Program that hadn’t won a district tournament game or gone to district finals in 14 years completed 3-1 run in pool play to claim top seed from American Division
DISTRICT 3 LL TOURNAMENT
Friday’s Games
Penns Grove 7, Millville American 3
South Vineland 11, Elmer 1
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
MILLVILLE – A Penns Grove Little League program that hadn’t won a district tournament game or gone to the district finals since 2011 – two years before any of their current players were even born – completed a 3-1 run in pool play Friday night to claim the No. 1 seed from the American Division into next week’s District 3 finals.
Penns Grove rallied from a two-run fourth-inning deficit to beat Millville American 7-3 to win their division and set up a winner-take-all showdown between Millville and host Pennsville Saturday for the pool’s second spot. The winner also would be 3-1 in the pool, but Penns Grove owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over both.
Penns Grove will play National No. 2 South Vineland in Monday’s opening round of bracket play at the Elmer LL complex. The Millville-Pennsville winner gets National No. 1 East Vineland. It’s the first time in 18 years they won more than one game in pool play.
“I just told them it’s the first time in 14 years (they’d won in the tournament), 29 straight losses, and now we’re going into the bracket,” Penns Grove manager Steve Raymond said. “I told them they’ve got to realize what they got here. It’s a good team and you saw tonight it’s not just one person. Everybody comes in clutch.”
Penns Grove, which had to win Friday to advance after laying an egg in its last game at Buena, took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Aiden Robertson get it started with a leadoff triple into the right field corner and scoring on Achillius Vong’s RBI ground out.
Vong made his first start since no-hitting Pennsville last Saturday and held Millville scoreless for three innings with the help of five strikeouts and a couple nice defensive plays by his teammates. But Millville reached him for three in the fourth to take the lead and get him off the mound.
Vong came out after 61 pitches so Penns Grove could have him available Monday.
“We had a gameplan that we came in with (and) we ended up sticking with it,” Raymond said. “Towards the middle when they were starting to get to Achillius, I was kind of bouncing around like should we leave him in and let him finish it and we lose him for the bracket, or do we save him and we get him for the second game.
“We decided to save him. It was a group thing. When I went to the mound I told him we’re thinking of bringing Jimmy (LaPalomento) in so we can have you for the bracket. He was he was good for it. Everybody’s a team player … As long as they come out here fired up with energy they’re going to win. They find a way to win. Whatever we need it happens.”
LaPalomento kept Millville off the board for the rest of the game. He threw 2 1/3 innings of no-hit relief and struck out four of the eight hitters he faced.
“I was a little scared at first, but I had the bottom of the lineup so I just tried to gun them all down,” LaPalomento said.
Penns Grove gave their reliever the lead in the bottom of the fourth when they went through three Millville pitchers to score three runs. The runs came on consecutive bases-loaded walks to Tanner Raymond, LaPalomento and Nolan O’Brien (for the lead). They had only two hits in the game but took advantage of nine walks and a hit batsman.
Their other hit, S.J. Poindexter’s two-run bases-loaded double, broke it open in the sixth, a hit for which manager Raymond dug into his bag to present the left fielder a brand new game ball. Vong drove in the final run with another infield out.
“I thought it was going to be caught at first until I saw it heading toward the fence and finally hit the fence,” Poindexter said. “I didn’t think I was going to hit. I struck out a lot of times and lost all my confidence, but once I gained my confidence back by getting the hit I felt good about myself.”
“Shawn hit like that during the season,” Raymond said. “That’s what we expect out of him. He’s a hitter. He’s fast. He’s a hitter. I saw it all season. I think now that he did that we’re going to start seeing a lot more of it.”
Each of the last three years Poindexter, his father and granddad have made the trip to Williamsport to take in some of the Little League World Series. After celebrating his team’s historic win Friday he readily stated his goal going forward.
“I just want to go to Williamsport,” he said.
And he wasn’t talking about as a fan.
“That’s awesome,” Raymond said. “They’ve got goals and hopefully the three of us coaches can get ‘em there.”
PENNS GROVE 7, MILLVILLE 3
| Millville American | 000 300- | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Penns Grove | 100 33x- | 7 | 2 | 3 |
SOUTH VINELAND 11, ELMER 1: South Vineland ended Elmer’s run in the tournament by taking advantage of seven walks and holding their visitors to two hits.
The winners took a 1-0 lead in the first with four walks and broke it open with four runs in the third. They eventually walked it off with four runs in the fifth.
Brandon D’Agostino and Cash Williams had Elmer’s two hits. Cayden Becker scored their only run when he led off the fifth with a walk, then stole second, third and home.
South Vineland will play Penns Grove in the opening round of bracket play Monday at Elmer.
SOUTH VINELAND 11, ELMER 1
| Elmer | 000 01- | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| South Vineland | 104 24- | 11 | 7 | 0 |
District 3 standings
| AMERICAN | NATIONAL | ||
| Penns Grove | 3-1 | East Vineland | 2-1 |
| Millville | 2-1 | South Vineland | 2-1 |
| Pennsville | 2-1 | Elmer | 1-2 |
| Buena | 1-2 | West Cumberland | 1-2 |
| North Vineland | 0-3 |
Friday’s Games
Penns Grove 7, Millville American 3
South Vineland 11, Elmer 1
Saturday’s Games
Millville American at Pennsville, 5 p.m.
Buena at North Vineland, 5 p.m.
(End of pool play)
DISTRICT 3 FINALS
(Double-loss elimination)
Monday at Elmer
G1: Penns Grove vs. South Vineland, 5:45 p.m.
G2: East Vineland vs. Millville American or Pennsville, 8 p.m.
Tuesday at Millville
G3: Winner G1 vs. Winner G2, 5:45 p.m.
G4: Loser G1 vs. Loser G2, 8 p.m.
Wednesday at North Vineland
G5: Loser G3 vs. Winner G4, 7 p.m.
Thursday at South Vineland
G6: Winner G3 vs. Winner G5, 7 p.m.
Friday at South Vineland
G7: If necessary, 7 p.m.
Riverview Sports News 