On a roll

Salem CC baseball continues march to getting better, run-rule Delaware County CC for fifth straight win; scored double digit runs for the fifth straight game, collected 17 stolen bases

REGION XIX BASEBALL
Salem CC 15, Delaware County 4, 7 inns.
Morris at Rockland
RCSJ-Gloucester 19, Lackawanna 10
RCSJ-Cumberland 16, Raritan Valley 12
Sussex at Orange County
Middlesex 9, Bergen 2
Camden at Brookdale
Queensborough at Union

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – The Salem CC baseball team is on a roll. The Mighty Oaks have scored double digit runs in every game of their current five-game winning streak – 66 total – banged out 67 hits and stolen 60 bases.

Yet as good as the numbers have been over the last week, coach John Holt knows there’s more in the tank. Their 15-4 win over Delaware County CC Wednesday was just another step in getting to it.

“Honestly, we’re just trying to continue to get better because we haven’t played our best baseball yet,” Holt said after watching his team run-rule the winless Phantoms. “We’re not where we need to be yet, so we’ve got to take these opportunities just to continue to work on things and get better every game.”

Where was the “better” Wednesday? In the box score, every spot in their lineup scored at least one run and eight of the nine spots had at least one stolen base. They put a crooked number on the board in every inning they scored.

But that’s not where you’d find it. The better on this day came in their mindset, one day after a rather pedestrian win over the Phantoms on the road.

They had what Holt called a “very heart-to-heart conversation” before taking the field and the message hit home.

“(Holt) just talked about, like you said, we haven’t been playing our best baseball recently and we haven’t really played with emotion,” right fielder Roman Hernandez said. “We were just going out there going through the fundamentals. Just because we’re playing a team that we’re supposed to beat doesn’t mean anything, like we should treat them like the best team in the country and we haven’t been doing that.

“We’ve got to do that soon because (this weekend’s opponent) Cumberland is a very good team. We’ve got to start playing with some heart because they’re gonna want it as bad as we want it, if not more. I think today we definitely figured it out a little bit. Brought us closer together. I definitely enjoyed the talk. I think most of our team did also.”

Starter Andre Stewart gave the Mighty Oaks three no-hit innings to open the game. Their first four batters of the game reached base against Delco starter Aaron Wright, a Salem player last fall, and three scored. They batted around in the third to extend the lead to 7-1 and sent 11 batters to the plate in the fourth to score six more. At that point, every spot in the lineup had scored a run and they had 14 stolen bases. 

Jason LeBold, Sal Mesete and Jacob Sharrow had two hits apiece. LeBold was on base all four times he batted and stole three bases. Mesete and Jay Barber reached base all three times they batted. Barber also stole three bases. Aiden Nestor hit the first pitch offered by Delco’s first reliever for a two-run double in the third that made it 6-1. Sharrow had a two-run triple in the fourth that made it 9-1.

The Mighty Oaks stole 18 bases in the series opener with Atlantic Cape last Friday. They are now second in JUCO Division III and eighth in all of the NJCAA in stolen bases.

Delaware County (0-8)	001	030	0-	4	3	4
Salem CC (11-13)	304	620	x-	15	10	0

THE LAST FIVE	R	H	SB
Delaware County	15	10	17
Delaware County	11	17	13
Atlantic Cape	15	15	6
Atlantic Cape	13	15	6
Atlantic Cape	12	10	18