Beating the clock

Wednesday roundup: Woodstown’s 4×800 relay qualifies for nationals at Meet of Champions; Pennsville announces Hall of Fame Class, names Athletes of the Year

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSAUKEN – The Woodstown 4×800 relay team had one job in Wednesday’s NJSIAA Meet of Champions and they got it done.

Winning the race would have been a nice get, but the Wolverines were focused on posting a time that would get them in the New Balance Nationals at Franklin Field later this month.

They got it done, even with their anchor a little under the weather. The Group I champion quartet of Karson Chew, Jacob Marino, Cole Lucas and Josh Crawford finished fifth in the MOC, but their 7:54.84 set a new Group I record and got them into the nationals.

“One thing those guys won’t do is shy away from competition,” Wolverines coach Reggie Teemer said. “They feed off it.”

Salem County had athletes in 12 events at the all-group meet. Salem’s Anthony Parker had the best individual finish, placing fourth in the boys long jump with a best of 23-5. Crawford also finished seventh in the 800, Schalick’s David Stewart was eighth in the 400 hurdles and Cougars’ 4×100 relay team (Reggie Allen Jr., Michael Eberl, Zaeshawn Mills, David Stewart) finished sixth.

Woodstown’s 4×800 time was more than four seconds better than their winning time in last weekend’s Group I championship meet. They were just shy of a provisional qualifying time for the nationals, but wanted to run a race in their last chance to get in that would leave no doubt.

Chew led them out in 1:59.50. Marino kept them on pace with a 2:02.4. Lucas set them up with a 1:58.45. And Crawford, running with a “minor” cough and fever that “slightly impacted my running,” brought it home with two laps in the 50s and a 1:54.46. Christian Brothers Academy won the race with a collective 7:48.55.

“We came very mentally prepared to break our previous record in the 4×8 and qualify for the New Balance Nationals and I wasn’t going to let a sickness get in the way of that opportunity for my teammates,” Crawford said. “ I was proud of all my teammates for running this race as if it was our last and thankfully earning another opportunity because of the combined culmination of our efforts to give our senior, Cole, a sendoff for the record books.”

It was a busy day for the junior. He ran in three events. He ran 1:53.83 to get on the podium in the individual 800 and ran a leg on the 4×400 relay.

Here are the Salem County results from the Meet of Champions:

MEET OF CHAMPIONS
At Pennsauken HS
GIRLS
1600: 12. Jordan Hadfield, Schalick, 5:05.56
3200: 21. Jordan Hadfield, Schalick 10:58.85
Shot Put: T-20. Tatiyonna Crawford, Pennsville 34-6
Pole Vault: T-10. Megan Morris, Pennsville 10-6
BOYS
4×800: 5. Woodstown (Karson Chew, Jacob Marino, Cole Lucas, Josh Crawford) 7:54.84
400 Hurdles: 8. David Stewart, Schalick 54.53
4×100: 6. Schalick (Reggie Allen Jr., Michael Eberl, Zaeshawn Mills, David Stewart) 42.08
800: 7. Josh Crawford, Woodstown 1:53.83; 20. Cole Lucas, Woodstown 1:58.23
4×400: 21. Woodstown (Karson Chew, Kyle Reitz, Anthony Costello, Josh Crawford) 3:25.85
Javelin: 14. Connor Ayars, Pennsville 165-0
Long Jump: 4. Anthony Parker, Salem 23-5
Triple Jump: 26. Bryan Garlic, Penns Grove 41-4

Pennsville tabs Hall class

PENNSVILLE – Five decorated athletes spanning five sports and four decades, three successful head coaches and two state champion teams will comprise the 2025 class that will be inducted into the Pennsville Memorial High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

The class was announced at the school’s annual awards assembly Wednesday night. It will be formally inducted in ceremonies at the school Oct. 7.

The class includes athletes Tom Ridgway (Class of 1978), HJ Lopes (’79), Lisa Doran (’86), Dannielle Dolbow-Darby (’95) and Ashley Minch (’08); coaches Ryan Wood (football/baseball), Jack Hathaway (soccer) and Dan LaMont (tennis/wrestling); and the 2005 state champion girls tennis and baseball teams.

“The Hall of Fame Committee did a wonderful job spanning several decades in putting together this year’s class,” Eagles athletics director Jamy Thomas said. “We have a wide variety of sports recognized with our inductees from field hockey, baseball, softball, soccer and tennis. The athletes in this group may have had one sport in which they truly shined, but each of them were great all-around athletes.

“In regards to the coaches being honored this year I have had the opportunity to be taught by Coach Hathaway as a PMHS student and work alongside Coach Wood and Coach LaMont. They are a group of great coaches and even more importantly are great people who are wonderful role models for our student-athletes.”

At the same assembly, potential future Hall of Famers Megan Morris and Connor Ayars were recognized as the school’s PEPPA Scholar-Athletes of the Year. Morris is a multiple state champion pole vaulter and tennis player, while Ayars is football/track standout. Both competed at the Meet of Champions prior to attending the ceremonies.

