Pennsville baseball has lofty goals in 2025 but still looking for first win after falling to Gloucester Catholic
FRIDAY BASEBALL
Gloucester Catholic 7, Pennsville 3
Schalick at Delran, ppd.
Haddon Heights at Woodstown, ppd.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PENNSVILLE – For the Pennsville baseball team, the 2025 season was one of high promise and even higher expectations but it hasn’t exactly started in championship form.
It’s only been two games, but the Eagles are still looking for their first win after falling to Gloucester Catholic 7-3 Friday in a game moved from Brooklawn to the Pennsville’s JV field just to get it played.
It isn’t quite the start the Eagles (0-2) expected, but no one’s panicking. In fact, coach Matt Karr sounds a bit like Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson talking about the Braves’ 0-7 start. “You don’t double bogey the first hole and then give up on the round,” Olson opined.
After all, in the Eagles’ case, they have opened the season against two of South Jersey’s best teams in a schedule that is filled with tough games.
“It’s early April,” Karr said. “We preach in this program all the time that you could be 28-0 and you don’t get the job done in late May and early June it means absolutely nothing.
“We talk a lot to these guys about Pennsville baseball, the tradition that’s here and about the teams that have come before them. We set the bar high here that we want to win state championships, so being 0-2 means nothing to us. That’s why we talk a lot about process, the way we do things.
“The speech out in left field today was building. Today was a building day. I always say you have to stack good days on top of good days. We had a good practice yesterday. We came out, we competed today, we’ll stack that one on top and hopefully keep heading in the right direction.”
Against a Rams team many consider the state’s best, the Eagles held a 2-1 lead and after they fell behind had the tying run in the hole with one out in the seventh inning.
Pennsville third baseman Stevie Fatcher didn’t play many JV games on Friday’s field, but he has hit on it pretty well when the varsity plays there. His first at-bat on the open-ended field last year was a grand slam and he remembers hitting a long double there later in the year. He had two hits Friday, including a second-inning double that gave the Eagles their 2-1 lead.
“Cohen (Petrutz) laid down a bunt and moved everybody down,” Fatcher said. “Then Jeff (Wagner) got a run in and I had the guy at third base right there. My teammates were telling me how (GC starter Brody Gates) was throwing, I looked for something early, squared up and it one- or two-hopped the (left field) fence. I can’t do it without my teammates.”
The Rams retook the lead with four runs in the third inning and extended the lead with runs in the fourth and sixth. In the fourth, Braeden Lipoff doubled home the tying run, Henry Pancoast plated the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly and Jude Morgan doubled home two insurance runs.
Their run in the fifth scored on a bases-loaded wild pitch and they created the run in the sixth with Noah Danza’s bunt single, two stolen bases and a sacrifice fly.
“We opened on the road at Pitman and we were not happy with the way we played,” Karr said. “We talk to these guys a lot about the process and the way we do things, not so much the scoreboard and results, and we weren’t happy with the process at Pitman, the way we played. That whole day in general was not the way we wanted to start our season.
“We pride ourselves on playing a very competitive schedule. I told the guys out in the field today was a building day. We’re not happy with the outcome, but we’re building on the process. The process today, the way we did things, was much better. We were competitive with a team (media) says is the best our state has to offer. Not happy, but intrigued with how well we played.”
Logan Streith took the mound with bases loaded in the fourth, got the final out and finished the game. He gave up only one more run and three hits. The Rams loaded the bases against him with one out in the seventh, but he got out of that with a strikeout and flyout.
“I thought he did really good,” Karr said. “He’s a guy we’re trying to get into that starter role, see if he can stretch it out and lengthen some innings for us. Brought him in relief today and I thought he did a good job … I was really impressed with Logan. Hopefully it’s a sign of good things to come.”
The Eagles will continue the search for that elusive first win Monday against Woodstown.
“I kind of stay away from all the expectations and all that; we’ve just got to play our game,” Fatcher said. “If you watched the game against Pitman and then today we look like a whole different ball team out here, man.
“Before Pitman our practices we were just getting around, but we locked in and know what we want now. I’m not bothered by the 0-2. We’re going to start a win streak and it’s going to be long.”
The history is there. The last time the Eagles started 0-2 was 2021. They bounced back from that with a five-game winning streak and went on to play in the South Jersey Group I semifinals.
| Gloucester Catholic (4-0) | 104 101 0- | 7 | 5 | 0 |
| Pennsville (0-2) | 021 000 0- | 3 | 6 | 2 |
Tennis
PENNSVILLE 5, BRIDGETON 0
Gabe Schneider (P) def. Uriel Perez, 6-1, 6-0
Maddox Efelis (P) def. Jonathan Barragan, 6-2, 6-0
Brody Wiggins (P) def. Eliasar Velasquez, 6-0, 6-0
Lucas Cooksey-Sawyer Humphrey (P) def. Hernandez Enrique-Anselmo Taper Ramirez, 6-2, 6-1
Matthew Forino-Carter Willis (P) def. Jonathon Salas-Justin Salas, 6-1, 6-1
Records: Pennsville 3-0, Bridgeton 0-6.
Softball
DELSEA 12, SCHALICK 0: Morgan McLean went 4-for-4 and Iris Chapman scattered three singles while striking out to keep Delsea undefeated (3-0). Cloe Elliott, Annmarie Podehl and Olivia Vanacker had the Cougars’ hits.
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