Here are scores and highlights from Tuesday’s action on the Salem County sports calendar; Schalick’s Watt hits third homer in first four games; story will updated as games become available
TUESDAY’S GAMES
BASEBALL
Schalick 23, Clayton 3
Overbrook at Pennsville
Winslow at Salem Tech
SOFTBALL
Clayton at Schalick
Pennsville at Overbrook
Haddon Heights at Woodstown
BOYS GOLF
Cumberland at Schalick, 3:30 p.m.
Woodstown vs. Overbrook, Town & Country, 3:30 p.m.
Salem Tech vs. Pitman, Pitman GC, 3:45 p.m.
GIRLS GOLF
Schalick vs. Williamstown, Scotland Run GC, 2:30 p.m.
TENNIS
Mainland 5, Schalick 0
BOYS LACROSSE
Clearview at Woodstown
GIRLS LACROSSE
Woodstown at Clearview
COLLEGE BASEBALL
Salem CC at Brookdale, 3:30 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CLAYTON – Ricky Watt is seeing the ball better than any time since his freshman year. It’s the kind of thing baseball players are known to say when they’re hitting the ball well, but you can’t argue with the results.
The Schalick junior catcher hit his third home run in his first nine at-bats this season and was one of 11 Cougars to collect a hit, score a run and drive one home in a 23-2 rout of Clayton Tuesday morning.
He went 2-for-3 in the game and is now hitting .800 (8-for-10) on the season. He hit three homers in 75 at-bats last season. The Cougars are 6-1 in games in which he hits a homer.
“I’m seeing the ball really well right now,” Watt said. “I put a lot of work in the offseason, in the cage and in the weight room, and I just think when you do that it’s bound to happen.
“I don’t know if it’s the best I’ve seen the ball. It’s definitely the most home runs I’ve hit in a short span. My freshman year I started off really well. Since then, this is the best I’ve been seeing the ball and been hitting the ball. I think the reason for that is maybe a little mindset change. I’ve just been thinking hit the ball hard, hit the ball as hard as I can pretty much without swinging out of my shoes.”
He hit .435 as a freshman with career highs in hits and RBIs (30). He started that year 13-of-22 over his first seven games (.591) and 23-of-45 in his first 13 (.511). If he plays the same number of games he did as a freshman this year, he’s on pace for 52 hits, 19 homers and 58 RBIs. That’ll certainly get him noticed for the next level, maybe two.
The run this year started right from the start. He homered in his first at-bat of the season – two pitches in – and has reached base in 13 of his 14 plate appearances. His homer against the Clippers was a solo shot in the second inning that gave the Cougars a 6-0 lead.
“He looks really good at the plate, looks confident,” coach Sean O’Brien said. “His home runs have been no-doubters.”
Watt credits the work he’s done in the offseason, particularly at the Baseball Performance Center in Egg Harbor.
“I didn’t play for a team in the fall and ended up making a move (there) and when I wasn’t wrestling I was going there five days a week and to the gym after,” he said. “Matt (Roland) helped me a lot. I think that was probably the biggest part of my training, working with him, working with my swing path, really breaking my swing down to the finest tuning that I can.
“I wouldn’t say I broke it down and rebuilt it, just some refining. It really wasn’t any major changes. It was just kind of polishing, reps and reps and reps. I didn’t really make huge adjustments, it was just kind of refining.”
A total of 13 Cougars collected a hit in the game, 13 scored a run and 12 drove one home. Evan Sepers had three hits and two RBIs. Jamari Whitley had two hits, four RBIs and threw one inning of shutout relief. Cole Hartley and Trail Aufflo had two hits apiece. Will Sieminski, Robert Strain and starting pitcher Jacob Schalick all had two RBIs.
The 23 runs are a season high, topping the 21 they put on Paulsboro in the season opener, and the most they’ve scored in a game since going for 24 against Paulsboro last May.
The Cougars (3-1) scored in every inning of the five-inning game, reached the run-rule threshold in the third and blew it wide open with 10 runs on nine hits in the fifth.
| Schalick | 524 | 2(10) | 23 | 19 | 0 |
| Clayton | 003 | 00- | 3 | 6 | 7 |
Tennis
MAINLAND 5, SCHALICK 0
Luigi Batioja (M) def. Gabe McFeeley, 6-0, 6-1
Laksh Patel (M) def. Reece Loatman, 6-0, 6-0
Owen Medland (M) def. Tyr Brattlie, 6-0, 6-0
Ben Kahn-Vikram Bansal (M) def. Cooper Halperin-Christopher Chica, 6-0, 6-0
Liam Blake-Jacob Reynolds (M) def. Gavin McGrath-Angelo Boston, 6-0, 6-3
Records: Mainland 4-1, Schalick 3-1
Riverview Sports News 