Woodstown had shutout, lead going into late innings, almost averted disaster in sixth, but three-run homer propels Delran to a win, denying DeCastro No. 100
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
WOODSTOWN – The cruelest reality of the game of baseball is one pitch can change the demeanor of an entire game. It did Monday.
Woodstown jumped out to an early lead on Delran Monday afternoon and were one strike away from escaping a major threat in the sixth with only minimal damage, but Jackson Veneziano belted an 0-2 pitch over the left-field fence for a three-run homer that gave the Bears the lead in an eventual 5-3 victory that denied Wolverines coach Marc DeCastro his 100th career win.
“Going into the game after we had to use four pitchers on Saturday, we played Friday and we have five games this week, if you would’ve told me we had a three-run lead going into the sixth inning with as well as Tommy as pitched, that was the only way he was pitching in this game at all,” DeCastro said. “That’s the only thing that bothered me about it,
“With how much he had to pitch last week and get loose and all that. I wanted to avoid using him and that was about the only scenario (he goes in). The thing I liked the least is I had to use him. It didn’t work out. But as well as he’s pitched, to have that team on the ropes in the sixth inning, you couldn’t have asked for much more going into that.”
Tucci was the third of Woodstown’s pitchers as DeCastro tried to conserve the staff for the busy week ahead. Blake Rodriguez and Talyn Priore kept the Bears off the board through the first five innings. Rodriguez, who made his season mound debut Saturday, worked the first 2 2/3, giving up singles to the first two hitters of the game and none thereafter before being lifted after 38 pitches. Priore threw 30 pitches one time through the lineup, and also allowed two hits.
DeCastro bought Tucci in from short to start the sixth and the plan was to stick with him to the end except he was extended in the inning. The Bears loaded the bases with none out on back-to-back singles and a walk, but the junior right-hander who hadn’t given up a run in his previous two outings (5 innings) almost got out of it with the lead and only one run scoring. He got a strikeout and a sacrifice fly on the next two hitters and then went 0-2 on Veneziano, but the next pitched changed the game.
“I was feeling good, I just missed a spot,” Tucci said. “It was supposed to be a fastball up and I just didn’t get it up high enough. After I got the second out a lot of confidence came back. I was just trying to take my time on the mound, but just one pitch can ruin everything.”
“It’s a tough one, definitely,” catcher Ty Coblentz said. “He missed it by probably three inches; that’s all it took. That’s the difference between a fly ball and a home run, right there.
Coblentz kept the Bears off the board early when he raced back to the plate to cut down Troy Simpliciano trying to score on a wild pitch in the first. He kept them from adding on after the insurance run in the seventh, taking Drew Sutton’s throw from right field and tagging out Jackson Hager and then throwing behind the runner and picking off Dom Favieri in a rundown between third and home.
“Keeping that game at 0-0 at that moment was very important,” he said. “I was willing to put my body and do anything I could to get him out there.”
Luke Fraley gave Woodstown the lead when he broke the scoreless tie when he singled home Walker Battavio with a two-out single in the third. The Wolverines made it 3-0 in the fifth on back-to-back two-out RBI doubles by Fraley (grounds rule) and Coblentz.
“That’s how we’ve been winning our games a lot this year, getting up on the board early,” Tucci said.
DeCastro, in his sixth season with the Wolverines, will get his second shot the milestone win today at. St. Augustine in the Diamond Classic. Typically, he’s unfazed by the attention the magic number has brought.
“I know (about it) because other people care, and that’s the only thing that matters to me is that other people care enough to pay attention,” he said. “I could not care any less … I would rather just win today than worry about what that win is for me.”
Those “other people” include the players who think the attention is well deserved and are proud to be a part of it.
“I think it’ll prove that he’s one of the best coaches in South Jersey, with how little time he’s done it in with a Group 1 school playing all this tough competition and winning the state championship in 2022,” Coblentz said. “I think it proves that he’s the best of the best.”
| Delran | 000 | 004 | 1- | 5 | 11 | 1 |
| Woodstown | 001 | 020 | 0- | 3 | 4 | 0 |
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