Salem County squad puts together late-game rally to knock off Millville American, earn a spot in Thursday’s District 3 Little League Tournament semifinals

DISTRICT 3 FINALS
Wednesday’s Games
At Millville
South Vineland 4, East Vineland 1
Penns Grove 6, Millville American 3
Thursday’s Game
At North Vineland
East Vineland vs. Penns Grove, 7 p.m.
Saturday’s Championship Game
At South Vineland
South Vineland vs. Thursday’s winner, 7 p.m.
Sunday’s Game
At South Vineland
If necessary, 7 p.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

MILLVILLE – For four innings Wednesday night it looked like Penns Grove’s historic run in the District 3 Little League Tournament was going to end on a foreign field an hour from home. But then they came alive to stay alive.

After being handcuffed for four innings by Millville American starter Elijah Roman, Penns Grove used a combination of timely hitting and aggressive base running to erupt for five runs in the fifth inning against reliever Jackson Haley to pull off a 6-3 win to play another day.

Penns Grove, the No. 1 seed from the American pool, will play East Vineland, the No. 1 seed from the National pool, in another elimination game Thursday 7 p.m. at the North Vineland LL complex. That winner will play South Vineland for the district title Saturday (and Sunday, if necessary).

“We were 100 percent coming into this game to win,” Penns Grove manager Steve Raymond said. “They came with energy today, ready to win. The boys were ready to win 100 percent.”

But just like in their division-clinching pool-play win over the Americans here last Friday, it took them a while to get going.

The Salem County survivors couldn’t get anything going against Roman. They managed just one hit, four baserunners and struck out eight times before he was lifted after 68 pitches with the aim of having him available if the Americans made it to a Sunday championship showdown. 

The strategy backfired. Roman hit Achillius Vong with his final pitch to start the fifth. The harder-throwing Haley walked S.J. Poindexter and then Tanner Raymond singled home Vong. Poindexter scored on a passed ball and Nolan O’Brien doubled home Raymond to tie the game.

“I’ve just been working on hitting the ball,” O’Brien said. “I know I was 0-for-3 Monday against South Vineland, but I got that out of my head, reset my mind at the plate and just went up there knowing I would hit the ball.”

O’Brien then stole third and Anthony Handte walked to put runners at the corner. Handte moved into scoring position with a stolen base and then things really got interesting.

O’Brien started doing his “Achillius Shuffle” down the third-base line, mimicking his teammate’s long, dancing leads on the basepaths just daring the Americans to make a throw. Millville catcher Nate Shelton obliged and when his throw went over Roman and down the left field line both O’Brien and Handte scored to give their team the lead.

They added another run in the sixth on Vong’s sharp RBI double down the left-field line.

“I knew they were going to throw the ball down to third base at some time and they were going to make a mistake some time, just like coach (Jeff) Robertson says,” O’Brien said. “Whatever team makes the most mistakes is the team that will go home, but today we didn’t make too many mistakes.

“We really try to be aggressive on the basepaths. Coach Robertson at third tells us to be aggressive every time we get on the bases and that’s what we were focusing on today.”

Supporting that mindset of coming in to win, Penns Grove allowed Vong to pitch a complete game, knowing it would burn him for the rest of the district finals. After a first inning in which nothing much went right, Vong settled in and gave up only one more hit, three base runners and struck out 12 over the final five innings.

Millville’s first three batters reached base safely against the Penns Grove ace and all three scored. 

Haley drew a leadoff walk, Noah Rodriguez singled past third and Shelton reached on an error to load the bases. Haley scored when Penns Grove unsuccessful went to first on C.J. Tipton’s grounder to the right side of the infield and Rodriguez raced in right behind him from second. Shelton scored on Lucas Campachano’s infield single to make it 3-0.

“That first inning did take the wind out of our sails a little bit, but they just kept hacking and hacking and hacking,” Raymond said. “When we were down I told them we can’t give up. And when we were (in the outfield huddle) talking to them I told them that’s why you can’t give up until strike three is called on the last out or a ball’s out in the field. You just can’t.”

