Pokrovsky sharp against Woodstown again, Cougars win Elmer Classic, clinch TCC Diamond Division crown
TUESDAY BASEBALL
Schalick 5, Woodstown 0
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
ELMER — It wasn’t a perfect game. Or a no-hitter. It wasn’t even a complete game. But in a lot of respects Schalick senior Luke Pokrovsky pitched better Tuesday night against Woodstown than he did in his perfect game against them in his first start of the season.
Pokrovsky faced the Wolverines for the second time this season in the 13th Elmer Classic. The first time he threw a five-inning perfect game. This time, he gave up one hit and struck out 13 in six innings of a 5-0 win at the Elmer LL complex.
“I feel like I threw better than opening day,” the senior southpaw said. “I don’t think they were ready to face me opening day and I feel like I had more competition at the plate (tonight). They were fouling off my stuff, I wanted to keep going and keep coming at them.”
Pokrovsky lost his bid for a second perfect game on a third-inning walk to Chase Harding; it ended a string of 21 consecutive Wolverines he retired over a seven-inning stretch. He lost the no-hitter in the fourth on Harding’s solid two-out single to left.
The only reason he didn’t finish was he threw 99 pitches and reached his five-day limit after throwing 13 pitches Monday to close out Overbrook.
“Woodstown was a little off (the first time) … they had an opportunity to make adjustments, so it made it more challenging (in his mind) to actually go out there and throw,” Schalick coach Sean O’Brien said. “It was more impressive and he was more effective because he had to work a lot harder, I think, this time around.”
The Wolverines (10-5) put eight balls in play in this game, twice as many as they did in the perfect game.
“Not every game I’m going to get a perfect game or a no-hitter,” Pokrovsky said. “It’s fine. I flushed it (giving up the hit) and kept going.”
Even when the Wolverines threatened it didn’t faze him. The Wolverines loaded the bases with one out in the third inning on a pair of walks and a failed fielder’s choice, but the Penn signee fanned Rocco String with high heat for the second out and got Ty Coblentz on a deep fly to left to end the inning.
The Wolverines put two on with two outs in the fourth, then grounded sharply to third to end the inning.
“I knew they were on my off-speed and I wanted to stick with the same fastball,” the pitcher said. “I’ve faced Rocco a bunch of times the past three years and he loves the high fastball. He’s a good hitter, but I had to go high fastball. I just wanted to see if he would chase and he got it (to swing at).”
“He didn’t let things frustrate him,” O’Brien said. “You could tell by his body language he was going to go after the guy and get him. It wasn’t like, oh it’s not going my way, he was like no I’m going to get out of that situation. That’s what his body language said to me in that moment.”
Pokrovsky had a lot of incentive to pitch well. It was Schalick’s Senior Night and the pitcher’s two older brothers, both of whom are/were Division I players, came to watch him play for the first time this season. Woodstown won the last two Elmer Classic games and last year the Wolverines roughed him up for six runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings.
“Our main goal before the season started was to beat Woodstown and sweep Woodstown due to them beating us the past three years,” he said. “That was our main goal every single time. We practiced right before we were like we’ve got to beat Woodstown. Stay up, stay positive, we have to come out on top.”
Just as they did in the first meeting, the Cougars took the early lead, just not as pronounced. They scored 10 in the first inning of the first game. On this night they led 3-0 after two innings.
They scored one in the first on Lucas D’Agostino’s RBI double and two in the second when Eli Cummings dropped a soft RBI single into right field and Pokrovsky stretched a similarly soft flare to right into a double to score Cummings.
It stayed 3-0 until the sixth when Ricky Watt launched a two-run homer to left. It was the sophomore catcher’s first homer of this regular season and second of his career.
“I was swinging a little out of my shoes all night, but I came up and tried to help out the team,” Watt said. “I was just trying to be aggressive, anything in the zone I was swinging.
“I played Little League on every field here and I’ve been watching the Elmer games that Schalick’s played for just as many years. It’s definitely special to be able to hit one for myself. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while.”
Almost overlooked in Pokrovsky’s performance and raising the Classic trophy was the fact with the win the Cougars (12-1) clinched their first Tri-County Conference Diamond Division title since 2021. Before then it had been 25 years since they won a pennant. They have one more division game left, Wednesday at Penns Grove.
“I was thinking they had (clinched) a share and then was, wait a second, they (Woodstown) have two losses in the division, we beat them both times, we’ve got one (game) left, so yeah we definitely clinched,” O’Brien said. “We won it back in 2021 but before that I’m thinking it was since ‘96 we won it. It was an accomplishment these guys had from the start, so I’m glad that they’ve reached one of their goals.”
NOTES: Since the winning team started being engraved on the trophy in 2012, Schalick leads the series 8-5 … This was Schalick’s third shutout win in the Elmer game since 2012 … All five seniors started for the Cougars … Woodstown had won five in a row, outscoring its opponents 47-7 in the stretch … The Cougars return to Elmer Friday night to play Salem, then they’re to Cooperstown where they’ll tour the Baseball Hall of Fame and play Bridgeton on Doubleday Field Monday .
Woodstown takes softball
TUESDAY SOFTBALL
Woodstown 13, Schalick 3
Salem 21, LEAP 6
On the softball side of the Classic, Woodstown cast all its pressure aside and played loose and it resulted in what Wolverines coach Rob Hildebrand called its “best game of the year” in a 13-3 win over the Cougars.
The Wolverines collected 12 hits and broke it open with a seven-run second inning. Hanna Hitchner highlighted the outburst with a three-run triple.
Ellie Wygand went 3-for-4 and like Hitchner had three RBIs. Shyann Higinbotham, whose dad Rick is Schalick’s head coach, had two hits and two RBIs, while Kendall Young had two hits and Talia Guardiscione had two RBIs.
“That’s a big win, huge win,” Hildebrand said. “Best game all year with hitting the ball. We have not hit the ball like that. We’re in midseason form now, waiting all year.”
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