Pedrick’s grand slam gives Woodstown the lead for good against Schalick; Fatcher’s first career homer a slam for Pennsville

FRIDAY BASEBALL
Pennsville 29, Penns Grove 3
Pitman 16, Salem 2
Woodstown 9, Schalick 4

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – Andrew Pedrick hit a grand slam in the fifth inning Friday to give Woodstown the lead on Opening Day and from the reaction it got you’d have thought another earthquake was shaking the area.

Pedrick’s blast broke a 2-2 tie and sent the Wolverines to a 9-4 victory over rival Schalick. The response to his first varsity grand slam, which you could hear all the way to the softball field at the front of the complex, took him back to his Little League days.

“I’ve never heard anything like that, it was amazing,” he said. “Maybe Little League. I think when I was 11 I hit a grand slam and the place was going crazy, but there’s nothing like that.

“Off the bat I think everybody started to yell. It felt good. I just said, ‘Get out.’”

There might be something to that earthquake thing. Earlier in the day, Salem County residents felt a 4.8 magnitude quake that was centered in Hunterdon County. There was 4.0 magnitude aftershock centered about 15 miles from the original tremblor at just about the time Pedrick connected.

The slam was big on a number of fronts. Pedrick made a bad throw on a tailor-made double play that gave Schalick its second run of the fourth inning, so the blast brought a sense of redemption. The first time he came to the plate after the error, he singled home the Wolverines’ first run in the home fourth and then in his next at bat he hit the slam.

He went 3-for-4 in the game, his fourth career three-hit game against the Cougars. He was 3-for-4 against them in last year’s season-opener, too.

“It was a really good swing to left-center field,” Wolverines coach Marc DeCastro said of the slam. “He got jammed a lot earlier in the game so it was nice to see him be able to see that and still get it the other way.

“I know he’s disappointed in himself, too, because of the double-play ball that would have got us out of the inning; he’s so much better than that. I’m happy for him. He makes that mistake and he’s disappointed and now the next opportunity he gets he can either sink because he’s upset about that or he can challenge himself to forget about that and do something for the team and that’s what he did.”

Pedrick wasn’t the only Wolverine to homer in the game.

Jack Holladay provided Woodstown some insurance with a two-run shot in the sixth. It was his first career home run on “the big field” and helped him avoid an oh-for on Opening Day. Teammates standing around his post-game interview roared with approval when the first baseman was reminded he has a similar sounding name as the MLB’s top prospect, Baltimore’s Jackson Holliday. 

“It felt good for me,” he said. “I was just thinking stay up the middle. I was trying to get my first hit on the day. It didn’t feel good off the bat, but I think the wind helped out a lot.”

The Wolverines hit 15 homers last season. They had one in their season opener, but just two through their first seven games. There’s a sense this could be a power hitting team because it’s virtually the same team as a year ago only one year older and stronger.

“We look for our pitch a lot so when we get it we’re ready to hit it out,” Pedrick said.

Until each team broke through in the fourth inning, Schalick’s Luke Pokrovsky and Woodstown’s Aaron Foote were matching zeroes. Pokrovsky got all 10 of his outs in 3 1/3 innings via strikeout but he threw 94 pitches. Foote gave up three hits and struck out four in 3 1/3 innings.

WOODSTOWN 9, SCHALICK 4

PENNSVILLE 29, PENNS GROVE 3: Sophomore Stevie Fatcher hit his first career home run in his first at-bat of the season – a grand slam in the first inning – and Logan Streitz threw four innings of shutout ball for his first career win.

Fatcher, 8-for-23 with two extra-base hits as a freshman last season, went 2-for-2 with five RBIs against the Red Devils. Luke Wood had four RBIs, Jeff Wagner (two hits) had three, and Connor Starn, Mike McClincy, Jovanni Rios and Streitz each had two.

Streitz allowed three hits, struck out six and walked one on 53 pitches. Elijah Crespo had two of Penns Grove’s four hits.

The 29 runs were Pennsville’s most in a game since a 31-8 win over Wildwood in May 2018.

PENNSVILLE 29, PENNS GROVE 3

PITMAN 16, SALEM 2: The Rams scored a pair of runs in the first inning to get their season off to a fast start, but some loose fielding and lack of command that followed conspired to send them to an Opening Day defeat.

Three Pitman pitchers held the Rams to two hits – a single by Caleb Clair in the first inning and a double by Colin Finney in the third. The Rams scored their two runs in the first on a bases-loaded error. The Panthers broke it open with nine runs in the fourth.

PITMAN 16, SALEM 2

Cover photo: Woodstown’s Andrew Pedrick (L) talks with Brent Williams after hitting a go-ahead grand slam in the fifth inning against Schalick Friday.