**Megan Morris (L) and Connor Ayars were named Pennsville’s PEPPA Scholar-Athletes of the Year.**

Stopped in semis

Pennsville, Woodstown see seasons come to an end in losses in South Jersey Group I softball semifinals; will be updated

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I SOFTBALL
WEDNESDAY’S SEMIFINALS
Audubon 16, Woodstown 0
Haddon Twp. 8, Pennsville 2
FRIDAY’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Haddon Twp. at Audubon

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – Beth Jackson was 6 years old when Boston’s Bill Buckner booted that ball against the New York Mets in the 1986 World Series for the error heard ‘round the world. She was probably too young at the time to understand the magnitude of the play, but as she got older and came to learn and love the game the impact of play wasn’t lost on her.

The ghost of that play manifested itself nearly 40 years later Wednesday in Pennsville’s South Jersey Group I softball semifinal game against Haddon Twp. and it had as profound an effect on the team that made it as it did on the Sox.

The two-out error opened the door for a three-run inning that the second-seeded Eagles never quite recovered from in an eventual 8-2 loss. The win sends Haddon Twp. (17-8) to meet top-seeded Audubon (18-7) Friday for the South Jersey Group I title, while the loss ended one of Pennsville’s winningest seasons ever.

Neither team scored in the first inning and Eagles starting pitcher Savannah Brewer-Palverento got the first two outs of the second, just like Red Sox did on the Mets that fateful 10th inning of Game 6 back in ’86. The Hawks got the next runner on and then Karsyn McCoy hit a ball off the end of the bat that rolled up the first base line.

Pennsville first baseman Makenzie Widener made a play on the ball at the bag and had it in her glove, but it spun out and caromed towards second base. She recovered it, but couldn’t get back to the bag in time to get McCoy. The next two batters, Grace Farah and left-handed third baseman Ariana Turkot, delivered RBI singles and suddenly the Hawks had three unearned runs and the Eagles were down 3-0.

“There was just a lot of spin on it and I couldn’t grab it correctly so I couldn’t get it in time,” Widener said. “I had it in my glove and it just (spun away).”

If you’re any kind of baseball fan it’s hard not to know the Buckner play. The Mets were down to their final strike of being closed out, but stayed alive and the error allowed them to win the game, tie the series and win it in Game 7. Both Jackson and pink-haired Haddon Twp. coach Pam McCabe got the connection when it came up in the post-game conversation.

“We’ve talked all year making mistakes and giving other teams extra outs and whatnot,” Jackson said. “We’re all human, we all make mistakes, it’s picking it back up and they did, but every game you have to make sure you make the plays and if you don’t, you give them the opportunity and they took advantage of it, which is tough.”

McCabe’s choice of hair color was the fulfillment of a promise she made to the players if they got this far in the playoffs. It’ll probably stay in for a couple months now, she said.

“They didn’t think I was going to,” she said. “I showed up today I think it pumped up me and my assistant more than it did them. They’re probably the quietest team I’ve ever coached in my life.

The Eagles (21-4) did bounce back from that adversity and got within 3-2 when Graillyn Weber’s aggressive base running produced a run in the fourth and Kylie Harris’ sacrifice fly brought home another in the sixth. Weber was confirmed as a member of the Tri-Cape Carpenter Cup team after the game (along with Woodstown’s Ellie Wygand).

Although Brewer-Palverento pitched well for six innings, giving up only three hits and striking out three, Jackson replaced her with Weber to start to seventh inning in the hopes of giving the Hawks a different look. The visitors didn’t blink and erupted for five runs to put it out of reach.

Pitcher Jordan Strauss, Mikayla Callahan, Julie Broderick and Lexi Broderick delivered consecutive hits that drove runs home.

“They’d seen (SBP) four times already, I think they were on their fifth time seeing her,” Jackson explained. “She did an excellent job today with them, so I wanted to give them something else, just change it up a little bit.”

The last out Brewer-Palverento got in the sixth was her 100th strikeout of the season (and 190th for her career), a feat Jackson called “awesome.” The Eagles huddled around their pitcher as they came off the field and it actually confused her.

“I didn’t even know until they said something,” she said. “They all came up on me and I was like ‘What did I do?,’ the game’s not over with, what’s going on.”

The little celebration seemed to spark the Eagles briefly. When they came to the plate Lily Edwards slapped a leadoff single into left field, stole second, moved to third on Weber’s grounder to the right side and scored the Eagles’ second run on Harris’ sacrifice fly.

“We’ve been watching the College World Series and talking about that,” Jackson said. “Lily brought up errors were made in the games and how they have to have a short-term memory and forget about it and go on to the next one. Here they are at the highest level of softball and they make mistakes too and they didn’t give up. You have to stay at it all 21 outs.”

When the 21st out came for the Eagles Wednesday the season came to an end. There were a lot of tears in the outfield when the players gathered for their post-game huddle. Jackson even started to choke up when she reflected on the season they just completed.

