Woodstown left-hander Spina sharp in another May start, Wolverines blank Clayton; most of Wednesday’s schedule washed out to Thursday

WEDNESDAY BASEBALL
South Jersey Group I Tournament
Cape May Tech at Schalick, ppd. (Thurs.)
Gateway at Audubon, ppd. (Thurs.)
Wildwood 10, Paulsboro 0 (Tues.)
Riverside at Maple Shade, ppd. (Thurs.)
LEAP at Haddon Twp., ppd. (Thurs.)
Pitman at Pennsville, ppd. (Thurs.)
Buena 8, Glassboro 2
Woodstown 12, Clayton 0
South Jersey Group II Tournament
Salem Tech at Barnegat, ppd. (Thurs.)

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – Where is it written that it has to be hitter who has a month associated with his name?

Everybody knows Reggie Jackson is Mr. October, but senior southpaw Dante Spina has become Mr. May for the Woodstown baseball team, a moniker the Wolverines no doubt hopes carries on into playoff June.

Pitching in his final start of the month, Spina picked up his fourth win in May, a brilliant five-inning, three-hit shutout, 12-0 over Clayton in one of the rare South Jersey Group 1 playoff games played Wednesday. He walked two and struck out seven.

In his four outings in May, Spina has allowed just one earned run (two total) over 22 2/3 innings, walked seven and struck out 29. He has beaten Gloucester (May 1), Camden Catholic (May 9), Oakcrest (May 15) and Clayton (Wednesday). All four wins have come at home. He hasn’t given up an earned run in his last 21 2/3 innings.

“He’s earned the right to do this,” Woodstown coach Marc DeCastro said. “If you’d have asked me a month ago whether he would’ve pitched in a playoff game, I wouldn’t have been able to say yes. But he’s just continued to work past some of the struggles that he’s had in every step that he’s had between now and then.

“The last time was Haddon Twp., which was not great. And he pitched in relief against Cumberland, was OK. And the next time he started I believe was Gloucester, a little better. And then it just kept going every week until we got to this point. We needed that today. When you have only one day off and a second-round game on Friday you need a pitcher to be able to come out and not have anyone else throw.”

Spina faced the minimum on 43 pitches through the first 3 2/3 innings, thanks in part to a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play in the first inning. He struck out five in a row at one point. His defense kept the shutout alive when Justin Delaney slipped coming around third on Kevin Mosley’s single to center and was cut down in a rundown between third and home for the final out of the fourth inning.

“I try not to think about it, just keep rolling,” he said of the May success. “(It’s) probably the sharpest I’ve ever been, to be honest. The funny thing is I have stopped thinking about mechanics. I think if it were me I’d stress too much about what my body was doing and trying to do everything perfect. Now I’m just letting it free and throwing the baseball.”

The Wolverines made it easier for their pitcher to let loose by scoring in every inning. They hit three home runs. Eight of the nine starters reached base at least once, six scored at least one run. Three players scored three times.

“We were prepared to play and we just talked about making sure we executed on every pitch and we didn’t take any pitch off today, that’s at the plate, on the mound, defensively, baserunning,” DeCastro said. “We played a well-rounded game.”

Clippers starter Delaney threw just one pitch against the Wolverines when the teams played a 3-1 game on May 11, a ball in the sixth inning that led to a walk and Woodstown’s second run. He threw one pitch too many Wednesday.

Tommy Tucci hit his first over-the-fence home run on any level of baseball, a three-run shot in the first inning off Delaney that gave the Wolverines a 4-0 lead. It came on the junior infielder’s 208^th high school at-bat.

“We had runners at first and second and I was just trying to do some damage here,” Tucci said. “I got a green line, the first pitch I saw something up in the zone and went after it. I didn’t think it was gone off the bat, I was just running, but there was a guy in front of me and then once I saw him slow up I was like oh wow that really got out.

“I always go into a game nowadays thinking I’m going to get one but never really do and then a bunch of guys always mess with me saying I’ve got no juice at practice. They say I don’t even have (warning track power) sometimes.”

DeCastro has seen otherwise.

“The second half of the season Tommy’s turned a corner,” the head coach said. “He’s taken to a situation where he’s becoming a hitter that’s dangerous, not just a hitter who tries to make contact. He hits balls that are close and close and close in practice. He hits the ball really hard in games.  I don’t want to say hitting a home run was a matter of time. Whether that’s a home run or a ball off the wall, that ball is something that Tommy’s approaching.”

