
STATE SEMIFINALS
Wednesday’s Games
Pompton Lakes (24-4) at Dayton (17-11)
Point Pleasant Beach (24-4) at Gloucester (22-7)
STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
Saturday
at Veterans Park, Hamilton, 10 a.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

GLOUCESTER — Woodstown coach Marc DeCastro has been involved in a lot of games like Monday’s drama-filled South Jersey Group I baseball final. And all of them, he has observed, have come down to the same thing. The team that manages the momentum swings in the game best usually wins.

Much to the Wolverines’ dismay, it was Gloucester that handled the swing at the end.

Ayden Daily’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly on the second out of the bottom of the seventh brought home the winning run in an historic 5-4 Lions victory.

It was the Lions’ first sectional baseball title in 50 years. They dedicated the win and the season to Gage Myers, a 2023 senior teammate who was killed in a car accident in March. 

They now host Central champion Point Pleasant Beach (24-4) in the Group I state semifinals Wednesday.

Emotions rose and fell on both sides like the tides as the lead changed hands three times in the last inning and a half. Gloucester (22-7) went up 3-1 with two runs in the home sixth, Woodstown (18-10) took the lead and momentum back 4-3 in the top of the seventh and then the Lions won it in the bottom of the seventh.

“These games are never easy,” DeCastro said. “There’s always going to be swings and it’s how you handle the swings within the game (that make the difference). They just happened to get the last swing.

“I was really proud of the way we treated the seventh inning down two like we treated the sixth inning up one and like we treated every other inning we played and that’s why we were able to do what we did. It just happens they got the last one.”

The Lions’ winning rally started when Jack Knorr, the Wolverines’ fourth pitcher, hit leadoff man Kevin Hall with a pitch. The Wolverines looked to have Hall picked off, but he slid safely under the tag at second when everyone in the Woodstown dugout was convinced he was out. Seth McCormick then dropped a single into center to put runners at the corners. Knorr struck out the next batter, then intentionally walked Russell Medlar to load the bases.

Wall scored the tying run when Knorr threw a ball that hit the dirt that skipped to the backstop and got stuck in the windscreen. Knorr ended up walking Gavin Weiner to reload the bases and went to 2-0 on Daily to prompt a visit from DeCastro.

“When you have that situation and a walk wins the game and it’s 2-0 there’s just a lot of building momentum and I just wanted to crush it and start it brand new,” DeCastro said. “It didn’t really matter what I said, what it did was just slow everything down and now allow that building to go on.”

Daily fouled off the next pitch and then hit his sacrifice fly. The senior third baseman gave the Lions their 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth on a soft two-run single into right field.

“Those were two really good moments right there,” Daily said. “Nothing feels better than when you drive in the runs, especially to put them in the lead, and to walk it off felt even better. We did this for Gage.”

Wolverines’ outfielder Blake Bialecki never wanted to make a throw from the outfield more in his life than after he ran down Daily’s fly to center. He caught the ball going to his left, planted his feet and threw as hard as he could towards the plate. Pinch runner Mason Widman raced down the line from third and just got underneath Ty Coblentz as the Wolverines catcher tried to snare Bialecki’s throw just outside the third-base batter’s box. 

“That’s the most I’ve ever wanted to do something in my life,” Bialecki said. “I was thinking just throw it as hard as you can.”

The Wolverines took the lead with three in the top of the seventh. Their first three batters of the inning reached to load the bases. Brent Williams’ sacrifice fly to right drew them within 3-2 and then Andrew Pedrick put them up 4-2 with a two-run single past a drawn-in second baseman.

“That was probably one of the best hits of my career,” Pedrick said. “Getting a hit in that moment, it was special.”

And for a moment it had the Wolverines sitting on top of the world. But it wasn’t to be.

“We fought back really hard and just couldn’t pull it out,” Bialecki said. “It sucks (to lose like that), but it was a great season.”

NOTES: The Wolverines won nine of their last 10 games to reach the South Jersey Group I final for the third time in the last four years (they won the other two) … Woodstown starter Michael Valente started three of the Wolverines’ four playoff games and pitched in all four. He threw 4 1/3 total innings, giving up five hits, one earned run and striking out four … Knorr also pitched in all four playoff games. He went 7 1/3 innings with three hits, five earned runs, seven walks and nine strikeouts … Pedrick’s go-ahead single was the 105th hit of his career … Williams’ sacrifice fly in the sixth was his 101st career RBI. He finished with 112 career hits … Given the historical significance of the win, Gloucester coach Greg Galbraith said it was for “the amount of people in town who are still worried about high school sports who graduated in 1960, 1970, 1980 and so on who still care.” The last time the Lions won the state was 1971.

Cover photo: Jack Knorr comes across the plate with Woodstown’s go-ahead run in the top of the seventh inning of the South Jersey Group I championship game. Gloucester scored two in the bottom of the inning to break the Wolverines’ hearts.