After that, Vong did his thing on the mound and in the late innings the Penns Grove hitters followed suit.

“I know why they scored three runs; they were teeing off on my fastball,” Vong said. “I realized that and in the second inning I started mixing in my curveball and slider. It started working out for me and shut (them) down for the last five innings.”

NOTES: Penns Grove entered the district tournament having not won a game since 2011 and hadn’t won a game in the finals since well before that. It is now 4-2 this year and three wins away from its first district title since 1965 (when it was in District 15) … The team sang “Happy Birthday” to O’Brien after the game and will likely do the same for Aiden Robertson Thursday. O’Brien’s birthday actually was Tuesday, but the game was postponed because of inclement weather … Penns Grove is expected to use multiple pitchers Thursday in hopes of holding Jimmy LaPalomento “unless we need him” to have him available for Saturday … East Vineland lost to South Vineland 4-1 in the continuation of their suspended winner’s bracket game. South broke a 1-1 tie with three runs in the fifth and held on.

PENNS GROVE 6, MILLVILLE AMERICAN 3

Tuesday night’s second round of the District 3 Little League finals in Millville was postponed due to rain. Both scheduled games will be played Wednesday at the Millville LL complex.

Action will resume at 5:45 p.m. with the continuation of the East Vineland-South Vineland winner’s bracket game that was suspended with two outs in the top of the first and South Vineland leading 1-0. Elijauh Perez gave South Vineland the lead with a two-out homer on an 0-2 pitch.

The elimination game between Penns Grove and Millville will follow.

The rescheduling moves the loser’s bracket final to 7 p.m. Thursday at North Vineland and a potential “if” game for the championship to 7 p.m. Sunday at South Vineland.

Here are the pool play batting and pitching statistics for the four teams in the N.J. District 3 Little League Tournament finals bracket

DISTRICT 3 TOURNAMENT
Monday at Elmer LL
N2 South Vineland (2-1) vs. A1 Penns Grove (3-1), 5:45 p.m.
A2 Millville American (3-1) vs. N1 East Vineland (2-1), 8 p.m.
Tuesday at Millville American LL
Monday’s winners, 5:45 p.m.
Monday’s losers, 8 p.m.

Batting

Pitching

Millville American edges Pennsville in winner-take-all pool game to claim second division spot in District 3 bracket stage

DISTRICT 3 TOURNAMENT
Saturday’s Games
Millville American 5, Pennsville 2
North Vineland 5, Buena 3

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – As Pennsville manager Jay Weatherbee watched the final out of the game disappear into the glove of the right fielder from the third base coach’s box, his head slumped and his body bent at the waist. He was hoping his Little League All-Stars could add to the legacy set by their predecessors last year, but they just couldn’t pull it off.

The Little Eagles had a shot to advance to the District 3 Tournament finals and were in it to the end, but fell to Millville American in a winner-take-all game for the second seed out of the American Division 5-2. Millville now plays National No. 1 East Vineland in Monday’s 8 p.m. opening round bracket game at Elmer Little League.

When Penns Grove rallied from a two-run deficit to beat Millville Friday and win the American Division pool, it set up Saturday’s last-day showdown between Millville and Pennsville for the final playoff spot. The winner also would be 3-1 in pool play, but Penns Grove held the head-to-head tiebreaker over whichever team won to earn the division’s No. 1 seed.

“They beat us,” Weatherbee said. “Again, small mistakes we make early on in the game come back to bite us, just like every game.

“This time we just couldn’t overcome it.”

Millville took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, but Pennsville tied it in the bottom of the inning. Chase Dolden led off with a double, moved to second on Pat Galloway’s ground out to short and scored on Brayden Weatherbee’s ground out to third. Starting pitcher Trey Sam followed with a solo homer to tie the game.

“That felt great,” Sam said. “I thought we had a chance, but our defense …”

After the home run Pennsville managed only four hits (all singles) and five baserunners the rest of the game against three Millville pitchers. Hard-throwing Nate Shelton, who finished the Penns Grove game Friday, pitched the final three shutout innings, giving up two infield hits, walking none and striking out four.