Chase Harding hit two homers off Clippers reliever David Chapes just a few hours after giving himself a playoff buzzcut. The first one was a solo shot in the third inning that gave the Wolverines a 7-0 lead, and the second was a two-out, two-run shot in the fourth that put them in run-rule territory. The second one went through the windshield of Spina’s grandfather’s car.

The senior designated hitter said there was “no correlation” between the buzz cut and the power surge.

“I just felt good today,” he said. “At the beginning of May I was at Ty (Coblentz’) house and he said we need to buzz our hairs. I said let me wait until after prom. He buzzed his last night. I got home from school today and I thought I had to do it. I thought it was going to look a lot worse (that it did).”

“We have a team group chat and he said in the group chat he had an itch,” Spina said. “I guess he itched it.”

The second-seeded Wolverines (17-8) now host 10th-seeded Buena (13-12) in Friday’s quarterfinals. Woodstown has won six in a row and eight of its last nine, including a 15-6 win over the Chiefs on May 16.

“This team (Clayton), we didn’t play to the best of our ability last time we played them so I think they came into this game a little light thinking they had a chance, but we knew they didn’t have a chance,” Harding said. “And Buena, the last time we played them we played great and I think if we play like that again we’ll move on.”

Clayton	000	00-	0	3	5
Woodstown	422	4x-	12	9	0

Merry, Merry Month of May

Here is a log of Woodstown left-hander Dante Spina’s four starts in May (4-0, 0.31 ERA)

GAME	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
Gloucester (W 9-1)	6	9	1	1	1	8
Camden Catholic (W 5-0)	7	5	0	0	0	6
Oakcrest (W 4-1)	4.2	3	1	0	4	8
Clayton (W 12-0)	5	3	0	0	2	7
TOTALS	22.2	20	2	1	7	29

Former Schalick standout spins no-hitter to complete a big week for RCSJ-Cumberland; includes ‘Keeping Track,’ an update on the former Salem County high schoolers playing in college

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

Lucas D’Agostino could not have envisioned what was to come later in the day. He was a little tired; the team had gotten back late from the first game of the series in North Jersey. Warming up in the bullpen his arm felt good and he thought maybe he could have another quality start he’d been racking up in recent weeks. But what came next, no way.

The freshman from Schalick went out and fashioned his first career no-hitter and the program’s first in four years as he blanked Bergen 4-0 Saturday to help RCSJ-Cumberland lock down a No. 3 seed in the upcoming Region XIX baseball playoffs.

“I had a good day, got really lucky as well,” the right-hander said. “We had gotten back late the night before, at like 11:30, so we were all pretty tired. I got to the field at like 9 a.m. and thought, you know what, it sure would be a day. It’s always the days you don’t expect it. It’d be nice to do something in my final start of the regular season.”

It was the Dukes’ first no-hitter since Andrew Simone threw one at Suffolk in 2022. D’Agostino threw 89 pitches in the seven-inning game – 63 for strikes — allowed three base runners on a walk and two legitimate errors, and struck out a career-high 10. He faced 23 batters thanks to a third-inning double play and retired the last 12 in a row after a fourth-inning error.

His defense kept the gem alive with two incredible catches in the outfield on back-to-back plays in the fifth inning. Leftfielder Christian Willis laid out for a ball smoked to the gap and on the next pitch centerfielder Kory Jenkins came running in to make a shoestring grab on a sinking liner. D’Agostino struck out six of the last seven batters, including the side in order in the seventh.

“Sometimes to start the game I get into some deeper counts, I’ll have like a 15-, 16-pitch inning,” he said. “I got back in the dugout and I only had thrown nine pitches and I had a strikeout. I came back in I was like hey, you’re efficient right now, feeling good, so that was really it. I didn’t feel like I have wipeout stuff today or everything’s going to go right. The pitch count’s been low, we’re on a good pace, but there wasn’t any mind-shattering revelation.”

He starting sense something special was brewing around fourth inning. His teammates did too and as tradition has it started avoiding the subject in the dugout.

“I was kind of sitting in my corner, sipping my water, just waiting to go back out,” he said. “My spot would came up to hit and I was like I don’t know if I want to move from my spot on the bench right now. Some people came around talking about the Sixers, nothing about the  game, just like, ‘hey, how about the Sixers,’ stuff like that.”

He didn’t have a lot of time to celebrate the gem. He had to start at first in the nightcap.

It was his fifth quality start in a row (4-1, 0.80 ERA). In his start before the no-no, he threw a complete-game two-hitter at Ocean CC in a game that helped Salem CC on its journey to secure the last spot in the region playoffs. That’s Pitcher of the Week material. He’s now 5-2 with a team-leading 1.88 ERA (second in the league) and 53 strikeouts over 52 2/3 innings.

