Hacker gives Mighty Oaks big boost, pitching them to a Game 3 win over Camden to stay in the Region XIX playoff hunt; softball sweeps Sussex
SALEM CC BASEBALL
Camden CC 10-2, Salem CC 9-12
SALEM CC SOFTBALL
Salem CC 10-8, Sussex CC 1-6
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT – In a game that suddenly had a lot of meaning for the Salem CC baseball season, Mighty Oaks coach John Holt handed Tyler Hacker the ball and told him to just go out and have fun.
For the sophomore right-hander the suggestion to just have fun took him back to the days as an 8-9-10 year-old learning how to pitch by throwing the baseball against a big ol’ tree in the family’s yard in Lake Mary, Fla., next door to a future major-leaguer.
When you want something bad enough, you make do, and that’s what he did. It was those lessons and memories Hacker leaned on Saturday to throw a 100-plus pitch complete game victory, 12-2 over Camden CC, that salvaged the getaway game of the three-game series and kept the Mighty Oaks on the right side of the Region XIX playoff hunt. The Cougars won the opener 10-9 to win the series.
Hacker threw 111 pitches in the seven-inning game just one week removed from his second college start on the mound. He started last week’s Game 3 at Middlesex and one time on the team’s early-season trip to Myrtle Beach.
He had come to campus with a big bat and, a year removed from Tommy John surgery, the idea of being the Mighty Oaks’ closer. The bat – and legs – has always been a part of the plan. He’s the Mighty Oaks’ leading hitter, their top RBI producer and leads the nation in stolen bases. And now the self-taught pitcher is a Game 3 series starter due to injuries to Seth McCormick and Sean Bogan. Self-taught is the operative word.
“When I was younger I didn’t have like friends in the neighborhood so I learned to pitch to a tree,” Hacker said. “Learned to pitch to a tree. I watched baseball and I just tried to mimic what they did. I watched YouTube videos. I read – surprisingly. Everything I learned it was for myself and that’s what happens.
“I measured it out, put a mound there, and just sat in my driveway and threw at a tree. It’s almost a strike zone. I put some tape on there and threw baseballs at it all day. All day. Even now I wouldn’t consider myself a pitcher. I consider myself a thrower. I understand the game well, so I think I can get by. I think throwing at that tree has helped me with the basics and coming here I’ve learned to be a pitcher.”
The Mighty Oaks didn’t need a closer, they needed a stopper. They had lost the first two games with the Cougars and let a 6-3 lead in the opener get away. They were falling farther below .500 in both their region and overall record and getting dangerously close to dropping out of the top eight to get in the playoffs.
It didn’t look good early. Hacker gave up two runs on two hits and a bad pickoff in the first inning, but things began to change when he surrendered to the idea of letting his teammates help him. He kept the Cougars off the board the rest of the game. He only gave up two hits after the first inning – and one of those was a bad hop single in the ninth – walked two, hit two and struck out one.
Holt was going to take him out in the sixth inning when the pitcher was up to 99 pitches – there were pitchers warming in the bullpen – but there was what Holt called “some conversation” and Hacker convinced his coach to let him stay.
“I wanted to beat them bad, especially after yesterday,” Hacker said. “Yesterday they owned us and we just did it back to them today. That was really what wanted me to keep going and stay in. Coach tried to pull me out, I said no, absolutely not. It’s going good for me, you’re not taking me out. He said you get one batter. As soon as I got 3-1 to that last guy I locked it in.”
There was a little more to the conversation than that. When his pitcher started looking unsteady, Holt told him just throw it at that tree. It flipped the switch and he started mowing down the Cougars like a lumberjack in the forest.
“It didn’t lock me in to throw strikes, it locked me in to have fun,” Hacker said. “In games like that when you’re trying to go for a complete game, when you’re trying to put up zeroes, you typically don’t have fun. You’re in your head a lot and if you watch me at first base, I have a lot of fun. That’s just the way I need to play and the way I need to pitch. It was a good idea for him to say throw to the tree because it absolutely snapped me in.”
The Oaks erased Camden’s two runs in the first with three when they came in to bad. Cliff Wysinger got it started with a double and scored on Hacker’s RBI single – his fifth RBI of the doubleheader. Hacker scored on Roman Hernandez’ RBI single and Rocco String scored the go-ahead run the catcher’s throw trying to catch him stealing third sailed into left field.
Aiden Nestor’s 0-2 RBI single in the third extended the lead to 4-2. They scored four more in the fifth on back-to-back two-run singles by Wysinger and Jason LeBold. Then blew it open in the sixth on Nestor’s RBI double and a two-run single by J.J. Pankowski.
What Hacker does on offense has never been questioned. He had three hits and five RBIs in the doubleheader – doing the Ohtani thing as a pitcher/designated hitter in the nightcap – and stole three more bases to extend his JUCO Division III-leading total to 49. He would have reached his goal of 50 in his next-to-last at bat of the doubleheader had String not bounced into the final out of the fourth inning with Hacker on the move.
And what of that tree? They ended up cutting it down. He doesn’t throw at trees any more.
“I’ve gotten friends since,” he said. “And a car. I can drive places.”
The Mighty Oaks are hoping he drives them into the playoffs.
| Camden | 003 | 007 | 0- | 10 | 13 | 3 |
| Salem CC | 002 | 503 | 0- | 9 | 6 | 2 |
| Camden | 200 | 000 | 0- | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Salem CC | 301 | 053 | x- | 12 | 12 | 1 |
Softball
NEWTON — The Salem CC softball team snapped its longest losing streak of the season by sweeping a doubleheader from Sussex, 10-1 and 8-6.
The Mighty Oaks had lost their last four games, but got back on the winning track behind a combined six-hitter from Reagan Wilson and Jordyn Busch.
Salem struck for four in the first inning and never trailed against. J.J. Aguirre, Emme Witter and Savannah Palverento had consecutive RBI singles and Jocelyn Melendez brought the fourth run home with a ground out. Witter and Lilly Peverelle both had three hits in the game.
The Skylanders got a run in the fourth inning, then the Mighty Oaks broke it open with four in the sixth
The nightcap was a bit closer, with the Mighty Oaks taking the lead for good with two in the sixth. Peverelle broke a 6-6 tie with a two-out run-scoring single and Peverelle scored an insurance run on a passed ball.
Sawyer Simmons went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Peverelle had two hits to lead the offense. Busch threw a complete game in the circle. She struck out nine.
Before take the lead for good in the sixth inning, the Mighty Oaks had leads of 1-0 and 6-5 only to see the Skylanders rally to draw even.
REGION XIX BASEBALL
Camden 10-2, Salem CC 9-12
Northampton 17-3, Atlantic Cape 0-4
Ocean 10-18 Montgomery 6-12
Brookdale 12-7, Union 6-2
Bergen 7-5, Delaware County 6-0
Middlesex 6-3, RCSJ-Cumberland 4-8
Sussex 7-6, Raritan Valley 0-1
Lackawanna 4-9, Delaware Tech 3-2
REGION XIX SOFTBALL
Salem CC 10-8, Sussex 1-6
Camden 11-3, Middlesex 1-1
Northampton 13-15, Bergen 4-3
Brookdale 11-13, Ocean 2-1
Mercer 4, Howard 1
Delaware Tech 4-4, Lackawanna 1-3
RCSJ-Gloucester 9-5, CC of Rhode Island 1-3
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