Pennsville’s Wood collects his 100th career hit in Eagles rout of Wildwood; includes results from throughout Salem County

THURSDAY BASEBALL
Pennsville 21, Wildwood 3
Overbrook 4, Woodstown 1
Clayton 7, Salem 6
THURSDAY SOFTBALL
Pennsville 15, Wildwood 1
Woodstown 17, Overbrook 7

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WILDWOOD – A lot of players might have been a little anxious being so close to a milestone they’ve chased all their life and not seeing it happen, but as long as he was helping his team win while he waited Luke Wood was OK with it.

The Pennsville senior needed one more hit since Monday to get the 100th hit of his high school career, which with his eye at the plate figured to come at any minute. It just seemed to be taking forever.

Wood finally reached the milestone Thursday. It came on a two-out single to right field in the fifth inning – his last at-bat of the game – of the Eagles’ 21-3 rout of Wildwood.

Since collecting hit No. 99 – a bases-loaded triple in his last at-bat against Clayton – he went 0-for-2 with two walks against Pitman (reaching on an error in the eighth inning) and 0-for-2 with two walks and an error before finally breaking through Thursday.

“When you’re going for 100 hits it’s frustrating, but at the same time you just have to realize your team’s up a lot of runs and that’s not what matters at the end of the day,” Wood said. “As nerve wracking as it might be or as big a deal as it is to some people, I always kind of push it to the back of my mind and do what I can to help the team win.

“Just through the last 10 plate appearances I had there was a string of bad luck, but that’s kind of how my approach is. I don’t want to make outs easy for them. I want to go up there and I want to get walked, I want to hit balls on the ground. If I don’t get hits because of this but I get on base that’s all I really care about. 

“I needed one hit, so it’s not like I was sitting here stressed out about getting it for the rest of the season. I needed 13 coming into the season, I knew it was going to happen eventually. I just wanted to go out and do my job every day, get on base, because that’s always been my best asset, never really being just a hitter.”

Now, he can put this milestone with his 200-plus career strikeouts as a pitcher and 1,000-plus career points in basketball. Soon he can add 100 career runs to his collection of milestones (he needs three).

He is the third Pennsville athlete to collect their 100th career hit this season, joining baseball teammate Chase Burchfield (who has 100-plus RBIs as well) and softball junior Kylie Harris.

“Obviously, it feels really good,” he said. “It’s another milestone I can add to my high school career. It’s nice everything I’ve worked for and everything I’ve done is finally paying off. It’s nice to see the results of all the work you’ve put in.

“It’s super cool. It’s something I thought about doing since I was in seventh and eighth grade. It’s one of the coolest things. I don’t know any other words to put it as. It’s a good feeling.”

“I’m really happy for Luke,” Pennsville coach Matt Karr said. “To be able to achieve 100 hits in baseball is very impressive. And for him to miss most of his junior season due to injury and still be able to achieve the feat speaks volumes … In nine years as head coach I’ve only had three guys get 100; again, speaks volumes about how difficult it is.”

After scratching and clawing to score the runs to beat Pitman the day before, the Eagles batted around twice and erupted for 15 runs in the first inning against the Warriors.

Twenty batters saw 76 pitches from three pitchers in the inning. Logan Streitz, Cohen Petrutz, Jeff Wagner and Mason O’Brien all had two hits in the inning. Wagner and O’Brien both drove in four runs. Wood walked twice.

“We came out today and were swinging the bat well and getting a lot of things go our way,” Wood said. “We swung the bats extremely well top to bottom. We had I think three JV guys get their first hits today (Jay Nickels, Jacob Hand and Grady Sanders). We just swung it well up and down the lineup.

“It goes to show when we bear down, work at bats, and be what I would call reasonably aggressive at the plate we’re gonna be really hard to beat. Like you saw today, we put up a ton of runs.”

Sanders’ first hit kept the fifth inning alive bringing Wood to the plate for his 100th.