“I can’t think of a start so far this year that I really struggled,” he said. “I’ve felt pretty good all year. I’m just excited for the playoffs, really.”

Interestingly, his latest pitching run about corresponds to the time he became a part of the regular lineup playing first base when he wasn’t pitching and hitting. Since April 8 he is batting .259 (15-for-58) with 22 RBIs and his first college homer (off Union) while going 3-1 on the mound with a 0.98 ERA. 

“I starting really swinging it well in practice probably around the 20-game mark,” he said. “I’ve been hitting, but I wasn’t really taking it like I’m going to be a hitter on this team. I think I’m here to pitch, but I can help the team on the side. I didn’t think there was any shot, then we had our starting first baseman go down and right at the same time I had started to kind of put it together hitting-wise in practice.

“It’s definitely an adjustment (hitting and pitching); there’s a lot more soreness involved. It’s a lot for the body. I’ve had some pretty good starts since I’ve been hitting. It’s, of course, easier when you’re always on the field to stay locked in mentally, especially when you need to come in and pitch. The Middlesex game, I started the final game of the series and I played the first two games in the field so I had already seen all the trends of the hitters, how they swing and react to different pitches. It’s more of like an intel operation almost being on the field and then being able to pitch later in the series.”

Keeping Track

Baseball

PLAYER	SCHOOL	GP	BA	H	HR	RBI
Elijah Crespo, Penns Grove	RCSJ-Cumb	17	.217	5	1	6
Lucas D’Agostino, Schalick	RCSJ-Cumb	25	.259	15	1	23
Andrew Pedrick, Woodstown	Harford CC	30	.398	35	3	39
Lucas Prendergast, Woodstown	York	41	.403	62	5	28
Jarrett Pokrovsky, Schalick	Penn	38	.297	46	2	21
Terrell Robinson, Salem	Rosemont	27	.260	19	0	9
Jackson Schalick, Schalick	Frostburg	50	.370	61	6	51
Caiden Spinelli, Woodstown	Rosemont	32	.340	35	0	15
Connor Starn, Pennsville	Keystone	10	.154	2	0	2
Rocco String, Woodstown	Salem CC	32	.247	23	3	24
Chase Swain, Woodstown	LaSalle	48	.380	71	9	35
Mike Valente, Woodstown	Salem CC	10	.000	0	0	0
Brent Williams, Woodstown	G-Beacom	33	.295	36	3	24

PITCHER	SCHOOL	GP	W-L	ERA	IP	K
Evan Biddle, Salem	Frostburg	9	1-0	8.10	10.0	7
Lucas D’Agostino, Schalick	RCSJ-Cumb	11	5-2	1.88	52.2	53
Ben Foote, Woodstown	Caldwell	7	1-1	9.82	7.1	5
Jack Holladay, Woodstown	Neumann	8	0-3	9.43	21.1	16
Peyton O’Brien, Pennsville	Harford CC	7	0-0	1.74	10.1	12
Luke Pokrovsky, Schalick	Penn	12	0-1	12.89	14.2	15
Terrell Robinson, Salem	Rosemont	4	0-0	8.10	6.2	2
Caiden Spinelli, Woodstown	Rosemont	2	0-0	27.00	1.1	1
Rocco String, Woodstown	Salem CC	5	0-1	29.08	4.1	5
Mike Valente, Woodstown	Salem CC	9	2-1	5.84	24.2	12
Luke Wood, Pennsville	McDaniel	10	5-1	5.09	46	37

Softball

PLAYER	SCHOOL	GP	BA	H	HR	RBI
Emily Holladay, Woodstown	Hartwick	16	.190	8	0	3
Tulana Mingin, Woodstown	East Stroudsburg	50	.319	53	0	6
Ava Ortiz, Salem	Salem CC	15	.474	9	0	9
Savannah Palverento, Pennsville	Salem CC	43	.398	41	2	37
Lilly Peverelle, Pennsville	Salem CC	46	.489	69	8	60
Bella Rappa, Pennsville	Salem CC	37	.447	42	0	32
Cayla Sbrana, Schalick	RCSJ-Cumb	25	.279	17	0	10
Sawyer Simmons, Pennsville	Salem CC	30	.317	19	1	15

PITCHER	SCHOOL	GP	W-L	ERA	IP	K
Savannah Palverento, Pennsville	Salem CC	16	2-0	6.16	25.0	27
Cayla Sbrana, Schalick	RCSJ-Cumb	13	2-10	9.72	62.2	22
Raegan Wilson, Salem	Salem CC	22	11-6	5.82	85.1	49

Their numbers may be few, but the players participating in Salem CC’s first spring football practice are committed to the vision and setting the base for the larger group coming in August

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – Ben Secouler thought he was done – with football and all that it represented for his future. He tried to make a go of it at a small college in Vermont but it just wasn’t happening for him. Twice he went, twice he came home. The school had a beautiful campus, the academics he wanted and, of course, football. What it didn’t have was proximity to his South Jersey home and he returned to settle into a life as a working man taking on-line college courses wondering what might have been.