“The kids bounced right back after last night’s (loss),” Millville manager Dan Shelton said. “I was definitely a little worried about it, but they came with the heads ready to go and they got the job done.”

Dolden followed Sam to the mound for Pennsville in the third “really hyped” and threw only three pitches to get his first three outs. He kept Millville off the board in the fourth and fifth innings before the visitors pushed a final run across in the sixth.

“Just come in and do what I normally do,” Dolden said of his mindset. “I really wanted to win because I wanted my revenge on Penns Grove.”

Millville manufactured its other three runs to get and extend the lead. C.J. Tipton raced home on a wild pitch in the second inning to break the tie, Lucas Campachano scored on Noah Rodriguez’ sacrifice fly in the third and Nate Shelton stole home in the sixth.

Sam said the Americans were “probably the most aggressive team” he’s faced. They had seven hits in the game and took nine extra bases.

“I play baserunning, baserunning is my thing,” Millville manager Shelton said. “I manufacture runs by baserunning. If a man gets on base, my job is to score them any way possible. That’s just my job. I teach it hard.”

MILLVILLE AMERICAN 5, PENNSVILLE 2

District 3 standings

DISTRICT 3 FINALS
(Double-loss elimination)
Monday at Elmer
G1: Penns Grove vs. South Vineland, 5:45 p.m.
G2: East Vineland vs. Millville American, 8 p.m.
Tuesday at Millville
G3: Winner G1 vs. Winner G2, 5:45 p.m.
G4: Loser G1 vs. Loser G2, 8 p.m.
Wednesday at North Vineland
G5: Loser G3 vs. Winner G4, 7 p.m.
Thursday at South Vineland
G6: Winner G3 vs. Winner G5, 7 p.m.
Friday at South Vineland
G7: If necessary, 7 p.m.

SECTION IV TOURNAMENT
At West Deptford LL
(Double-loss elimination)
(Opening games)
July 11
District 3 vs. District 16, 6 p.m.
District 14 vs. District 15, 8 p.m.
July 12
District 3-District 16 winner vs. District 13, 5 p.m.

Program that hadn’t won a district tournament game or gone to district finals in 14 years completed 3-1 run in pool play to claim top seed from American Division

DISTRICT 3 LL TOURNAMENT
Friday’s Games
Penns Grove 7, Millville American 3
South Vineland 11, Elmer 1

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

MILLVILLE – A Penns Grove Little League program that hadn’t won a district tournament game or gone to the district finals since 2011 – two years before any of their current players were even born – completed a 3-1 run in pool play Friday night to claim the No. 1 seed from the American Division into next week’s District 3 finals.

Penns Grove rallied from a two-run fourth-inning deficit to beat Millville American 7-3 to win their division and set up a winner-take-all showdown between Millville and host Pennsville Saturday for the pool’s second spot. The winner also would be 3-1 in the pool, but Penns Grove owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over both.

Penns Grove will play National No. 2 South Vineland in Monday’s opening round of bracket play at the Elmer LL complex. The Millville-Pennsville winner gets National No. 1 East Vineland. It’s the first time in 18 years they won more than one game in pool play.

“I just told them it’s the first time in 14 years (they’d won in the tournament), 29 straight losses, and now we’re going into the bracket,” Penns Grove manager Steve Raymond said. “I told them they’ve got to realize what they got here. It’s a good team and you saw tonight it’s not just one person. Everybody comes in clutch.”

Penns Grove, which had to win Friday to advance after laying an egg in its last game at Buena, took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Aiden Robertson get it started with a leadoff triple into the right field corner and scoring on Achillius Vong’s RBI ground out.

Vong made his first start since no-hitting Pennsville last Saturday and held Millville scoreless for three innings with the help of five strikeouts and a couple nice defensive plays by his teammates. But Millville reached him for three in the fourth to take the lead and get him off the mound.

