After scoring a huge opening-round upset, Salem CC swept out of Region 19/North Atlantic District tournament
REGION 19 TOURNAMENT
At Rutgers-Camden
Friday’s Games
Brookdale 12, Salem 2 (5 inns.)
RCSJ-Gloucester 16, Salem 0 (5 inns.)
Saturday’s Games
RCSJ-Gloucester vs. Brookdale, noon
Second game, if necessary, 3 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CAMDEN — You might be able to sneak up on the best teams in the country every once in a while, but unless something magical is in the works it’s not going to happen two days in a row.
The Salem CC baseball team was brimming with confidence after knocking off the No. 1 team in the country in the opening round of the Region 19/North Atlantic District Tournament. But the second day back against two of the top three teams in JUCO Division II just wasn’t the same.
The Mighty Oaks were five-inning run-ruled out of the tournament at Rutgers-Camden, losing to No. 3 Brookdale in the winner’s bracket 12-2 and then getting eliminated 16-0 by the No. 1 RCSJ-Gloucester team they knocked off the day before.
“I don’t know if we recovered from yesterday,” coach John Holt said. “We were feeling pretty good and might have been too overconfident. We’ve got to play clean baseball against good teams and we didn’t do that. I think we can play with both of those teams, we didn’t have enough gas today to get through it.”
“I think it was the energy; that’s really it,” sophomore centerfielder Demetrius DeRamus said. “The energy was just low and brought everything down.”
“We tried to keep the energy up, but there was only so much in the tank for us,” corner outfielder Yen Rodriguez said.
It probably didn’t help their mindset that the Brookdale game started more than two hours after its scheduled noon start time due to storms that blew through the area shortly after the Mighty Oaks arrived at the facility. With the teams evacuated from the field — and Salem in the middle of batting practice — the Mighty Oaks waited out the entire delay in the cramped comfort complex on the concourse with players reportedly falling asleep in the stalls.
“When our guys are stuck in a men’s bathroom for over an hour, standing like that, and we were warmed up already,” Holt said, “(outfielder) Jay LaBold may not get hurt if he doesn’t tighten up for an hour and a half. Obviously, that effects the game pretty big. I had to leave (starting pitcher Jared) Vandersteur in longer than I wanted to (127 pitches) because we had pulled the DH. I think it had a little bit of an impact, but we’ve got to be able to overcome that. We were thrown off.”
The Mighty Oaks beat Gloucester in the tournament’s opening game 6-5 in 12 innings Thursday. It gave them enormous confidence going into Day 2, but it also lit a fire under the Roadrunners. Gloucester has outscored its two opponents since the loss 28-1 and given up just five hits in 10 innings.
The Runners must beat Brookdale twice Saturday to win the championship and earn the district’s automatic bid to the national tournament. As the No. 1 team in the country you’d expect them to get the one at-large bid to the national tournament if Brookdale takes them down.
“We were really disappointed in ourselves the way we played yesterday and we felt to be honest we handed the game away,” Roadrunners coach Rob Valli said. “And to be honest, they woke us up. They allowed it to turn from us being mad at ourselves to getting woken up and being ready to perform today.”
Gloucester (49-5) jumped on Salem for four runs in the first inning, then broke it open with eight in the second. Second game Salem starter Seth McCormick had four straight batters in 1-2 counts in the first inning, but all four reached base and either scored or drove in a run. “It just comes down to execution,” McCormick said.
The Mighty Oaks (28-26) were held to one hit in the elimination game, Matt Murphy’s leadoff double in the second inning. They loaded the bases with three walks in the fifth, but Gloucester got Demetrius DeRamus to end the game.
DeRamus, who hit a game-saving two-run homer in the ninth inning of the first Gloucester game, was in a position to close his Salem career with a hit to give him 100 career RBIs.
Brookdale walked off the winner’s bracket game with five runs in the fifth. The walk-off run scored on a bases-loaded wild pitch.
The Mighty Oaks took a 1-0 lead in the visitors first when Yen Rodriguez scored on Tyler Hacker’s bases-loaded walk. Ball four on the walk was a wild pitch and DeRamus tried to score from second but was out at the plate that at first glance looked like he slipped a foot on the dish before contact with the pitcher covering.
DeRamus’ 98th career RBI got the Mighty Oaks to within 7-2 in the top of the fifth.
While the losses brought a disappointing close to the Mighty Oaks’ season, there was a lot to remember.
Their 28 wins were a single-season school record against arguably the most challenging schedule in program history. They hosted and won a playoff series and won a game in the district tournament. They beat the Nos. 1 and 14 ranked teams during the season and played No. 2 close in two games with one of the losses decided on a controversial walk-off balk. Holt scored his 400th coaching victory and 100th at Salem during the season and four of the sophomores collected the 100th hits of their career.
“Hindsight, it’s a good year,” Holt said. “We’ve played a challenging schedule to prepare us for this weekend and it paid off. We were able to give Gloucester its first conference loss; that’s always a plus. We hung with the best teams in the country all year long. For a program that’s only been around for five years that says something. I think this thing is in the right direction. I think we’re building something here that could end up being special. We just have to work to improve every year.
“Last year we made the playoffs, this year the playoffs was the expectation and then the goal was to make some noise and I think we did that. Going into next year it’s continue to take a step forward with the program. I’m proud of this team. I think this group has had a lot of heart, a lot of guts. This is going to be a bunch that sticks with me regardless of how long I coach.”
| Salem | 100 01- | 2 | 6 | 5 |
| Brookdale | 202 35- | 12 | 11 | 1 |
| Salem | 000 00- | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| RCSJ-Gloucester | 480 4x- | 16 | 13 | 0 |
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