“I told them they had nothing to hang their head about,” she said. “They gave it a good fight.”

Pennsville pitcher Savannah Brewer-Palverento recorded her 100th strikeout of the season in the sixth inning. Top photo: Eagles coach Beth Jackson encourages her team from the third-base coach’s box. (Photos by Brian Tortella)

AUDUBON 16, WOODSTOWN 0: The Wolverines felt ready and excited for the chance to take on the top-seeded Green Wave. They had learned people tell them that under the right set of circumstances they could pull the upset.

It would take a near perfect game from the Wolverines to pull it off and in the end they fell victim to an 11-run first inning and never recovered.

“It was a shock for sure, but I wouldn’t say it was unexpected,” Woodstown coach Rob Hildebrand said. “We knew how good they were and we knew we were going to find out in the first three innings whether we were going to win that game. I would call it more of coming to fruition what we thought could happen.”

The Green Wave sent 16 batters to the plate in the first. It opened with three straight walks followed by a pair of RBI singles. After a strikeout, the next six batters reached safely extending the lead to 9-0. An error allowed the final two runs of the inning to score.

Audubon added five more runs in the second.

“Their approach to the plate was by far the best team I’ve faced all year, not even close,” Hildebrand said. “I don’t know that I’ve seen a softball team that their approach, every batter, 1 through 9, probably 90 percent of the base hits against (Woodstown pitcher Leah Clark) were 1-2 or 2-2 counts. She was getting ahead and just couldn’t quite finish. That’s a testament to them. They are literally a fundamentally sound team.”

The Wolverines had two hits in the game, a two-out opposite-field single by Talia Guardascione in the first and Hannah Hitchner’s two-out single as their next-to-last batter in the fourth.

TCC All-Stars

Here are the Tri-County Conference all-star teams for the Classic and Diamond divisions as selected by the coaches

Baseball

POS	CLASSIC FIRST TEAM	CLASSIC SECOND TEAM
P	Luke Wood, Pennsville	Brian Cuniff, Wildwood
P	Aiden Stranahan, Pitman	Mark Manera, Clayton
C	Jake Sharrow, Pitman	Connor Starn, Pennsville
IF	Hudson Rue, Pitman	Logan Streitz, Pennsville
IF	Nick Watson, Pitman	Peyton O’Brien, Pennsville
IF	Cohen Petrutz, Pennsville	Chase Davis, Salem
IF	Trevor Troiano, Wildwood	Justin Delaney, Clayton
OF	Jackson Austin, Pitman	Dane Collum, Pitman
OF	Chase Burchfield, Pennsville	Mason O’Brien, Pennsville
OF	Jeff Wagner, Pennsville	Jameson Emerle, Clayton

POS	DIAMOND FIRST TEAM	DIAMOND SECOND TEAM
P	Tyler Wood, Overbrook	Aaron Foote, Woodstown
P	Lucas D’Agostino, Schalick	Jack Holladay, Woodstown
C	Gavin Dillard, Glassboro	Ricky Watt, Schalick
IF	Lou Hanna, Overbrook	Evan Glassy, Schalick
IF	Cooper Hines, Overbrook	Jude Dempster, Glassboro
IF	Jamari Whitley, Schalick	Joey Tongue, Glassboro
IF	Elijah Crespo, Penns Grove	Brennan Crosse, Glassboro
OF	Rocco String, Woodstown	Mike Romano, Overbrook
OF	Charlie Snyder, Overbrook	Caden Lawless, Overbrook
OF	Luke Pokrovsky, Schalick	Evan Sepers, Schalick

Softball

POS	CLASSIC FIRST TEAM	CLASSIC SECOND TEAM
P	Jessica Bretz, Pitman	Madelyn McGinn, Gloucester Cath.
P	Savannah Brewer-Palverento, Pennsville	Emma Contreras, Wildwood
C	Kylie Harris, Pennsville	Alexus Paden, Clayton
IF	Makenzie Widener, Pennsville	Ayanna Davis, Clayton
IF	Maya Hutchinson, Gloucester Cath.	Avery Watson, Pennsville
IF	Rosalina Pereira, Clayton	Maura Quinn, Pitman
IF	Graillyn Weber, Pennsville	Julia Ennis, Wildwood
OF	Lily Edwards, Pennsville	Sawyer Simmons, Pennsville
OF	Julianna Aguilar, Clayton	Madison Peek, Pitman
OF	Kaitlyn Capalbo, Gloucester Cath.	Samantha Scutt, Pitman