Then one day he was scrolling through his social media and came across an item that has the potential to change his life. He saw Salem Community College was starting a junior college football program, the first of its kind for miles around. Suddenly, the fire to play again was rekindled. He was going to be back in the game.

“I saw this and I just had to grab it up,” said Secouler, who last played in 2022 as a senior at Cherry Hill West. “And I was very grateful for it, too, because I thought I was done. I thought I was just being a working man going to school. It gives me another opportunity to play, to do what I love, and also get an education. That’s a big goal of mine. I want to be the first in my family to get a degree. It’s definitely a blessing. It kind of just fell into my lap, so I had to take the opportunity.”

Aiden Alexander thought he was done, too. He went to Kutztown, his only real opportunity after a productive high school career at Kingsway, for the fall 2024 semester, where he redshirted, but he never really felt comfortable and transferred to RCSJ-Gloucester to focus on his academics. He reached out to D-IIIs like Rowan and Montclair for a shot, but got no response. When he saw his high school coach post an item about Salem’s start-up, he jumped at the chance and now has recovered the confidence he lost in his previous experience.

“I know I’ve still got talent,” the defensive back said. “My goal is to go D-I and try to make it to the NFL. My coach posted something on Twitter about Salem starting a new football program. It’s 15 minutes away from me; that’s a God-given shot right there. Why not? I thought it was over until I got an opportunity here. I feel like it’s a God-given opportunity, a second chance to get to the next level.”

Stories like Secouler and Alexander were typical among the six players working out for the hour or so that represented the mid-point of the Mighty Oaks’ inaugural spring practice and will be throughout the 80 or so that will join them in August.

They are exactly the type player retired Rowan head coach Jay Accorsi had in mind when he pitched the idea of having football to president Mike Gorman in the spring, bringing the sport to campus not as some Last Chance University but as a second chance for the many players of the region, some two years or more removed from the game, who fell through the cracks but still had the desire and ability to play. Not only would they get a second chance to play the game they still loved, but also a college education they may have given up on because the game passed them by.

“All of them have a very interesting story and interesting path, and that’s kind of going to be what the program is,” Accorsi said, “trying to help young men figure out what they’re going to do not only academically and socially, but athletically and football wise and help in their journey. They all have a different story that’s pretty unique and interesting. That’s what I’m excited about. I’m excited about all the others who are going to join us that have all those interesting situations as well.”

Sean Ferebee last played in a real football game in 2021, his junior year at West Deptford. He didn’t play his senior high school season after transferring back to Williamstown and had no college ball thereafter. He’s just been working and training and hoping for an opportunity. Because it’s been so long that coaches have had eyes on him, he knows he has to work 10 times harder than the players around him to prove himself, but he’s hoping to show it’s never too late.

“That’s why I’m back here,” he said. “I missed it a lot. Every time football came around I always missed it the most, but when this opportunity came around I felt like it would have been good for a fresh start. To be honest I used to trick myself into thinking it was too late and then I got out of my own head, saw this opportunity and decided to take it and give it 100 percent.”

“I’ve got a chip on my shoulder being as though I didn’t get to play my senior season (in high school). A lot of people doubted me, but I’m here to make a name for myself.”

Brian Pritchett hasn’t been away from it as long as Ferebee – the 2023 high school season was the last year he took snaps – but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. He tried to hook on with Sussex CC, the other junior college in New Jersey offering football, and Lackawanna, and sent feelers to other JUCOs around the country, but found no success.

He kept the faith that something would come along and kept training for when it did, and when Salem CC popped up, he pounced.

“I missed it a lot,” he said. “Every time I went to work it’s the first thing on my mind; I want to play football. I was working night shift and the only thing on my mind was football. I’d rather be in college in a dorm getting my rest for practice in the morning instead of being their working at night. 

“This is amazing. I feel like if we do pretty good this will bring a lot of opportunity, a lot of players from Jersey, to come here instead of having to leave.”