Vong came out after 61 pitches so Penns Grove could have him available Monday.

“We had a gameplan that we came in with (and) we ended up sticking with it,” Raymond said. “Towards the middle when they were starting to get to Achillius, I was kind of bouncing around like should we leave him in and let him finish it and we lose him for the bracket, or do we save him and we get him for the second game.

“We decided to save him. It was a group thing. When I went to the mound I told him we’re thinking of bringing Jimmy (LaPalomento) in so we can have you for the bracket. He was he was good for it. Everybody’s a team player … As long as they come out here fired up with energy they’re going to win. They find a way to win. Whatever we need it happens.”

LaPalomento kept Millville off the board for the rest of the game. He threw 2 1/3 innings of no-hit relief and struck out four of the eight hitters he faced.

“I was a little scared at first, but I had the bottom of the lineup so I just tried to gun them all down,” LaPalomento said.

Penns Grove gave their reliever the lead in the bottom of the fourth when they went through three Millville pitchers to score three runs. The runs came on consecutive bases-loaded walks to Tanner Raymond, LaPalomento and Nolan O’Brien (for the lead). They had only two hits in the game but took advantage of nine walks and a hit batsman.

Their other hit, S.J. Poindexter’s two-run bases-loaded double, broke it open in the sixth, a hit for which manager Raymond dug into his bag to present the left fielder a brand new game ball. Vong drove in the final run with another infield out.

“I thought it was going to be caught at first until I saw it heading toward the fence and finally hit the fence,” Poindexter said. “I didn’t think I was going to hit. I struck out a lot of times and lost all my confidence, but once I gained my confidence back by getting the hit I felt good about myself.”

“Shawn hit like that during the season,” Raymond said. “That’s what we expect out of him. He’s a hitter. He’s fast. He’s a hitter. I saw it all season. I think now that he did that we’re going to start seeing a lot more of it.”

Each of the last three years Poindexter, his father and granddad have made the trip to Williamsport to take in some of the Little League World Series. After celebrating his team’s historic win Friday he readily stated his goal going forward.

“I just want to go to Williamsport,” he said.

And he wasn’t talking about as a fan.

“That’s awesome,” Raymond said. “They’ve got goals and hopefully the three of us coaches can get ‘em there.”

PENNS GROVE 7, MILLVILLE 3

SOUTH VINELAND 11, ELMER 1: South Vineland ended Elmer’s run in the tournament by taking advantage of seven walks and holding their visitors to two hits.

The winners took a 1-0 lead in the first with four walks and broke it open with four runs in the third. They eventually walked it off with four runs in the fifth.

Brandon D’Agostino and Cash Williams had Elmer’s two hits. Cayden Becker scored their only run when he led off the fifth with a walk, then stole second, third and home.

South Vineland will play Penns Grove in the opening round of bracket play Monday at Elmer.

SOUTH VINELAND 11, ELMER 1

District 3 standings

Friday’s Games
Penns Grove 7, Millville American 3
South Vineland 11, Elmer 1
Saturday’s Games
Millville American at Pennsville, 5 p.m.
Buena at North Vineland, 5 p.m.
(End of pool play)

DISTRICT 3 FINALS
(Double-loss elimination)
Monday at Elmer
G1: Penns Grove vs. South Vineland, 5:45 p.m.
G2: East Vineland vs. Millville American or Pennsville, 8 p.m.
Tuesday at Millville
G3: Winner G1 vs. Winner G2, 5:45 p.m.
G4: Loser G1 vs. Loser G2, 8 p.m.
Wednesday at North Vineland
G5: Loser G3 vs. Winner G4, 7 p.m.
Thursday at South Vineland
G6: Winner G3 vs. Winner G5, 7 p.m.
Friday at South Vineland
G7: If necessary, 7 p.m.

Pennsville holds District 3 LL Tournament destiny in their hands after walk-off win, combined no-hitter over North Vineland

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

VINELAND – Pennsville manager Jay Weatherbee could spend hours trying to figure all the scenarios that would get his team to the bracket round of the District 3 Little League Tournament, but he reduced it all to three words made famous by a legendary NFL owner.