POS	DIAMOND FIRST TEAM	DIAMOND SECOND TEAM
P	Addi Shimp, Schalick	Taylor Adcock, Glassboro
P	Leah Clark, Woodstown	Layla Perez, Overbrook
C	Scarlett Saicic, Glassboro	Lila Bowling, Woodstown
OF	Sienna Kudless, Glassboro	Marissa Rode, Glassboro
OF	Gianna Simon, Overbrook	Cecelia Mitchell, Overbrook
OF	Ellie Wygand, Woodstown	Shyann Higinbotham, Woodstown
IF	Olivia VanAcker, Schalick	Ava Landolt, Overbrook
IF	Cloe Elliott, Schalick	Danica Maggi, Overbrook
IF	Aubrie Rennie, Woodstown	Emma Schoch, Glassboro
IF	Alaina Dufresne, Overbrook	Marissa Pasquarello, Glassboro

Tennis

POS	CLASSIC FIRST TEAM	CLASSIC SECOND TEAM
S	Gabe Schneider, Pennsville	Maddox Efelis, Pennsville
S	George Gould, Schalick	Brody Wiggins, Pennsville
S	Chase Fronczkiewicz, Clayton	Rocky Monticolo, Schalick
D	Kaden Barnes, Schalick	Carter Willis, Pennsville
D	Cayden Brzozowski, Schalick	Ian Peacock, Pennsville
D	Lucas Cooksey, Pennsville	David Santana, Schalick
D	Sawyer Humpreys, Pennsville	Anthony McGrath, Schalick

POS	DIAMOND FIRST TEAM	DIAMOND FIRST TEAM
S	Zeph Kell, Delsea	Mohammad Sheyam, Highland
S	Lucius Davis, Deptford	Bradyn Gee, Deptford
S	Drew Stengel, Woodstown	Eli Croce, Delsea
D	Luke Shaw, Woodstown	Alan Marcos, Overbrook
D	Mason Shimp, Woodstown	Gabe Martinez, Overbrook
D	Jacob Bramble, Delsea	Ben Stengel, Woodstown
D	Jude Thompson, Delsea	Nicholas DiTeodoro, Woodstown

Boys Golf

CLASSIC FIRST TEAM	CLASSIC SECOND TEAM
Mikey Joyce, Gloucester Cath.	A.J. Beach, Gloucester Cath.
Joey Zubert, Pitman	Robbie Ricardi, Gloucester Cath.
Owen Boulton, Pitman	Luke Driscoll, Pitman
Jake Bowen-Ashwin, Pitman	Jackson Venuto, Clayton
Max Pappalardo, Pitman	Burke Fotzsimmons, Wildwood
Gavin Burns, Wildwood	Chase Ayars, Salem Tech

DIAMOND FIRST TEAM	DIAMOND SECOND TEAM
Jaxon Weber, Schalick	Riley Bowman, Pennsville
Seth Fisher, Schalick	Trevor Hann, Pennsville
Erich Lipovsky, Woodstown	Jeffrey Boyd, Overbrook
Anthony Sepers, Schalick	Chase Pepper, Cumberland
Grant Prater, Woodstown	Michael Nelson, Schalick
Joey Olbrich, Woodstown	Jack Bucksar, Woodstown

Boys Track

EVT	CLASSIC FIRST TEAM	CLASSIC SECOND TEAM
100	Jason Stewart, Clayton	Josiel Figueroa Marrero, Clayton
200	Willie Weathers, Clayton	Jamel Lemon-Ward, Gloucester Cath.
400	Alexander Osayemi, Clayton	Xavier McGriff, Salem
800	Wyatt Evans, Clayton	Liam Edelman, Pitman
1600	Jake Bowen-Ashwin, Pitman	Samuel Cooke, Salem
3200	Rhys Blackman, Pitman	Maximus Weng, Pitman
100H	Anthony Parker, Salem	Timothy Gregory, Salem
400H	Jerry Seals, Salem	Lucas Razze, Pitman
HJ	Dayvon Williams, Wildwood	Giani Jackson, Wildwood
LJ	Omarion Pierce, Salem	Justice Santiago, Wildwood
TJ	Donovan Weathers, Salem	Mission Barnes, Salem
PV	Gradin Buzby, Salem	Duncan Freeman, Clayton
SP	Pedro Ibarra, Clayton	Torryn Ransome, Salem
DIS	Nate Newcomb, Pitman	Giovani Talavera Rosas, Salem
JAV	Wyatt Irvine, Salem	Jovani Rios, Salem
4×400	Clayton	Salem

EVT	DIAMOND FIRST TEAM	DIAMOND SECOND TEAM
100	Xavier Sabb, Glassboro	Colin McGlinn, Pennsville
200	Zaeshawn Mills, Schalick	Axcel Bailey, Overbrook
400	John Froehlich, Overbrook	Kyle Reitz, Woodstown
800	Josh Crawford, Woodstown	Steve Chomo, Schalick
1600	Ty Blackman, Glassboro	Cole Lucas, Woodstown
3200	Joey Saicic, Glassboro	Jacob Marino, Woodstown
100H	Dayshaun Day, Glassboro	Knowledge Young, Penns Grove
400H	Mekhi Parker, Glassboro	Bryan Garlic, Penns Grove
HJ	Amari Sabb, Glassboro	Reggie Allen, Schalick
LJ	Alex Adeleye, Glassboro	Jaiden Mitchell, Overbrook
TJ	David Stewart, Schalick	Moses Robles, Glassboro
PV	Daniel Adams, Glassboro	Salvatore Longo, Schalick
SP	Kyle Williams, Glassboro	Sheldon Goldsborogh, Schalick
DIS	Ethan McLean, Schalick	Aiden Tulane, Woodstown
JAV	Connor Ayars, Pennsville	Nyzier Wonder, Schalick
4×400	Woodstown	Penns Grove

