Woodstown stands up to adversity, Gloucester City for much needed win; includes all of Thursday’s reported Salem County action
SALEM COUNTY BASEBALL
Woodstown 4, Gloucester 2
Pennsville 26, Clayton 0
Pitman 11, Salem 0
Schalick 3, Overbrook 2
Glassboro 16, Penns Grove 2
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
GLOUCESTER – Whether it was a team they had beaten every time they played before or one that had taken them down in walk-off fashion in last year’s playoffs, it didn’t really matter. The Woodstown baseball team was in need of a feel-good win and got it Thursday night.
The Wolverines were skunked by the two best pitchers in Salem County in their last two outings, but they got things back moving in the right direction with a 4-2 win at Gloucester City. That’s the same Gloucester program that broke their hearts with two runs in the bottom of the seventh of last year’s South Jersey Group I title game.
“I think there was a sense of relief,” Woodstown coach Marc DeCastro said. “I told them yesterday it doesn’t matter when it happens almost every team goes through a point where it becomes easy to kind of splinter and blame things and people and everything but yourself, and then there are times when the teams that can be good take those opportunities and grow from them.
“Whether we won today or whether we didn’t, to me, it was a little irrelevant. We’re still not ready to be a really good team just yet, we’re still learning how to do that, but what I wanted to see was how we handled each other and handled the game, and I thought they did a really good job.
“I saw some things that showed me there were some people who were looking to get it on the right track as opposed to just let it go where it was. I was happy with the way we approached the game. I’m obviously glad that we won, but first and foremost I wanted to see whether we could handle ourselves or I had to be the one to handle things. I was glad to see they were able to do that.”
Unlike their last two games in which they fell way behind in the first inning, the Wolverines (3-2) scored a run in the first and never lost the lead. Tommy Tucci singled in a run in the first and doubled one home in the third – both with two outs — to give them a 2-0 lead and Blake Bialecki gave them some necessary insurance with a two-run single through a drawn-in infield in the seventh.
Tucci and Bialecki both had two hits in the game. Rocco String, Ty Coblentz and Caiden Spinelli also had two hits apiece. String and Coblentz both scored twice.
“The win was needed bad,” Bialecki said. “We’ve been struggling and it is definitely a part of the season where we could either fall apart as a team or come together as a team. Today we responded very well to the adversity we have been facing.
“Coach said that if he had to interfere with us fighting the adversity we would struggled with it all season. But today we showed him we can bounce back ourselves. Now he knows that if we face adversity again, whether that’s a stretch of games like we just had or just adversity in a specific game, he knows we can figure it out and bounce back.”
Aaron Foote was the first of four Woodstown pitchers and he got the win. He worked into the fifth inning in his first appearance since the season opener and allowed two hits and a walk while striking out four.
Gloucester staged a rally in the home seventh that looked unnervingly familiar to the Wolverines. The Lions scored two runs and threatened more with bases loaded and none out, but junior Chase Harding came on got the last three outs on a two strikeouts and a ground out.
Although the thought didn’t register at the time with DeCastro, who remains steadfastly focused on the present and future, there were more than a few Wolverines who recalled last year when Gloucester rallied on this field in the bottom of the seventh to snatch the sectional championship game away.
“All game I was having flashbacks to last year’s game,” said Bialecki, a senior outfielder. “We were all really excited for this game because of last year. When they were threatening in the last inning I was really worried it was going to happen again.
“But we were able to pull it off this time.”
And show their coach they can be counted upon in times of adversity.
PENNSVILLE 26, CLAYTON 0: The Eagles got big games across the board. Chase Burchfield, Connor Starn and Mike McClincy all homered, all nine starters had at least one RBI and scored at least one run and three pitchers combined for a no-hitter.
It was the Eagles’ highest-scoring game since they put 29 on Clayton May 11, 2016. In fact, four of the Eagles’ 10 highest-scoring games since 2011 have come against the Clippers.
McClincy went 3-for-5 with six RBIs. The junior catcher got his first varsity hit in his first at-bat and the next time up hit a grand slam, which he told teammates was the first homer he’d ever hit in his life. Starn, a senior, went 3-for-3 with four RBIs and his homer was his first in 149 varsity at-bats.
Meanwhile, Burchfield went 3-for-5 with four RBIs, Cohen Petrutz went 4-for-4, Mason O’Brien went 3-for-4 and Jeff Wagner drove in three runs.
“It was a big game for the offense,” Eagles coach Matt Karr said. “I was very proud how locked in our guys were. It was cold and they stayed focused through each at bat and their approach to the day was what we expected.”
Logan Streitz, Starn and O’Brien combined on the five-inning no-hitter, each throwing 30 pitches or less. They struck out nine, walked three and hit a batter.
“They all threw the ball very well, especially considering the conditions and how long they had to sit in between innings,” Karr said.
