East Vineland walks off Penns Grove in District 3 semifinals to end Salem County team’s historic run in tournament

DISTRICT 3 FINALS
Thursday’s Game
At North Vineland
East Vineland 13, Penns Grove 3
Saturday’s Championship Game
At South Vineland
South Vineland vs. East Vineland, 7 p.m.
Sunday’s Game
At South Vineland
If necessary, 7 p.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

VINELAND – Tanner Raymond was slowly walking back towards home plate after it was over still upset about the way things went in the game and the part he played in it. His manager could see all the way from the outfield grass the player was hurting and made it a point to catch up to him. 

The two met about a quarter way up the first base line and shared a long, emotional embrace. It was the kind of hug that was more in line with father and son than manager and player.

The Penns Grove Little League All-Stars were just a few minutes removed from Thursday night’s 13-3 walk-off loss to East Vineland that ended their historic run in the District 3 Tournament. It was not the way any of them wanted it to end, certain not starting pitcher Tanner Raymond, but when manager Steve Raymond finally caught up to his son the message was a lot bigger than any game.

“Just trying to reinforce to him that no matter what happens here, he’s loved,” Steve Raymond said as he sat in a dark corner of a dugout that had been long cleared of its players. “Win or lose, whether he’s the last out or hits a home run, he’s still loved the same way either way.”

The plan going into the game was to get two good innings out of Tanner and Josh Amplas and go to Jimmy LaPalomento only “if we needed him” – and hopefully not at all – to save him for the championship round with ace Achillius Vong unavailable due to mandatory pitch-count rest.

Well, they needed him as Tanner and Amplas combined didn’t get through the second inning.

Tanner walked four of the first six batters he faced and was out after 25 pitches, down 1-0 and responsible for all three runners on base. Amplas walked the first two batters he faced behind him making it 3-0 and then was touched for six runs in the second before being lifted for LaPalomento.

“It was pretty hard because (the plate umpire’s) zone wasn’t very wide; it was small,” Tanner said. “But it wasn’t him, we weren’t doing the right thing and we weren’t on time with it. It’s not the coaches’ fault, we came out here flat and we weren’t ready to play.

“It was getting a little frustrating because he wasn’t calling any strikes … I just wanted to try to go up there and throw strikes and retire batters so they couldn’t go up there and hit.”

Penns Grove’s three pitchers walked a total of 11 batters in the game and the walk-off run scored in the fourth when LaPalomento hit Bryce Magee with two outs after walking the bases loaded.

“The walks killed us, that’s all it was,” Steve Raymond said. “Millville told me the same thing when they played these guys. The walks got them.”

East Vineland drew 10 walks when it beat Millville in the opening round of bracket play.

Penns Grove, who faced elimination ever since they lost to South Vineland in their first bracket game, rallied from a three-run first-inning deficit to win Wednesday’s elimination game, but there was no such comeback this time.

Even though they trailed, manager Raymond said, “we weren’t really down on ourselves,” and even after the second inning “we still thought we had a chance.”

“The same thing that happened at Millville,” Raymond said. “We were down three and came back. I thought we were going to.”

They scored two in the third inning on Vong’s one-out single to right that made it 9-3, but East Vineland scored three in the bottom of the inning on four consecutive hits and a sacrifice fly to put it on the cusp again. Penns Grove threatened in the fourth, but East Vineland kept them off the board and finally pushed across the the run it needed to put it away in the bottom of the inning.

“We were trying to just chip away,” Tanner said. “We weren’t trying to take a huge lead, we weren’t just trying to chip away every inning, so we could get closer to the game.”

They won’t soon forget this Penns Grove all-star team. Before this year, the program hadn’t won a game in the district tournament since 2011 and hadn’t won a game in the final since well before that. But this team won four games, threw a no-hitter, took the top seed in its pool and won a game in the bracket finals. They were one of the last three teams standing.

“We told them we’re so proud of them,” Steve Raymond said. “We wouldn’t change a single play that’s on the team. Each one of them did something whether it was coming in relief pitching, making an awesome play, hitting the ball hard, being smart on the bases, they all did great things.”

EAST VINELAND 13, PENNS GROVE 3

Penns Grove comes alive late, but it’s not enough to overtake South Vineland in District 3 Final Four opener

DISTRICT 3 FINALS
(Double-loss elimination)
Monday at Elmer
South Vineland 7, Penns Grove 3
East Vineland 9, Millville American 4
Tuesday at Millville
G3: South Vineland vs. East Vineland, 5:45 p.m.
G4: Penns Grove vs. Millville American, 8 p.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

ELMER – The Penns Grove All-Stars were one of the highest scoring teams in District 3 pool play, but it took them a little while to get going in their bracket opener Monday night.

The Salem County survivors scored three runs in the fifth inning, but it wasn’t enough to climb out of an early hole and they fell to South Vineland 7-3 in the first round of the District Final Four at Elmer LL.

“It just took us a little bit to get the bats going and it just wasn’t enough,” Penns Grove manager Steve Raymond said. “They got down on themselves early. A lot of them have never been in a position to where they’re playing for a championship. I think there was a lot of undue pressure on them.”

They’ll look to stay alive in the double-loss format against Millville American Tuesday at 8 p.m. on their opponent’s home field. Penns Grove won the pool play game between the teams there (7-3) and are expected to send Achillius Vong to the mound against them again.

If they had been a little sharper early they might have made it to the winner’s bracket. Now they’ll have to win four games and beat one of Tuesday night’s winners twice to claim the district title.

Penns Grove hit .329 and scored 32 runs in four American Division pool games, but South Vineland starter Justin Chin held them to just one hit and struck out seven over the first three innings. But they came to life against reliever Mylus Moore in the fifth, scoring three runs, to keep their hopes alive, but by then South Vineland had opened a 7-0 lead.

Bryce Myers and Lucas Vong had RBI singles for Penns Grove in the winning and Lucas Ware scored on error as they started swinging the bats and being aggressive of the bases.

“They started waking up,” Raymond said. “As soon as we started putting pressure on them they started breaking. We needed that chain reaction earlier. That’s what we needed. One person steps up big and we usually build off that and keep going.”

It just wasn’t enough. South Vineland scored a run in the first and two in the second off Penns Grove starter Jimmy LaPalomento, then broke it open with four in the fourth. 

EAST VINELAND 9, MILLVILLE AMERICAN 4: The top seed out of the National pool parlayed six walks and three hits into a six-run fifth inning that broke a 3-3 tie. Four of the walks came with bases loaded and Ricky Bones hit a two-run double for the big hit of the inning.

It was a come-from-behind win as Millville scored three runs in the top of the first. The Americans scored the final run of the game as well on Noah Rodriguez’ solo homer in the sixth. 

SOUTH VINELAND 7, PENNS GROVE 3

EAST VINELAND 9, MILLVILLE AMERICAN 4