Pennsville takes advantage of two infield errors to score the winning run in the eighth inning, beat Pitman to take upper hand in Classic Division

WEDNESDAY BASEBALL
Pennsville 2, Pitman 1 (8 inns.)
Pennsauken Tech 4, Woodstown 2
Schalick 11, Penns Grove 0

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – Matt Karr knows he doesn’t have the prettiest baseball field in the game. Heck, it doesn’t even have grass on an infield that’s as hard as the parking lot and he’s not altogether sure he’d want it if offered the chance. But for all of its agronomic challenges, the Pennsville coach wouldn’t trade what he’s got for the most manicured sea of green in the major leagues.

The Eagles have one of the few skin infields still in regular high school use. Umpires have remarked on its appearance when they’ve shown up to work a game at Ed Rieger Field for the first time. Elite infielders have tried to stand their ground and been brought to their knees.

Pennsville’s “home field advantage” claimed another victim Wednesday afternoon. The Eagles took advantage of errors by two normally sure-handed middle infielders in the eighth inning to push across the winning run in a 2-1 victory over Pitman that split the season series and gave them the upper hand in the Tri-County Classic Division.

“It is what it is, it’s our field and I try to get these guys to buy into lovin’ it,” Karr said. “Your home is where you are. It may not be the prettiest, it may not be the best, but it’s yours.

“I told them in the outfield today we get an opportunity to practice on this field every day, we know what to expect. We know that it’s rock solid. Ever since I played here, it’s the same thing. Use it to your advantage. Even offensively we tell these guys focus on hitting the ball down and hard, down and hard. Make them field the ball. Fly balls are easy to catch. Hard ground balls on this are not so easy to play.”

The infield does take its toll. Earlier this week Mason O’Brien and Stevie Fatcher collided in a drill near first base. O’Brien emerged with a big scrape down his back and Karr wanted to know if Fatcher did it to him. O’Brien said no, it was the field when he slid along the ground.

The field can be so harsh previous players have come to call it “The Parking Lot.” A couple years ago while they were repainting the dugouts to match the color scheme of the surrounding school buildings one of the players referred to it as “The Yard” because it reminded him of what you see at recess in prison movies. 

“Aesthetically it’s not the prettiest baseball field in South Jersey,” Karr said, with assistant coach Ryan Wood asserting nearby it’s 100 times better than it was in their day. “But it’s ours and we love it.

“Everybody loves home games. I love being here at Ed Rieger Field. We’re comfortable here and we get the advantage of playing here every single day. This is our field. Learn how to play it. That’s part of having home field advantages.”

The infield also played a role in the Eagles’ tying run in the seventh when Wood raced home on a pitch that bounced in the dirt and got away. 

“This infield’s tough,” Luke Wood said. “The ball’s gonna skid. It’s pretty much concrete solid. You field on it every day and trust your glove so even if you do boot one it’s not the end of the world.”

It was for the Panthers.

Pennsville was down to its last out when it put together the winning rally. Mason O’Brien got it started by drawing a walk and moving into scoring position on a wild pitch.

It brought Wood to plate seeking his 100th career hit. The storybook ending would have to wait. Wood pulled a ball to second that got on Drew Keefe quick and caught a piece of his shoe to prevent the winning run for scoring. Logan Streitz followed with a grounder to short that got under Hudson Rue allowing O’Brien to score the winning run.

“Sometimes the ball bounces the wrong way for you, right,” Pitman coach John Hopely said. “They’re two solid guys who have been in the varsity lineup since they’ve been freshmen, both of them. Routine ground balls they probably make 999 times out of a 1,000. It’s unfortunate it happened for them. They’re going to have to eat that one for a little bit; we’ll get them ready to play on Friday.”

“Our infield isn’t the best so you have to take advantage of that,” said Streitz, who got a water bucket bath from his teammates in the outfield after the game. “Other teams come here with better infields and when they come to ours it’s rock solid so you don’t know where the ball’s going. The more you sit back, the more bad hops you’ll get so you’ve got to kind of change the ball or you’ll just get eaten up on the play.”

Wood and Rue were locked in a classic pitching duel for most of the game.

The left-handed Wood had to come out with two outs in the seventh after reached his pitch limit down 1-0 from the run Pitman scored in the first. He gave up six hits and struck out seven, but he stayed in at second base to keep his bat in the game.

Rue came out after six innings for Nick Watson in a typical piece of Pitman strategy. Rue gave up four hits and struck out six on 81 pitches.

The run Wood allowed in the first came after a protracted duel between him and leadoff man Rue over at first base. Wood threw over several times in an attempt to pick off his opposite number and it looked like he got him on one of the attempts.