Girls Track

EVT	CLASSIC FIRST TEAM	CLASSIC SECOND TEAM
100	Miyana Johnson, Clayton	Jaiyoni Yates, Clayton
200	Raniyah Parsons-Smith, Salem	Gabrielle Pernell-Lipsey, Clayton
400	Leila Ortiz, Clayton	Molly Wiśniewski, Pitman
800	Amanda Bradley, Pitman	Antonia Yucis, Gloucester Cath.
1600	Macie McCracken, Wildwood	Samantha Dale, Salem
3200	Lauren Streck, Pitman	Mackenzie Whilden, Pitman
100H	Anna Gallo, Clayton	Tahirah Davenport-White, Salem
400H	Audrey Boggs, Salem	Carly Razze, Pitman
HJ	Unique Nance, Salem	Zyonnah Forman, Salem
LJ	MaKayla Smith, Salem	Lily Atkinson, Wildwood
TJ	Alaina Williams, Pitman	Hanna Keefe, Pitman
PV	Kashira Patterson, Salem	Tatiana Miller, Salem
SP	Ava Rodgers, Salem	MarJziah Bundy, Salem
DIS	Destinee Williams, Clayton	Jocelyn O’Brien, Pitman
JAV	Rainelle Blocker, Clayton	Megan Wehlen, Pitman
4×400	Clayton	Salem

EVT	DIAMOND FIRST TEAM	DIAMOND SECOND TEAM
100	Tamia Smith, Glassboro	Kezia Brackett, Glassboro
200	Gia Martellacci, Schalick	Missouri Pratt, Overbrook
400	Rylee Clark, Overbrook	Samantha Sterner, Woodstown
800	Lillian Norman, Woodstown	Kelis Coston, Glassboro
1600	Jordan Hadfield, Schalick	Helen Lillia, Schalick
3200	Abby Marino, Woodstown	Anabel Schaal, Woodstown
100H	Lia Covely, Woodstown	Gabriella Simonini, Schalick
400H	London Banks, Overbrook	Sarah Seiden, Woodstown
HJ	Ashley Armstrong, Glassboro	Kami Casiano, Woodstown
LJ	Phoebe Alward, Schalick	Emma Perry, Woodstown
TJ	Jaelynn Jarmon, Schalick	Onye Peoples, Overbrook
PV	Megan Morris, Pennsville	Elizabeth Mann, Glassboro
SP	Heaven Franklin, Glassboro	Zoey Ceasar, Penns Grove
DIS	Sunny Moore, Glassboro	Virginia Tarasevich, Glassboro
JAV	Allyson Green, Schalick	Nevaeh Robinson, Schalick
4×400	Schalick	Overbrook

Girls Lacrosse

POS	SJILL AMERICAN FIRST TEAM	SJILL AMERICAN SECOND TEAM
G	Shelby Foote, Woodstown	Mackenzie Keleher, Haddonfield
M	Riley Austin, Haddonfield	Callie Warner, Clearview
M	Delaney Walker, Woodstown	Haley Brown, Kingsway
M	Maddie Eastlack, W. Deptford	Riley Walsh, W. Deptford
M	Brooke Schultz, Haddonfield	Jaime Deal, Woodstown
D	Mia Borodin, Clearview	Marley Nate, Clearview
D	Fiona Keenan, Haddonfield	Emily Coyle, Clearview
D	Sienna Struzynski, W. Deptford	Elizabeth Daly, Woodstown
O	Grace Farrell, Haddonfield	Sofia Conrey, Haddonfield (D)
O	Lauren Hamblin, Haddonfield	Reese Remaly, Clearview
O	Phoebe O’Rourke, Kingsway	Riley MacHenry, Clearview
O	Rhea Remaly, Clearview	CeCe Batson, Haddonfield
O	Emma Morgan, Woodstown	Marlina Kadar, Haddonfield

Boys Lacrosse

POS	SJILL AMERICAN FIRST TEAM	SJILL AMERICAN SECOND TEAM
A	Keegan Borkowski, Kingsway	R.J. Sciarrotta, Clearview
A	Owen Dougherty, Kingsway	Jake Borkowski, Washington Twp.
A	Myles Malone, Washington Twp.	Aidan Batterman, Williamstown
A	Robert Donahue, Woodstown	Michael Kugler, Clearview
D	J.D. Seidel, Clearview	Dane Jespersen, Kingsway
D	Cole DeNick, Kingsway	Ethan Wechter, Washington Twp.
D	Dominic Hibbs, Kingsway	Cole Aquino, Washington Twp.
D	Joseph Kopaczewski, Williamstown	Walter Carter, Woodstown
G	John Mentee, Kingsway	Joseph Hatefi, Williamstown (FOGO)
LSM	Ryan Glenn Kingsway	Jake Devereaux, Washington Twp. (G)
M	T.J. Mills, Clearview	Garrett Leyman, Woodstown (M/L/D)
M	Patrick Civitarese, Kingsway	Mason Bryan, Kingsway
M	Robbie Finnegan, Washington Twp.	Nicholas Maccariella, Williamstown
M/F	Thomas Dipietro, Kingsway	Parker Reese, Washington Twp.

