Woodstown wins SJ Group I tourney opener 1-0 behind Foote’s complete game, sets up quarterfinal rematch at Pennsville; Schalick scores shutout
SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I BASEBALL
Tuesday’s first-round games
Audubon 12, Paulsboro 1
Buena 10, Palmyra 1
Maple Shade 12, Clayton 0
Pitman 5, Gateway 0
Pennsville 19, Salem 2
Woodstown 1, Haddon Twp. 0
Glassboro 4, Riverside 0
Schalick 9, Wildwood 0
Thursday’s Quarterfinals
Buena at Audubon
Maple Shade at Pitman
Woodstown at Pennsville, noon
Glassboro at Schalick
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
WOODSTOWN – Marc DeCastro admits he’s “pretty conservative” when it comes to the way he works his Woodstown pitchers during the regular season. They get enough pitches to get their work in and then that’s enough so to not burn them out for when they’re needed the most.
That’s the regular season. The playoffs are a different animal and require a different approach. If a pitcher needs to go long to keep the Wolverines in a game, he’s going to go long and hopefully that earlier conservative tact helps him through it.
DeCastro let Aaron Foote loose Tuesday afternoon and the senior right-hander delivered a brilliant complete game, outdueling Haddon Twp.’s Tyler DeCastro in a 1-0 victory that got the Wolverines through the first round of the South Jersey Group I playoffs and a Thursday noon rematch with Pennsville.
Foote went seven innings for only the second time in his career and threw a career-high 103 pitches. He gave up three hits, walked two and struck out one. It was Woodstown’s first playoff complete game since Ben Foote’s five-inning shutout of Cape May Tech in the 2022 opener and their first seven-inning complete game since Lucas Pendergast’s three-hit shutout of Penns Grove in the 2021 opener.
DeCastro, the Woodstown coach’s nephew, threw 113 pitches in six innings for the Hawks (8-18). He gave up four hits, walked or hit seven and struck out seven. He was coming off the 110-pitch limit in the first 6 2/3 innings of a combined no-hitter in his last start
“We’re pretty conservative in how much we let people throw and part of the reason for that is so that they aren’t worn down by the time they get to this point,” Woodstown’s DeCastro said. “If I stretched him to 100 (pitches) three other times that’s, what, 150 (extra) pitches, another game. Maybe he’s tired in the sixth inning as opposed to feeling relatively strong.
“In the regular season I really don’t push people. In the playoffs, you don’t worry so much about that. You make a decision based on what you’re looking at and what’s best as opposed to we’ve got a game in six days and I want to make sure he’s not throwing too much in this game or that game.
“Once you get to the playoffs everything you do in the regular season is out the window and you just try to do what you think there is to win a game. If that means he throws 100 pitches on that day, that’s the whole point of it.”
Going into the game, Foote had gone five innings or more just twice in six previous appearances this season and thrown at least 70 pitches only twice. His high-water marks were six innings in a 6-2 loss to Cinnaminson and 75 pitches over 4 2/3 innings in a 4-1 loss at Overbrook.
The only other time he’d gone seven innings in his career was last April against Glassboro (75 pitches). The most pitches he’d ever thrown in a game was 86 in a five-inning stint at Florence as a sophomore.
“As good as that was I would bet you Aaron would say he wasn’t as sharp as he has been when he’s let up four or five runs,” DeCastro said.
He was right, in a way.
“I wish the strike percentage was a little higher,” Foote said. “I got off to a little rough start, the adrenaline probably got to me, then I settled in. I wish the curveball was a little more accurate, but I was getting squeezed.”
DeCastro said Foote was “not in any situation” Tuesday where he was coming out for anything other than he needs to come out. He was close – one batter to reach his 110-pitch limit – and DeCastro did make a mound visit after the Hawks got a hit in the seventh, but he never got the hook. He was pretty efficient throughout largely by locating his fastball. He had 39 pitches through three innings, 82 through six. In contrast, the Hawks’ DeCastro threw 47 pitches through the first two innings and 99 through five.
“There aren’t very many people I don’t take out in the seventh inning with a guy on base and one out,” DeCastro said. “We had everyone available, we have everyone open, we had everybody ready to go there … so that shows the kind of trust and faith I have in him. If he’s going to get beat you’re going to beat him (because) he’s not going to beat himself.”