With the win, the Eagles can clinch their fourth straight TCC Classic Division title and first outright since 2023 with a win Wednesday at Salem.

OVERBROOK 4, WOODSTOWN 1: The Wolverines slump at the plate against some pretty good arms continued as they were held to just two hits by a pair of Rams pitchers. Over the last three games the Wolverines have managed just four hits.

Woodstown tied the game 1-1 in the fifth on Caiden Spinelli’s run-scoring ground out, but the Rams answered with three in the bottom of the inning. They loaded the bases against Wolverines starter Aaron Foote on two singles and a walk, then Louis Hanna cleared them with a double to left.

CLAYTON 7, SALEM 6: After losing in a walk-off the day before, the Clippers turned the tables on the Rams with three in the bottom of the seventh. Jamison Emerle provided the crushing blow, a two-out double to center after Jackson Petsch stole second to move the winning run into scoring position.

The Rams took a 6-1 lead on Chase Davis’ grand slam in the fourth inning.

Softball

PENNSVILLE 15, WILDWOOD 1: Avery Watson continued to swing a hot bat, going 3-for-4 with a pair of triples, four runs and four RBIs. Over her last eight games the Eagles’ infielder is 16-for-24 with six of he seven triples and 17 RBIs. She has a 10-game hitting streak.

Savannah Brewer-Palverento also two extra-base hits and four RBIs for the Eagles. Makenzie Widener had two hits and three RBIs and Kylie Harris added two more hits to her state-leading total.

Brewer-Palverento held the Warriors to two hits and an unearned run on 55 pitches over five innings and faced only two batters over the minimum. She struck out five. 

WOODSTOWN 17, OVERBROOK 7: Ellie Wygand went 3-for-4, Talia Guardascione and Aubrie Rennie both had three RBIs and the Wolverines erupted for 10 runs in the fifth inning to turn a close game into a walkoff rout.

Actually, it was a come-from-behind win for the Wolverines. They trailed 2-0, 6-5 and 7-6 at various points in the game.

Rennie tied the game for the last time in the fourth inning when she raced home on Kendall Young’s bunt, then gave the Wolverines the lead for good in the fifth with a two-run single. Guardascione had a three-run double later in the inning. 

Grace Hitchner, Young, Shyann Higinbotham, Wygand and Lila Bowling each drove in a run in the big inning.

Golf

Woodstown 176, Highland 194: Woodstown’s Erich Lipovsky (41) was low medalist at Valley Brook.
Washington Twp. girls 177, Schalick 202: WT’s Tessa Reilley’s 2-over 37 was low medalist at Centerton. Lena Virga had Schalick’s low round (47).

Tennis

PENNSVILLE 5, GCIT 0
Gabe Schneider (P) def. Ilan Torres, 6-2, 6-0
Maddox Efelis (P) def. Jeffrey Smith, 6-0, 6-0
Brody Wiggins (P) def. Gabe Ferraro, 6-1, 6-0
Lucas Cooksey-Sawyer Humphrey (P) def. James Helder-Jacob Everson, 6-1, 4-6, 12-10
Ian Peacock-Carter Willis (P) def. Robert Helder-Gavin Shainline, 5-7, 6-2, 10-7
Records: Pennsville 13-0, GCIT 4-11.

SCHALICK 5, WASHINGTON TWP. 0
George Gould (S) def. Zach Torbik, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4
Rocky Monticolo (S) def. William Minchin, 6-0, 6-1
Conor O’Toole (S) def. Alex Fogg, 6-4, 6-4
Cayden Brzozowski-Cayden Brzozowski (S) def. Aaron Begin-Andy Wu, 6-4, 6-2
David Santana-Anthony McGrath (S) def. Jack Hanson-Jack Laubin, 6-2, 6-2
Records: Schalick 12-4, Washington Twp. 1-15.

Photo: Pennsville’s Luke Wood comes out of the batter’s box after delivering his 100th career hit Thursday at Wildwood. (Screenshot from Gamechanger video)