“My whole thing is in that first inning if I give up a runner, which happens an awful lot, I try to pick off a bunch,” Wood said. “I’m trying to help my catcher out and make it as easy for him, too. I thought I had him.”

But Rue was ruled safe, even after the umpires conferred, and eventually stole second. He scored on a single by Aiden Stranahan. It was the only run of the game until the seventh inning – when the field had its say.

The Eagles (9-5, 5-1) now hold a one-game lead over the Panthers (12-7, 5-2) in the loss column with two winnable division games to play (at Wildwood Thursday and at Salem May 14). They’re looking for their fourth straight piece of the division crown and first outright since 2023.

Pennsville senior homers in his first at-bat back in the game, drives in 3 in Eagles loss; Burchfield collects 100th career RBI

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

MILLVILLE – Peyton O’Brien never dreamed of having a return like that. It was the kind of thing he could have brought back as a souvenir from Disney on the senior class trip.

The Pennsville senior made his long-awaited season debut Saturday morning at Millville. And wouldn’t you know it, five pitches into his senior season, less than eight hours after getting to bed from that senior trip, he drills a two-run opposite-field homer to give the Eagles a lead.

But it didn’t stop there. He added an RBI single in his next at bat and wound up going 2-for-2 with two walks and three RBIs in a game the Eagles lost 6-5.

“I couldn’t have expected that at all; I kept saying it was like a Disney movie,” O’Brien said. “It was something you only see in the movies. I wasn’t expecting that.

“That was one of the most nervous times I’ve been ever in a baseball game. From not playing in a baseball game since last July … it was crazy. I was not expecting that.”

O’Brien was expecting a banner senior year, but he has been on the mend since feeling something pop in his elbow throwing a pitch during a baseball showcase last September. What he initially thought was just a fracture in his elbow turned out to be a fracture that damaged his UCL. Tommy John surgery was required to repair it with a six-month recovery process.

He missed the rest of football season and skipped the entire basketball season to protect the injury. He only was cleared to hit and run the bases April 30 while in the Magic Kingdom. He was doing some baseball work during the season while coming along, but he didn’t see live pitching for the first time until Saturday morning.

Eagles coach Matt Karr joked during O’Brien’s rehab that he was going to be the greatest trade deadline acquisition in baseball history when he returned. And after one game he has lived up to the analogy.

“It was awesome,” Karr said. “I usually write the lineup on the whiteboard when they come in on game days and I didn’t have it up on the board because we were making some changes, but he knew he was playing today. He just didn’t know that I was going to put him right back in the 3-hole, but that’s his spot and he makes us so much better when he’s hitting there.

“Peyton, forget baseball, he’s one of the best kids I’ve ever coached top to bottom. He’s a leader, he’s a good kid, a locker room guy. He came in this morning on like three hours of sleep, walked past the coaches’ door and was like, ‘Morning, coach, let’s get it done today.’ I’m like, awesome. To have him back in the lineup and then first at-bat to do what he did was freaking awesome.”

Unless he gets a favorable report when he returns to the doctor next week, the Harford (Md.) CC signee is likely will be the Eagles’ designated hitter going forward and even that Karr will take “100 times out of 100.”

Think of the way the Dodgers used Shohei Ohtani after his injuries or the way Bryce Harper returned to the Phillies last year. O’Brien just wishes he could have gotten back that soon. Still, his wait was only about 10 days longer than Harper’s.

The original plan was for him to return Monday against Clayton, but the timetable moved up when Karr was able to get a game with Millville for when the seniors returned from the trip to Disney. O’Brien didn’t really have a lot of time to think about his return, having gotten back in his bed from the trip at around 3:30 Saturday morning.

“I woke up this morning just amped up, just ready to go,” he said. “I started freaking out a little bit before the first at bat. When I saw I was in the 3-hole I started freaking out a little bit, but as soon as I got in the box I settled down a little bit and my confidence came back.”

He took his first pitch for a strike and fouled off the next pitch to fall into a quick 0-2 hole. He drew a ball, fouled off another pitch, then sent the next offering over the centerfield fence, scoring his brother Mason ahead of him.

“It was awesome,” he said. “It would’ve been a little bit better if we had won the game, but it’s just nice to get back. I just hated having to sit in the dugout and watch and not contribute or anything. It feels good to be back and help out my team in any way possible.”

O’Brien’s return wasn’t the only landmark event for the Eagles. Chase Burchfield was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the fourth inning for his 100th career RBI. He collected his 100th hit on April 18.

As the ultimate show of respect to the new guy, the Thunderbolts intentionally walked O’Brien to load the bases to get to one of the best hitters in South Jersey and then they hit Burchfield in the leg to force in the tying run.