Muted celebration

Pennsville’s Burchfield reaches 100-hit milestone, but celebration muted by Eagles’ self-inflicted loss to Haddon Heights

FRIDAY SALEM COUNTY BASEBALL
Haddon Heights 9, Pennsville 7
Schalick 10, Rancocas Valley 3
Camden Tech 13, Salem 0

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – Reaching the milestone he has been chasing his entire career was nice, but he was so close it was going to come along at some point anyway. All things considered, Chase Burchfield would have much rather had the win.

The Pennsville senior outfielder collected his 100th career hit and moved closer to 100 career RBIs Friday, but what should have been a joyous occasion was muted by the Eagles losing two leads in a self-inflicted 9-7 loss to Haddon Heights.

Burchfield needed two hits and three RBIs to hit both milestones on this day. He went 2-for-3 with a walk and drove in a run, leaving him with 100 hits and 98 RBIs for his four-year Pennsville career. Even the out he made was loud, a shot that was caught steps from the left centerfield fence.

His 99th hit was a solo homer in the first inning that gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead. It was his third homer of the season and sixth of his career.

No. 100 came on an opposite-field single through the left side of the infield in the third inning. Eagles coach Matt Karr requested the ball to mark the occasion and the Garnets called time to settle their pitcher, which gave Burchfield the chance to celebrate the milestone with his teammates.

But about an hour later the milestone became a footnote to the day as the Garnets (6-1) took advantage of two errors in the infield to produce two runs in the seventh inning to win the game. 

“I would definitely much rather have the win,” Burchfield said. “I think we played well in the beginning, but we need to cut down on all the unearned runs; it’s just horrible. All the errors. That’s what’s been killing us the last three games now. I didn’t think we hit terrible today, but we need to do something to get better.

“It kind of ruins the feeling of getting 100 hits when you come out and you’re up … and you give up a six-run inning like that. It kind of ruins the feeling of having a good game.”

He’ll likely have the same reaction when he reaches the RBI milestone. His first chance for that comes Monday morning at Williamstown.

“I’ll still be excited because I know I’m helping the team out,” he said, “but winning will be much better.”

The Eagles took a 3-0 lead into the third inning, then gave up six unearned runs to fall behind. They got the first two outs rather easily, but an error in the infield opened the door and the visitors pounced. The Garnets hit back-to-back RBI doubles, drew a walk, reached on another error and then Jack Motta blasted a three-run homer to give them a 6-3 lead.

To their credit, the Eagles came back to reclaim the lead in the bottom of the inning. The Garnets tied it 7-7 in the fourth on Nolan Lachall’s solo homer, then broke the tie with senior Trent Begley’s two-run single in the seventh. It was Begley’s first varsity hit.

Pennsville threatened in the seventh, getting the tying run on base with two outs, but ended the game with a ground out to the pitcher.

It was the second game in as many days the Eagles have lost in their opponents last bats. They lost to winless Cumberland in the top of the eighth inning on Thursday.

“Obviously, the glaring one today was the six-run inning where we had nobody on and two out,” Karr said. “I was telling the guys it’s a snowball effect. You make those two errors now put yourself in the pitcher’s shoes. Now he feels like he has to be perfect because he can’t trust the defense, and then that’s what happened. And we start grooving fastball after fastball and to their credit they just started barreling ball off us sitting on the fastball.

“We battled back and retook the lead, which is good, but it’s been our mantra all year. I told them, for better or worse, you are what your record says you are. We’re a .500 ballclub who beats the teams we should beat and when the going gets tough against a very competitive, good baseball club … we can’t do what we need to do to win a game. That’s just where we are right now.”

The Eagles (5-4) were playing their fifth game in as many days, and it would be easy to use that as an excuse. But Karr wouldn’t take the easy route. They opened the week with wins over Wildwood, Overbrook and Salem to extend a five-game winning streak, then lost focus against Cumberland and the Garnets. They had leads in both of the losses with good pitching behind it.

“The difference between good team and a really great team is focus and we lack that focus, especially in pressure situations,” Karr said. “I told these guys I’m not pointing the finger at one guy, I’m pointing one giant finger at all of you, because it’s a ripple effect. What you do early in the game carries to the next play, the next pitch; it rolls over.

“We talk all the time about stacking – stack good days on top of good days, good ABs on top of ABs, things add up. The bad is the same way. You stack bad on top of bad it adds up and it’s a hole you can’t dig out of.”

The result certainly put a damper on what should have been a banner day for the LaSalle signee.

Burchfield set the milestone as a goal to follow in the footsteps of his cousin, Peyton Sorrels, who had 104 hits and 80 RBIs for the Eagles before graduating in 2015. Burchfield has had seasons of 18, 28, 39 and 15 hits. He is 100-for-225 for his career.

He had a pretty good week, too. In the Eagles’ five games this week he went 8-for-13 with five walks, two homers and 10 RBIs, raising his season average to .536. He has at least one hit in every game this season and 18 of his last 20 going back to last season.

“One hundred hits in baseball, to me, especially in high school baseball here in South Jersey is a really big accomplishment,” Karr said. “That’s 25 hits a year for four years. That’s quite a bit of hits. Then to be there with the RBIs, it’s just a testament to four years of consistency from him. When he was younger he obviously didn’t hit the meat of the lineup, but got thrown to the fire as a freshman, as most of these guys did, and went in and produced and did his job.

“I can’t say enough good things about Chase. What makes Chase special is, I know it sucks that it happened (on a day like this), he would much rather have a win today. I know that’s burning him up right now, so I don’t know how much he’ll enjoy the 100 today. It might be the end of the season before he finally lets it sink in about how impressive that actually is. I know he’s indifferent with it right now.”

SCHALICK 10, RANCOCAS VALLEY 3: Luke Pokrovsky hit his second homer of the year and Evan Sepers went 3-for-4 with three RBIs as the Cougars stayed undefeated (6-0). Evan Glaspey, Ricky Watt and J.T. Fleming all had two hits and Enrico Hatz had two RBIs. Winning pitcher Lucas D’Agostino worked the first five innings, giving up three hits, an unearned run and striking out six.

CAMDEN TECH 13, SALEM 0: The Warriors held Salem to three hits and took control with a six-run third inning. Terrell Robinson, Troy Carey and Austin Davis had the Rams’ hits.

Banner worthy

Here is a list of Pennsville players with 100 or more career hits, according to research conducted by Eagles coach Matt Karr

PLAYER	HITS	GRAD
Max Dineen	161	2018
Ed Rieger	145	1986
Josh Shimp	105	2014
Peyton Sorrels	104	2015
x-Chase Burchfield	100	2025
Nick Toms		2020
Drew Burdsall		2014
Dom Wyshinski		2011
Kevin O’Brien		2006
Dave Lenig		2006
John Humphreys		2005
Mike Karr		2003
Teddy Puitz		1998
Eddie Eckenroad		1998
Mark Freed		1996
CLOSING IN
x-Luke Wood	93	2025

Top photo: Pennsville’s Chase Burchfield is congratulated by his teammates after collecting his 100th career hit in the third inning against Haddon Heights Friday.