That’s what Jermar Jones had to do to play at a level he thought best fit his ability. The West Deptford safety played at Chestnut Hill in 2023, but he was so aggressive in the weight-restricted sprint program they put him at defensive end. He just “didn’t feel like I was supposed to be a part of that” and sought something more. The next year he tried to catch on with D-II Savannah State without success, but he learned something about the process along the way.

“I found out that football can become real political, especially with the NIL and transfer portal, so I just wanted to find somewhere where I would just be able to play the game of football and actually love it for the game of football and not for no money, not for anything outside that can distract me away from the main focus and that was to get better each day I decide to play football.”

And that’s what he sees in his chance with the Mighty Oaks.

“It’s definitely a second chance, not just for me but for JUCO football in Jersey,” he said. “We haven’t had a lot of shine here on the whole JUCO scene in New Jersey so I think this brings a lot of eyes to the guys who don’t get enough attention, especially the guys who go under shown … I feel like this is our time to get those guys an opportunity to showcase our talents and get a second chance at this. High school was the first, but this is now the opportunity we’re given again by God and by the football gods to be able to play the game we love.”

M.J. Hall was a two-sport athlete at Woodstown. He had offers to play basketball out of high school and even thought about going into the military, but still had a yearn to play football. When Accorsi told him he needed a player like Hall in the slot, the idea of a local player playing for the hometown college started to have a lot of appeal. He even talked with the basketball staff about playing both sports, but said basketball would have to wait until after football.

He absolutely gets what having a football program at Salem means in the big picture.

“it means a lot because where I’m from, you’re not really looked at in Woodstown,” he said. “To be here and play at the next level, it’s a good opportunity. Everybody’s dream is to be DI and go to like Alabama or something like that, but JUCO, D-3, D=2, D-1l, you still made it. You can always go from here up higher. It’s just all about opportunity and how you present yourself.

“I feel like this program was needed because out of south jersey we don’t go to like big schools. For us to have an opportunity here and be able to build a brotherhood and get on the same page with Coach Accorsi it’s going to be fun. It’s a blessing and hopefully we can take off this year and be better next year.”

Of course, it all starts with practice. What is serving as the team’s first spring practice for the six or eight players who show up every session is more or less an hour or so of stretching and drill work with Accorsi and his assistants Joe Dougherty, Chris Crowley and Damon Troy. There aren’t enough players available to scrimmage, so the work is mostly individual, but those out there every day are committed to the vision and are building a core for when the larger group arrives in the summer.

The group already has established a tradition uniquely their own, developing a M-I-G-H-T-Y-O-A-K-S jumping jacks routine to start and finish every practice, which Accorsi called “really cool.” After Saturday morning’s Open House in Davidow Hall for prospective players, the Base Eight plans to head out to the bowling alley in Woodstown for some more group bonding. 

“They represent the foundation of the program because they’re the ones who are going to help us teach all the new players how to stretch, how to practice, how to do things.,” Accorsi said. “When we start in August with 80, 85, 90, whatever it is, this is going to be that core group that’s going to help us train the new players who come because they are not new players. 

“They are the first to ever practice as a Salem Community College football player, the first of the Mighty Oaks football players.”

In anticipation of Salem CC (30-2) receiving an at-large bid to the JUCO Division III national tournament Wednesday, here is a look at the eight teams holding automatic bids

TEAM (District)	W-L	STR	L10	OFF	DEF
Northern Essex (East)	30-3	16	10-0	89.3	71.0
Riverland (North Plains)	29-2	3	9-1	85.6	66.5
Northampton (North Atlantic)	27-4	4	8-2	80.2	67.0
Dutchess (Northeast)	26-4	4	9-1	85.4	65.5
Genesee (North)	23-7	14	10-0	85.7	75.6
Dallas-North Lake (South Central)	22-10	5	8-2	85.5	75.4
Montgomery Co. (North Atlantic)	21-4	7	9-1	83.2	71.0
Joliet (Mid-Atlantic)	15-11	5	8-2	84.8	81.2

AT-LARGE HOPEFULS
Salem CC (30-2): No. 1 lost in North Atlantic A finals
Dallas-Eastfield (20-9): No. 3 lost in South Central semifinals
Dallas-Richland (20-9): No. 4 lost in South Central semifinals
Virginia Peninsula (22-7): No. 11 lost in Mid-Atlantic finals
North Country (26-4): No. 12 lost in North semifinals
Union (22-9): No. 14 lost in North Atlantic B semifinals
Herkimer (18-7): No. 15 lost in North quarterfinals (tournament host)
Ridgewater (22-6): lost in North Plains finals, national leader in scoring (96.6 ppg)