Step-Up Soph

Schalick blanks Woodstown again, this time behind Whitley’s six strong innings, to reach SJ Group I finals

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I BASEBALL
Semifinals
Audubon 4, Maple Shade 1
Schalick 8, Woodstown 0
Finals
Thursday
No. 2 Schalick (21-2) at No. 1 Audubon (20-7), 4 p.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PITTSGROVE — Schalick coach Sean O’Brien had a lot of options Tuesday if the idea was to save ace Luke Pokrovsky for Audubon in the South Jersey Group I championship game.

Everybody else was relatively fresh, but O’Brien went with the youngest option in a big game – sophomore over senior – and Jamari Whitley came through like a seasoned veteran.

The hard-throwing right-hander, making his first career playoff mound start and second appearance of this postseason, calmly gave the Cougars six strong innings, setting them up for an 8-0 win over Woodstown for a spot in the SJ Group I finals.

The second-seeded Cougars (21-2) now travel to top-seeded Audubon (20-7) Thursday for the sectional final everyone expected to see.

“Lucas (D’Agostino) is a guy who attacks hitters, gets ahead of guys and throws strikes consistently, but Jamari has really tough stuff to hit,” O’Brien explained. “When he’s on, he is really, really good. We put him up against Cherry Hill West (in mid-April) and the way he stepped up in that game that kind of just showed me he was ready for whatever moment we needed him to throw in.

“I know he was nervous going into it, but once things get going, he’s a competitor. He’s been consistent in all aspects of it — hitting, pitching, fielding — and I have all the confidence in the world in him. You can trust him out there. That’s why we put him in this situation today.”

Whitley had plenty of time to prepare for the start. O’Brien likes to give his pitchers ample warning and told him Saturday he was getting the ball. He didn’t believe it at first, but the coach said he wasn’t kidding and he trusted him. He was the Cougars’ first playoff starting pitcher not named Pokrovsky since June 2022.

He threw 102 pitches, allowed just one hit and struck out a career-high 11. He gave up a leadoff single and walk to the first two Woodstown hitters of the game, then retired 15 of the next 16 he faced, including 10 in a row at one point. The Wolverines loaded the bases on him in the sixth, but he got out of it with a fly to shallow left that froze the runners and his final strikeout of the game.

He even drove in the Cougars’ first run with a first-inning double. He also walked and scored in their three-run third.

“I woke up this morning and felt really good,” he said. “During school I had a little nerves, it was one of the biggest (starts) of my career, but after the first inning I shook it off and kept going. It was just trusting my pitches and everything I had.”

“He’s done outstanding this year,” Pokrovsky said. “His head is always up. He worked off of last year and now he’s unbeatable.”

Pokrovsky came in behind him and threw 12 pitches in the seventh, using the outing as his typical tune-up right before his next start.

“We’ve done it all year, he’s done it all his career,” O’Brien said. “I knew he was going to ask me, but I talked to him like ‘Do you want to throw the last inning?’ and he said, ‘Aw, please, yes.’ He’s a guy who needs to throw to be ready for his next start. That’s how he is … so that’s why we did it that way.”

In three games this season (19 innings) the Cougars’ pitching staff has held Woodstown to just two hits and no runs. They’ve given up just two runs in the whole playoffs. Pokrovsky threw a five-inning perfect game at them in his first start of the year.

The Cougars have gotten strong pitching all year long. They haven’t even given up 100 hits this year. After Tuesday’s shutout – their sixth of the season – their team ERA dropped to 1.35. Woodstown, meanwhile, batted just .255 as a team.

“Our pitching has been phenomenal,” O’Brien said. “I was comparing our stats from last year and a lot of our offensive stats aren’t as good as they were last year but our pitching stats are not even close. What they’ve done with whoever’s throwing they give us a chance to compete and especially they’ve stepped up against Woodstown.”

Wolverines coach Marc DeCastro said his team was prepared to face any of the three –Pokrovsky, Whitley or D’Agostino, who they hadn’t seen this year – but they just couldn’t find any offense. Caiden Spinelli had their only hit, a single leading off the game. They had just six baserunners.

