Pennsville denies Woodstown’s bid to advance in District 3 Little League Tournament; East Vineland, Franklin Twp. to rep American Division in finals
| AMERICAN | REC | RUNS | NATIONAL | REC | RUNS |
| E. Vineland | 3-1 | 38-20 | Buena | 3-0 | 33-8 |
| Franklin Twp. | 3-1 | 45-17 | S. Vineland | 2-1 | 23-22 |
| Woodstown | 2-2 | 26-26 | S. Cumberland | 1-2 | 23-15 |
| Elmer | 1-3 | 20-45 | N. Vineland | 0-3 | 3-43 |
| Pennsville | 1-3 | 31-52 |
WEDNESDAY’S GAMES
Franklin Twp. 20, Elmer 2
Pennsville 7, Woodstown 2
Buena 8, South Vineland 7
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PENNSVILLE – One team had everything to gain and the other had nothing to lose. As it was, the one that could afford to play loose had the best of it and the one that had to win couldn’t get going.
The Pennsville Little League All-Stars played what manager Vinnie Cascaden called its “most complete game” of the tournament Wednesday night and despite not winning a game beforehand denied Woodstown’s bid to reach the district finals, upsetting the Orange 7-2 on the final day of District 3 Tournament pool play.
Woodstown had several ways to make it to the next stage, but came up short on all of them. As a result, East Vineland (a team it beat earlier in the week) and Franklin Twp. advanced to the four-team district finals that start next week.
“I kept saying first things first, we have to win the game,” Woodstown manager Dave Murnane said. “Tiebreakers aside, we’ve gotta win the game and if you looked at some of these other games (Pennsville played) they did hit the ball and they did put up runs.
“There are a lot of factors involved. First and foremost, we didn’t get the job done. We had six errors, which is uncharacteristic of us, and they took advantage of them.”
Two of the errors led to two Pennsville runs in the first inning that took Woodstown out of the run-ratio tiebreaker in the event they finished in a three-way tie for the division lead. Pennsville starter Dante DiMarco then set them down in order in the bottom of the inning on nine pitches. Two more errors helped Pennsville extend the lead to 5-0 in the fourth and another miscue brought home their final two runs in the fifth.
DiMarco pitched 4 2/3 innings of shutout ball before coming out after 83 pitches. He allowed two hits, struck out six and walked four. He didn’t allow a ball out of the infield until the fourth inning.
Woodstown scored its only two runs in the sixth on Mason Fackler’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly and Xander Shimp’s RBI single.
“I think if we were able to take back some of the momentum it would’ve been easier on us,” Murnane said. “However, I do think it was a little bit of a hostile atmosphere we were dealing with. That goes hand in hand with the first inning where, in my opinion, they missed two tag outs that were clear as day. What do you tell a 12-year-old?
“I told them all game all we can control is ourselves. Our attitude. We can’t control the other team. We can’t control the umpires. All we can control is how we deal with it. And then I just thought the strike zone was erratic all night. I hate to point to that stuff, but it goes into why we couldn’t get rolling.”
The frustration reached a peak in the fifth inning when Woodstown reliever Ashton Wadman took exception to a called ball to Drew LaPalomento he clearly thought was a strike. He raised his arms in frustration and let out a very loud “Come on” in the direction of plate umpire Mike Messick.
Wadman immediately was ejected, followed by a Woodstown coach who came to his pitcher’s defense and a fan in the bleachers. Messick refused to restart the game until the fan left the playing area and even requested police assistance to have him removed. The police arrived after the fan had left.
“The reaction Ashton had on the mound obviously you don’t want to see that, but there’s a reason he had that reaction,” Murnane, the president of the Woodstown LL, said. “I’m more angry at the way everything peripherally played out tonight. You win or lose like a man. We lost. The sun still rises tomorrow. But it was the other stuff that really aggravates me.”
Pennsville, meanwhile, left with a sense of accomplishment. They lost the coin toss, but it actually played right into their hands.
It allowed them to hit first and they scored two runs in the first inning with the only hit being Tyler Colomy’s leadoff bunt single. They put up two more in the second when Michael Genna hit an RBI double and later scored on a passed ball.
“The first two games we were the home team and the last two games we decided to go with the visitors so we could bat first so we were not in the position where they score some and we have to come out and retaliate,” Cascaden said. “That was just a great start from the boys getting the runs early on and then Dante coming out and having like 10 pitches and getting us right back out there and we scored some more runs.”
Pennsville also played some crisp defense that kept Woodstown off the board and added to its frustration. First baseman Guage Hill turned an unassisted double play with runners at the corners to end the second inning. Ryan Lucas and Mason Seaver made back-to-back plays on the left side of the infield to end the third after Woodstown loaded the bases with one out.
“Just proud I was able to get at least one win for the boys before we were done,” Cascaden said. “Proud they didn’t come out here and hang their heads; they could’ve easily done that. Dante did a great job pitching today. I’m just proud of the boys to come out here fighting. They fought all four games that were played, two of them we weren’t really in.
“There were some games we had better batting, but fielding, pitching, everything-wise, I felt like it was the best complete game we played. We showed what Pennsville baseball should look like when everything is going good.”
| Pennsville | 220 | 120- | 7 | 7 | 1 |
| Woodstown | 000 | 002- | 2 | 4 | 6 |
WP: Dante DiMarco. LP: Ryan Garton. 2B: Michael Genna (P)
Big innings bring Franklin Twp. through
ELMER – Franklin Twp. wasted no time making its case to be one of the American Division teams advancing to the district championship bracket.
It scored 10 runs in the first inning, then followed it up with 10 more in the second and routed Elmer 20-2.
The winners sent 15 batters to the plate in each of their big innings. The first 11 reached safely in the first with Caden Goodwin delivering the big blow, a bases-loaded triple that made it 8-0. Goodwin had two hits and four RBIs in the game.
They scored 10 runs on nine hits in the second. Luke Hudson, Henly Jacurak and winning pitcher Vincent Coia all had two-run doubles in the inning. Noah Brown had a two-run single.
Roman Allen got Elmer on the board with a two-run double in the third inning.
The win lifted Franklin Twp. into a tie with East Vineland atop the American Division standings, but East Vineland earned the No. 1 seed from the division by virtue of its 2-0 head-to-head win Tuesday night.
The four-team district finals start July 6. The district champion will open Section 4 tournament play against the District 15 winner July 17 in Hammonton, then play either the District 16 winner or the 13-14 loser in their second game July 18.
| Elmer | 002- | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Franklin Twp. | (10)(10)x- | 20 | 13 | 2 |
WP: Vincent Coia. LP: Roman Allen. 2B: Roman Allen (E), Henly Jacurak (FT), Luke Hudson (FT), Vincent Coia (FT). 3B: Caden Goodwin (FT)
DISTRICT FINALS
July 6
at Buena LL
Game 1: East Vineland vs. South Vineland, 5:45 p.m.
Game 2: Buena vs. Franklin Twp, 8 p.m.
July 7
at North Vineland LL
Game 3: Winner G1 vs. Winner G2, 5:45 p.m.
Game 4: Loser G1 vs. Loser G2, 8 p.m.
July 9
at Pennsville LL
Game 5: Loser G3 vs. Winner G4, 7 p.m.
July 10
at South Vineland LL
Game 6: Winner G3 vs. Winner G5, 7 p.m.
July 11
at South Vineland LL
If necessary, 7 p.m.
Winner advances to Section IV Tournament at Hammonton, July 17
Riverview Sports News 