Stone cold

Hassler provides 4 1/3 innings of one-hit, shutout relief, locks down Woodstown’s 2-0 win over Maple Shade for Wolverines’ first South Jersey Group 1 baseball title since 2022 state title; play at Pt. Pleasant Beach in state semis

GROUP I SECTIONAL FINALS
Friday’s games
SOUTH: Woodstown 2, Maple Shade 0
CENTRAL: Pt. Pleasant Beach 9, Shore 1
NORTH I: Pompton Lakes 3, Waldwick 0
NORTH II: Cedar Grove 11, Hanover Park 5

GROUP I FINAL FOUR
Monday’s games
Woodstown (21-8) at Pt. Pleasant Beach (18-6)
Pompton Lakes (21-7) at Cedar Grove (20-9)

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
June 14, 4 p.m., at Rutgers

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – In the playoffs it’s never too early to get a second pitcher ready. The only sin is waiting until it’s too late.

Stone Hassler was sent down to the Woodstown bullpen four batters and a mound visit into Friday’s South Jersey Group I championship game against Maple Shade. It’s not that Blake Rodriguez was pitching badly, a little tight maybe, but Wolverines coach Marc DeCastro just wasn’t comfortable with what he was getting from his starter.

So Hassler was off. It was a hasty dash from his bench, behind home plate, past the Wildcats’ bench and on down the left field line. Once he got to the pen he was up throwing every time the Wildcats got a man on base.

DeCastro eventually brought him in with two out and two on in the third inning, and stayed with him the rest of the game.

The sophomore right-hander was as sharp as he’s ever been since returning from a mid-season elbow issue. He gave up only one hit the rest of the game – a leadoff single in the seventh inning – and finished off a 2-0 win that gave the Woodies (21-8) their first sectional baseball crown their state title year of 2022.

They will play at Point Pleasant Beach in the state semifinals Monday. The Garnet Gulls (18-6) beat Shore Regional, 9-1.

“It’s all hands on deck,” DeCastro said. “I didn’t love the way that Blake threw early and I wanted to make sure we didn’t spot them anything. It’s hard to come back in these games.

“I’m pretty sure before Clayton we had (Hassler) down there before Pitch One. I say this to these guys all the time: There is no room in these games to hope that it gets better; you have to find someone to shut the door. When you’re down 3-0 in a state tournament game the first inning it feels insurmountable. If I don’t like the way things are going I’ll treat the first inning like it’s the sixth and make sure that we stay there and figure out the rest of the game later.”

Feeding the Wildcats a steady diet of fastballs, Hassler struck out six and walked two in the longest outing of his career; he had gone four innings three times before, once this year. He faced only two batters over the minimum thanks to a pair of inning-ending double plays – a nifty 3-6-3 between first baseman Drew Sutton and shortstop Tommy Tucci in the fourth and an around-the-horn variety in the sixth. Hassler said he was in the groove the minute he entered the game and after that 3-6-3 double play completed his first full inning he was “ready to shut that team down.”

“I’ve never seen Stone more locked in in my life,” catcher Ty Coblentz said. “He proved himself today. He proved to himself he could be a great varsity pitcher and can lead us through a South Jersey final.”

“I wouldn’t have said he would have thrown that much if you would’ve asked me before the game,” DeCastro said. “The whole day I was trying to figure out who’s going to get the last three outs if we got there. I had different people in mind for their lineup and different people I wanted. Honestly, I probably should’ve gone to the lefty. I was riding Stone until I felt uncomfortable. 

“He was coming out for the kid he got out in the end. I rolled the dice a little bit there. If I had to do that 10 times I probably would make a sub six times, but he hasn’t thrown that much in a long time. Going into the year I was hoping I could count of him and he got a little bit injured and has fought his way back. He’s been ready for this for a while, he just hasn’t had the opportunity.”

While Hassler was putting up zeroes, the Wildcats weren’t giving up anything easily, either. Tucci gave the Wildcats the lead with a solid RBI single in the third – to make Hassler the pitcher of record – and Chase Harding hit his third homer in four playoff games in the fourth to add some insurance.

It may have been only one run, but once Tucci broke the ice, it “opened up the game a lot. It took a lot of pressure off everyone’s shoulders.”

They really were loose after Harding’s homer, although he doesn’t remember a lot about it.

“I was just hunting fastball,” he said. “I got it and took it for a strike outside; kind of beat myself up. The second pitch I got a fastball inside and fouled it off and third pitch was just a blur.”

The Wolverines showed the character of their program before the game. Shortly after Maple Shade arrived at the field, Coblentz went over to the Wildcats bench on behalf of Wolverines and handed their coaches an envelope containing a card signed by all the players and a small amount of cash as a token of support for Xavier Taylor, the Maple Shade 12-year-old who was critically injured after being struck in the neck with an errant throw in May. 

It was a purely player-driven initiative. DeCastro had no idea they were going to do that, but said the gesture “says a lot about who these kids are.”

“I texted the (team) chat and told them it’d be really nice if we got a card and gave them a little bit of help,” Coblentz said. “It might not be much but I feel like anything helps at this point.”

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I CHAMPIONSHIP

MAPLE SHADE (0)		WOODSTOWN (2)
Luke Voiro, cf	3000	Walker Battavio, cf	2010
Anthony Schafer, lf	2000	Luke Fraley, 3b	2100
Cole Mulcahy, ss	2000	Ty Coblentz, c	3000
Chase Blum, 2b	2010	Drew Sutton, 1b	3010
Aaron Wells, c	2000	Tommy Tucci, ss	2011
Nick Stanton, dh	2000	Sol Elmer, rf	2010
RJ Bozarth, p-3b	3000	Colton Williams, rf	1000
Eddie Leahy, 1b	3020	Blake Rodriguez, p	0000
Michael Smith, rf	3000	Stone Hassler, p	1000
Braydon Morgano, 3b	0000	Ray Denham, cr	0000
Chad Blum, p	0000	Noah Williams, lf	3000
		Chase Harding, dh	3111
		Talyn Priore, 2b	0000

Maple Shade	000	000	0-	0	5	0
Woodstown	001	100	x-	2	3	0

Maple Shade	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
R.J. Bozarth (LP)	5	5	2	2	3	2
Chad Blum	1	0	0	0	1	2
Woodstown
Blake Rodriguez	2.2	2	0	0	3	2
Stone Hassler (WP)	4.1	1	0	0	2	6