Just win, baby.

Pennsville put itself in a position to advance to the next stage of the tournament with a 10-0 four-inning no-hitter over host North Vineland. As much as the next two days will have a bearing on the seedings, as near as Weatherbee can figure his team just has to win its pool play final against Millville to get in.

“(All those scenarios) doesn’t really matter,” Weatherbee said. “My boys have to come ready to play Saturday. I told them out there win-win, lose we go home. It might come down to run differential and all that, but they don’t need to know that. If we win, we’re good.”

But first Millville and Penns Grove play a huge game in the American Division Friday to set the stage for Saturday’s showdown. There are scenarios for any of the three teams to finish No. 1.

Regardless of what happens Friday, as long as Pennsville wins Saturday it figures to be in. There’s even a scenario that if they lose Saturday they could come out of a three-way tie with the 2 seed (if they give up fewer runs to Millville than Penns Grove).

The National Division pool is a lot less complicated. East Vineland is the 1 seed even after getting routed by West Cumberland Thursday, while the winner of Friday’s Elmer-South Vineland game will claim the division’s second seed.

In any event, Pennsville had to win Thursday to make any of the weekend scenarios possible. They jumped out to an 8-0 lead after two innings and Pat Galloway and Brayden Weatherbee combined on a no-hitter.

The defending district champs walked it off in the fourth when Trey Sam scored on Landon Nazar’s two-out shot into the right centerfield gap. Nazar produced the first two runs of the game when his speed forced a bad throw on a bases-loaded roller to short.

“They played well,” Weatherbee said. “Pat pitched well. He did what I asked him to. I told him he’d come out at 65, save him for Monday if we make it.

“I had him all year on Penn Tire. I relied on him a lot during the season. I know what he can do out here. I know what he had. I know I was comfortable with him putting him out there. He did his job.”

Galloway, who pitched the final two innings of the win over Buena Monday, threw 61 pitches over the first 3 1/3 innings. He walked four and struck out seven. North Vineland put only two balls in play against him, a grounder to second baseman Mason Seaver for the final out of the first inning and a grounder to shortstop Sam in the third.

Brayden Weatherbee got the final two outs on a strikeout and a rundown on the bases.

“I felt amazing,” Galloway said. “Everything was going my way the whole day. I just had to throw strikes and try to get the team a win.”

PENNSVILLE 10, NORTH VINELAND 0

District 3 standings

Thursday’s Games
Pennsville 10, North Vineland 0
West Cumberland 11, East Vineland 1
Friday’s Games
Penns Grove at Millville, 5:45 p.m.
Elmer at South Vineland, 5:45 p.m.
Saturday’s Games
Millville at Pennsville, 5:45 p.m.
Buena at North Vineland, 5:45 p.m.
End of pool play

AMERICAN DIVISION PLAYOFF BREAKDOWN

On Friday:
if Millville beats Penns Grove: Millville 3-0, Penns Grove 2-2, Pennsville 2-1
If Penns Grove beats Millville: Penns Grove 3-1, Millville 2-1, Pennsville 2-1

On Saturday:
Millville beats Penns Grove and Pennsville (and Buena beats North Vineland): No. 1 Millville 4-0, Penns Grove/Pennsville/Buena 2-2 and the 2 seed determined by run ratio (fewest runs allowed based on 6-inning game. Pennsville would be 2 if it gives up fewer runs to Millville than Penns Grove).

Millville beats Penns Grove and Pennsville beats Millville: No. 1 Pennsville 3-1, No. 2 Millville 3-1

Penns Grove beats Millville and Millville beats Pennsville: No. 1 Penns Grove 3-1, No. 2 Millville 3-1

Penns Grove beats Millville and Pennsville beats Millville: No. 1 Penns Grove 3-1, No. 2 Pennsville 3-1

NATIONAL DIVISION PLAYOFF BREAKDOWN
No. 1 East Vineland, Elmer-South Vineland winner No. 2