Pennsville’s big games
Here is a list of Pennsville’s highest scoring baseball games (since 2011)
| RUNS | OPPONENT | DATE |
| 39 | Salem | May 15, 2014 |
| 31 | Clayton | April 13, 2015 |
| 31 | Wildwood | May 14, 2018 |
| 29 | Clayton | April 11, 2016 |
| 29 | Penns Grove | April 5, 2024 |
| 26 | Clayton | April 10, 2025 |
| 24 | Gateway | May 20, 2013 |
| 24 | Clayton | May 4, 2017 |
| 20 | Wildwood | May 8, 2013 |
| 20 | Gloucester City | Apr. 14, 2014 |
SCHALICK 3, OVERBROOK 2: Lucas D’Agostino’s two-run double highlighted a three-run sixth inning that broke a scoreless tie and then he pitched the seventh behind the Cougars’ ace to get the save.
Schalick’s Luke Pokrovsky and Overbrook’s Tyler Wood battled for five innings before the Cougars (4-0) broke through in the sixth. Both pitchers went six. Pokrovsky allowed four hits, an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth and struck out 14.
Enrico Hatz and Pokrovsky both had two hits for the Cougars.
PITMAN 11, SALEM 0: One day after their pitchers put together a no-hitter the Rams were no-hit themselves. Pitman’s Jude Engstrom and Kiernan Clark allowed the Rams only two base runners – walks to Terrell Robinson and Andrew May. Nick Watson homered for Pitman and Hudson Rue had three hits and three RBIs.
GLASSBORO 16, PENNS GROVE 2: Joey Tongue and Gavin Dillard both had three hits and Sal Esgro had three RBIs to lead the Bulldogs. The Red Devils, no-hit the day before, were held to two hits – a single by Bristol Scott and Liam Irvin’s RBI double.
Softball
THURSDAY’S SCORES
Pennsville 18, Clayton 2
Gloucester 14, Woodstown 1
Pitman 12, Salem 1
Schalick at Overbrook
Glassboro 18, Penns Grove 0
SCHALICK 14, OVERBROOK 13: Taylor Brown’s two-out line single brought Ava Lauglin home with the winning run to cap a two-run seventh-inning rally that allowed the Cougars to walk it off. Lauglin was in scoring position after tripling home the tying run.
The Cougars trailed 9-1 in the third inning and tied it 9-9 in the bottom of the fifth on Olivia Vanacker’s bases-loaded walk and Alexa Shimp’s run-scoring fielder’s choice.
The lead changed hands four time in the final two innings. Overbrook went ahead 11-9 in the top of the sixth, but the Cougars rallied in the bottom of the inning to take a 12-11 lead on Addi Shimp’s RBI double. Overbrook took a 13-12 lead in the top of the seventh before the Cougars ended it in the bottom of the inning.
Addi Shimp and Cloe Elliott each had three hits for Schalick. Maddie Brown had three RBIs.
PENNSVILLE 18, CLAYTON 2: The meat and the bottom of the lineup provided most of the damage for Pennsville. Kylie Harris and Savannah Palverento, the Nos. 3 and 4 hitters in the Eagles’ lineup, were a combined 4-for-5 with seven RBIs. The bottom third of the order – Reagan Wariwanchik, Makenzie Widener and Gianna Evans – were a combined 8-for-9 with seven RBIs. Wariwanchik and Evans both had three hits, Evans and Widener each had three RBIs.
GLOUCESTER 14, WOODSTOWN 1: The Lions erupted for 11 runs in the second inning to send Woodstown to its first loss of the season. Hannah and Grace Hitchner had the Wolverines’ only two hits off Gloucester pitcher Kloi Tighe.
PITMAN 12, SALEM 1: The Panthers pulled away from a one-run game with eight runs in the third inning. Lexi Kostiuk went 3-for-3 with two RBIs and Madison Peek drove in a pair of runs for the Panthers.
GLASSBORO 18, PENNS GROVE 0: The Bulldogs scored seven runs in the first inning and nine in the third.
Golf
WOODSTOWN 175, CUMBERLAND 229
(Running Deer GC, par 36)
Woodstown: Grant Prater 42, Erich Lipovsky 43, Anthony Bokolas 44, Jack Bucksar 46.
Cumberland: Thomas Marguglio 51, Chase Pepper 56, Brian Feliciano 59, Blake Darick 63.
Tennis
WOODSTOWN 5, TRITON 0
Drew Stengel (WO) def. Tristyn Malone, 6-1, 6-0
John Farrell (WO) def. Cole Durham, 6-4, 6-3
Joseph Kurpis (WO) def. Tirth Patel, 7-5, 6-3
Luke Shaw-Mason Shimp (WO) def. Sean Gorski-Brennan Zabala, 6-1, 6-0
Nicholas DiTeodoro-Ben Stengel (WO) def. Shrey Modi-Nathanial White, 6-0, 6-1
Records: Woodstown 4-2, Triton 0-3
VINELAND 4, SCHALICK 1
Jorge Alverez (V) def. George Gould, 6-3, 6-1
Rocky Monticolo (S) def. Christopher DeCarvalho Chanez, 6-1, 5-7, 12-10
Justin Mastro (V) def. Conor O’Toole, 6-4, 6-1
Alex Garcia-Asher Hill (V) def. Kaden Barnes-Cayden Brzozowski, 6-2, 6-3
Kevin Maldonado-Sam Heck (V) def. David Santana-Anthony McGrath, 6-1, 7-5
Records: Vineland 4-3, Schalick 3-3
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