Salem CC baseball gets into the Region XIX field of eight without a play-in game after sweeping Union Saturday, looking for help from eliminated Ocean to get a better seed
REGION XIX BASEBALL
Saturday’s Games
Salem CC 16-8, Union 2-5
Camden 6-16, Northampton 5-5
Middlesex 5-10, Atlantic Cape 0-0
RCSJ-Gloucester 19-19, Delaware County 0-2
Brookdale 7-14, Ocean 1-5
RCSJ-Cumberland 4-22, Bergen 0-1
CCBC-Essex 7-13, Lackawanna 6-5
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT – The Salem CC baseball team got what it needed in the first game of Saturday’s regular-season ending doubleheader with Union. The Mighty Oaks got what they wanted from the day in the nightcap, but they had to work for it.
The Mighty Oaks secured the final spot in the eight-team Region XIX Division III playoff bracket with an dominating 16-2 rout in the opener, then they rallied from four runs down midway through the nightcap to win that 8-5 and give themselves a chance at a more favorable seed.
The doubleheader — and series — sweep, along with Brookdale’s sweep of Ocean, allowed the Mighty Oaks (23-26, 18-15) to make the bracket without having to deal with a play-in game with Ocean. Now they’ll become the biggest Ocean fans, hoping the Vikings can knock off Montgomery County Monday to give the Mighty Oaks the seventh seed and avoid top seed and three-time defending national champion RCSJ-Gloucester in the opening round.
If Montco wins the Monday game, the Mustangs and Mighty Oaks would finish tied for seventh in the standings, but Salem would be the eighth seed since the Mustangs hold the tiebreaker. The best-of-3 first-round series start Saturday at the sites of the top four seeds.
“We needed to win,” Mighty Oaks coach John Holt said. “We needed to control what we can control. We can control winning baseball games. We can’t control what happens with the other series that were going on. We just needed to control the variables we could control and we did that.
“At the end of the day the gameplan from the beginning was to win all three. Winning two out of three wasn’t an option. All along it’s we’ve got to win three. We did what we had to do to figure out how to win. It wasn’t pretty, but we figured it out.”
After having their way with the Owls (7-29) in the opener, the Mighty Oaks were held scoreless for the first four innings of the nightcap.
Meanwhile, the Owls scored four in the third as Salem starter Logan Peters lost the plate and his defense lost the handle. The Owls threatened again in the fourth, but Nick Reckard came on to get the final out of the inning before giving way to Tyler Hacker for the final three innings or however long it was going to take for the Mighty Oaks to pull it out.
They came to life in the fifth and tied the game on a pair of two-run singles by J.J. Pankowski and Hacker. Pankowski had two hits in the game and was on base in all three innings Salem scored down the stretch.
“When the inning starts I’m always telling the two batters before me get on for me because I know I’ll do the job,” the second baseman said. “Coach is always saying ‘pass the stick,’ so I just try to do my job, do whatever I can to get myself a ribbie and help the team get a rally going.”
Union retook the lead with an unearned run off Hacker in the bottom of the fifth, but Salem took it back for good in the sixth when Owls second baseman Hengel Brown threw to the first base side of the plate trying to cut down a run Pankowski’s ground ball and Roman Hernandez took a pitch off the helmet after the Owls intentionally walked Hacker in front of him to load the bases.
“I’m not looking to get hit by a pitch, but I am looking to get on base and get that winning run in no matter what it is,” Hernandez said. “It could’ve been a walk, a wild pitch, anything I could’ve done to help my team out. They’ve had my back, they’ve always cheered me on this entire season, it’s the least I can do to take one for the team.
“They intentionally walked Hacker to get to me, so I kind of took that personal, to be honest with you. The first couple swings I decided to swing for the fences a little bit, but then I realized that’s not the approach I needed to be having. I adjusted and got the game winning run.”
They added two insurance runs in the seventh on Chase Hortiz’ long sacrifice fly to left and Jason LeBold’s RBI single that handcuffed the third baseman.
Hacker stared down threats in each of his first two innings on the mound. He gave up the run in the fifth and In the sixth the Owls loaded the bases with one out, but he got out of it with a strikeout and ground out to third.