“It surprised me just in the fact if they weren’t going to throw Luke that he hadn’t started in a while, but either way they have three pitchers who are all good so we were ready for whichever one happened to throw,” DeCastro said. “He didn’t walk us and he did a good job after the first two batters of settling in; in that situation that could’ve gone a lot of different ways and the game could’ve been a little bit different.

“When you don’t get hits and they’re up 4-, 5-nothing, it’s a lot different than if we would’ve kept it 1 and 2. That was our thing all year. In the two (previous playoff) games alone we scored three runs. Our thing was going to have to be we were going to have to play really clean games and pitch really well and we didn’t play a clean game today.”

Woodstown (16-11)	000 000 0-	0	1	5
Schalick (21-2)	103 121 x-	8	7	2

WP: Jamari Whitley (W), Luke Pokrovsky (7) and Ricky Watt. LP: Aaron Foote (L), Rocco String (4), Michael Valente (4), Jack Holladay (5) and Ty Coblentz. 2B: Luke Pokrovsky (S), Jamari Whitley (S), Enrico Hatz (S).

GROUP I SECTIONAL FINALS
Thursday’s Games
North I: Wallkill Valley (17-6) at Midland Park (19-8-1)
North II: Brearily (14-9) at Verona (19-6)
Central: Point Pleasant Beach (20-7) at Middlesex (20-5)
South: Schalick (21-2) at Audubon (20-7)

STATE SEMIFINALS
June 9
North I at North II
South at Central

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
June 14
Veterans Park, Hamilton, 1 p.m.

Wild cards and such

Salem County has athletes in 12 events at Wednesday’s Meet of Champions

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

Schalick’s boys 4×100 relay team cut it close, but it’s getting another chance to qualify for nationals.

The Cougars’ relay made the field for the Meet of Champions as the cut off team in their event, giving Salem County athletes in 12 events at Wednesday’s NJSIAA season-finale at Pennsauken High School.

The quartet of Reggie Allen, Michael Eberl, Zaeshawn Mills and David Stewart ran 42.82 to finish third in the Group I Championship Friday and it was good enough to earn one of seven wild card spots Salem County athletes received.

“I’m glad they got in,” Schalick coach James Turner said. “Our goal is to qualify for the New Balance Nationals.

“We already know that we’re capable of running faster than we did at states. One of our runners was sick and another is dealing with an injury. After reviewing the film, I noticed our handoffs did not go as smooth as they did at the sectional meet. We’re going to work on that Monday. The kids are motivated and excited to have another chance.”

The county’s five Group I state champions – Schalick’s Jordan Hadfield (1600), Pennsville’s Megan Morris (pole vault), Woodstown’s Josh Crawford (800), Salem’s Anthony Parker (long jump) and Woodstown’s 4×800 relay team – as well as Woodstown’s runner-up 4×400 relay team received automatic bids. The best of the rest rest were eligible for wild cards.

Of course, even though they’re qualified, the athletes in multiple events may not compete in all of them Wednesday night. Woodstown’s Crawford isn’t likely to run in the individual 800 to focus on the two relays, Schalick’s David Stewart likely won’t run the 400 hurdles that he’s only recently added to his repertoire in order to be sharp for the 4×100, and Schalick’s Hadfield is still contemplating the 3200.

MEET OF CHAMPIONS
SALEM COUNTY QUALIFIERS
GIRLS
1600: 12. Jordan Hadfield, Schalick (5:01.16)
3200: 20. Jordan Hadfield, Schalick (10:59.56)
Shot Put: 23. Tatiyonna Crawford, Pennsville (36-9)
Pole Vault: 12. Megan Morris, Pennsville (10-6)

BOYS
4×800: 5. Woodstown (7:59.15)
400 Hurdles: 16. David Stewart, Schalick (55.04)
4×100: 27. Schalick (42.82)
800: 3. Josh Crawford, Woodstown (1:53.44); 15. Cole Lucas, Woodstown (1:55.01)
4×400: 18. Woodstown (3:23.93)
Javelin: 12. Connor Ayars, Pennsville (172-10)
Long Jump: 10. Anthony Parker, Salem (22-5)
Triple Jump: 24. Bryan Garlic, Penns Grove (44-0)

Repeat winners

Day Two of the Group I Championships brings Salem County two more state champions – Schalick’s Jordan Hadfield (1600) and Woodstown’s record-setting 4×800 relay; county produces 5 champions total

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

SOMERSET – From the minute they were put together right before the sectionals last May, it was days like this the Woodstown 4×800 relay team has been training for.

The quartet of Jacob Marino, Karson Chew, Cole Lucas and Josh Crawford has won a lot of races, broke a bunch of records and even won a state championship in the 12 months they’ve been together. But what they did Saturday in the Group I championship meet at Franklin High School took their legacy to a whole ‘nother level.

They won the Group I boys title for the second straight year, but this time set the meet and state Group I record while blowing away the field. Their 7:59.15 broke the old record set by Shore Regional in 2017 by seven-tenths of a second and were waiting for runner-up Hasbrouck Heights at the finish line, winning by more than 13 seconds over teams that pushed them last year.