“I was begging to stay in,” Foote said. “When he started walking out I was saying ‘keep me in, keep me in’ … because I knew I could finish it.”
The only run of the game came in the first inning when Ty Coblentz doubled home leadoff man Caiden Spinelli, who was hit by a pitch and stole second. The Wolverines loaded the bases after they scored, but DeCastro wriggled out of it with a force at the plate and two strikeouts. They had bases-loaded with two outs in the fourth, too, but Coblentz popped out to end the inning.
The Wolverines (15-10) had 12 baserunners total, seven that got into scoring position, but managed only the one run, which increased the pressure on Foote to stay sharp. After the first inning, HT’s DeCastro faced only four batters over the minimum the rest of the game.
“When the only run came from the first inning and it’s the seventh I knew I had to do my job because we can’t rely on our offense that much,” Foote said. “We’re just not a hitting team. We have to rely on the defense to do all the work. I went out there knowing I had to do it.”
The family dynamic underscoring the game wasn’t lost on either DeCastro although both did a good job keeping that part of it in check. The same couldn’t be said for Tyler’s dad/Marc’s brother, who was a little too passionate about the proceedings and got sent to the parking lot by the plate umpire in the late innings.
For his part, Tyler said he focused on keeping the day as routine as possible.
“Of course there were nerves, it was a playoff game,” he said. “But at the end of the day it’s the same game no matter who the opponent is, who the other coach is, what the predicament is. You have to go out and compete
Uncle Marc, meanwhile, said he purposely didn’t have contact with his nephew in the run-up to the game, but he did have a brief message when they met in the handshake line.
“The uncle part of me wanted to tell him good luck but the right thing to do was let him be in whatever mindset he was gonna be in and any contact from me could have altered that,” he said. “He deserved to go out there and pretend I didn’t exist, so I wasn’t going to do any of that.
“I told him in the line I couldn’t be any more proud of him. If you said you were going to win this game 1-0 (and) Tyler’s going to throw six innings I would be really happy because it meant we got what we wanted and he didn’t do anything wrong, which is exactly what happened.”
And should make for some interesting conversation the next time they all get together.
“It’s going to be something to talk about at the dinner table,” Tyler said. “I know all my uncles, my dad, they love talking about baseball. I know this game is going to be great for them to talk about.”
PENNSVILLE 19, SALEM 2: The Eagles’ fifth straight home win served a dual purpose: It got them through to the second round of the tournament and clinched their fourth straight TCC Classic Division title and first outright since 2023.
All 18 players on the roster got a plate appearance and 15 reached base. They jumped out with six in the first inning and broke it open with 11 in the second. Three pitchers combined for a two-hitter.
“Great team effort today,” Eagles coach Matt Karr said. “It’s always a goal to win the division and today was our fourth straight and nice that it was an outright title this year. It’s also cool to be able to get all 18 varsity guys an at bat in it, too.”
Starting pitcher Cohen Petrutz and Jeff Wagner both went 2-for-2 and had four RBIs for Pennsville. Connor Starn and Luke Wood both had two RBIs and Mason O’Brien had two hits. Andrew May homered for Salem in the fifth inning.
The Eagles (15-8) now host county rival Woodstown in the quarterfinals Thursday at noon. The early start time accommodates Woodstown’s prom later that evening.
“The magic number is now five,” Karr said. “Anything good or bad that has happened means nothing. Right now our focus is on Woodstown Thursday afternoon.”
SCHALICK 9, WILDWOOD 0: Three pitchers combined on a one-hitter and the second-seeded Cougars had enough offense to coast to an opening-round victory and match the most wins by a Sean O’Brien-coached Schalick team.
Luke Pokrovsky went 3-for-4 with three RBIs. His two-run double in the fifth closed the scoring and was his school-record tying 28th of his career. Lucas D’Agostino, Enrico Hatz and Eli Cummings all had two hits.
Jamari Whitley, D’Agostino and Cole Hartley combined on the one-hitter. They took a no-hitter into the sixth inning.
The Cougars (19-2) now host Glassboro in the quarterfinals Thursday. O’Brien’s 2021 Schalick team went 19-5.