“I love it,” the sophomore right-hander said of the pressure. “You’ve probably heard the expression pressure make diamonds and if you want to be the best you’ve got to shine the brightest. No matter who the team is, no matter who we play, when we play them, how we play them, I want to win and if it’s up to me I’m going to make it happen.
“I think my willingness to win rubs off on the team, so whatever needs to happen needs to happen. It’s easier to rally around someone who wants to win and is busting his butt to do that. I have full confidence in my guys. Even after the couple errors. It was like we’re gonna get these runs back and we’re gonna shut ’em down.”
Holt handed the ball to Pat Seitzinger for the game that would get the Mighty Oaks in the playoffs. Seitzinger, pitching on Carneys Point mound for only the third time in 12 appearances this season, although it was technically a road game.
The sophomore left-hander threw 90 pitches over five innings, giving up two runs, five hits and struck out four. He walked two and hit two. Joe D’Amato worked the last two, facing eight batters, striking out three and getting a double play.
“I felt good,” Seitzinger said. “I pitched in a big game last year, probably the biggest game, so I didn’t feel any pressure. I didn’t really have everything, but I felt good enough to win.”
The Mighty Oaks had 10 hits in the first game, but took advantage of five Union errors and 20 walks and three hit batsmen. Every batter in the lineup reached base at least once. Eight of the nine spots in the lineup scored at least one run.
Colin McLaughlin enjoyed his first-ever four-hit college game, going 4-for-4 with a sacrifice fly. The freshman third baseman kept it going in the nightcap with a single in his first at-bat and two walks in four plate appearances. He had been three for his last 26, but had cut down on his early-season strikeouts considerably.
“It feels amazing,” he said. “I feel as of recently I’ve been making pretty good contact here and it just felt really good to see those balls finally dropping, to see something go my way. Nothing changed at the plate, those balls were just falling today.”
Unlike Friday’s series opener that was tighter than it should’ve been, the Mighty Oaks took control of their destiny with three runs in each of the first three innings. Hernandez had a two-run double in the first, Hacker had a two-run single in the second, and McLaughlin’s sacrifice fly and two bases-loaded walks (among five passes in a row) highlighted the third.
NOTES: The Mighty Oaks serenades assistant coach Jake MacNellis with a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” in the outfield huddle after the game … Hacker picked up his national leading 60th stolen base of the season in the opener. He needs eight for 100 in his JUCO career … If the playoffs were to start today, RCSJ-Gloucester would host Montco, Brookdale would host Salem, RCSJ-Cumberland would host Northampton and Middlesex would host Camden. There are six game the next two days that would impact the standings, the most significant for Salem being Montco at Ocean.
| Salem | 333 | 141 | 1- | 16 | 10 | 0 |
| Union | 010 | 100 | 0- | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| Salem | 000 | 042 | 2- | 8 | 7 | 5 |
| Union | 004 | 010 | 0- | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| REGION XIX D-III | R19 | ALL | GSAC |
| RCSJ-Gloucester | 27-5 | 33-10 | 19-5 |
| Brookdale | 25-8 | 38-10-1 | 20-5 |
| RCSJ-Cumberland | 24-9 | 32-11-1 | 18-6 |
| Middlesex | 23-10 | 33-15 | 18-8 |
| Camden | 21-11 | 24-15 | 14-10 |
| Northampton | 21-11 | 30-17 | |
| SALEM CC | 18-15 | 23-26 | 15-11 |
| Montgomery | 17-15 | 17-15 | |
| Ocean | 15-18 | 18-21 | 10-15 |
| Bergen | 11-22 | 13-29 | 11-16 |
| Atlantic Cape | 5-27 | 5-27 | 2-22 |
| Union | 3-28 | 7-31 | 0-25 |
| Delaware County | 1-32 | 2-32 |
SUNDAY’S GAMES
Union at Northampton (2)
Monroe-Bronx at Brookdale
Suffolk CC at Middlesex (2)
Sussex at UConn-Avery Point (2)
MONDAY’S GAMES
Camden at Delaware County, resumption
Montgomery at Ocean
RCSJ-Gloucester at Atlantic Cape
Bucks County at Northampton
Riverview Sports News 