“It wasn’t just like a win for us, it really showed how far we’ve come,” said anchor Crawford, who won the 800 individual title the day before. “Not that we could just win the state meet like we did last year, but really blow them out of the water. It was just a great day that we’ve been training for for weeks and weeks.”

“We’ve definitely grown and learned from last year to this year,” Chew added. “We’ve definitely made our statement that we wanted to make.”

The Wolverines’ relay team was one of two repeat state champions Salem County produced on Day Two of the meet. Schalick’s Jordan Hadfield defended her girls 1600 title, winning in a time of 5:01.16.

County athletes brought home a total of five state titles over the weekend. The top two finishers in each event qualified for Wednesday’s Meet of Champions at Pennsauken. Several other non-winners, like Lucas (800), Pennsville’s Connor Ayars (javelin) and Penns Grove triple jumper Bryan Garlic, qualified for wild cards.

The Wolverines went into the 4×800 maybe a little sore from Friday’s events but were confident about what they were going after and ran what Chew called a “perfectly smooth” race. All four runners went sub-60 on the first lap of their legs and all were around 1:02 bringing it home. Crawford called it “definitely the best performance” they put out to date.

“We came in knowing we were going to win,” coach Reggie Teemer said. “It was a matter of how dominant we were going to be.”

Like a Ferrari against a Volkswagen. Marino set the tone with a 59.90 out of the gate and completed his leg in a best-ever split 2:01.94. Chew followed with a 2:00.71 to establish the lead and as Teemer said, “it was over from there.”

Lucas, the lone senior in the group, stretched an already big lead with his 1:59.21 and Crawford brought it home in 1:57.27. By the time the baton got to Crawford, the Wolverines were racing against the clock in pursuit of the meet record.

“We came into this thinking we can do this, we can break this state record, we can hit this state championship again,” Chew said. “We came in thinking let’s give it our all and let’s see what happens and we’re very happy with how the result came out.

“Last year going into the state we thought we could win it and everybody did their job and we won it. This year, we were in some individual events and another relay, but this 4×8 is definitely the pinnacle of our team. We like to call our team the ‘Middle Distance University of Salem County’ because all of us are 800 runners, so it’s definitely one of our favorite events. It’s great to see my guys so happy about it and it’s great to get that championship done again.”

As strong as their run to the title was, it did miss one mark. The Wolverines were hoping to run a time fast enough to qualify for the New Balance Nationals later this summer, but came up just short of a 7:58 provisional time. That will be their focus at the Meet of Champions.

Chew and Crawford also ran legs on the Wolverines’ 4×400 relay team that finished second to the Camden team that ran in the Penn Relays, but they still qualified for the MOC. With his win in the 800 Friday, Crawford is qualified for three events in Pennsauken and “most likely” will run all three if the schedule allows.

“He had a great weekend,” Teemer said of Crawford.

NJSIAA GROUP I TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Franklin H.S., Somerset
(Top 2 advance to Meet of Champions, top 6 score meet points)
DAY TWO RESULTS
GIRLS
FINAL TEAM SCORES (Top 15): Clayton 73, Metuchen 56, Woodbury 29, Glassboro 28, Haddon Twp. 27, Hasbrouck Heights 27, Shore 27, Audubon 22, Maple Shade 18, Burlington City 18, Schalick 16, Riverside 16, Pennsville 16; Mountain Lakes 15, Verona 15. Also, Woodstown 3
INDIVIDUAL EVENTS
400: 1. Leila Ortiz, Clayton 57.42
4×800 Relay: 1. Shore 9:42.55; 6. Woodstown (Abby Marino, Samantha Sterner, Sarah Seiden, Lilian Norman) 10:10.28
100 Hurdles: 1. Ciani Floyd, Maple Shade 15.69
200: 1. Leila Ortiz, Clayton 25.57
1600: 1. Jordan Hadfield, Schalick 5:01.16
4×400 Relay: 1. Clayton 4:05.03
Shot Put: 1. Sunny Moore, Glassboro 39-9; 3. Tatiyonna Crawford, Pennsville 36-9
Javelin: 1. Rainelle Blocker, Clayton 110-1
Long Jump: 1. Denirah Jones, Woodbury 17-0; 5. Emma Perry, Woodstown 16-0.5
High Jump: 1. Taylor Peters, Butler 5-2

BOYS
FINAL TEAM SCORES (Top 15): Camden 46, Hasbrouck Heights 45, Glassboro 38.5, Woodstown 38, Manville 34, Clayton 32, Metuchen 24, Dayton 22, Pequannock 19, Schalick 18, Hawthorne 18, Indian Hills 16, Bound Brook 14, Kinnelon 14, Penns Grove 13. Also, Salem 10, Pennsville 4
INDIVIDUAL EVENTS
400: 1. Alexander Osayemi, Clayton 47.81; 4. Josh Crawford, Woodstown 50.05
4×800 Relay: 1. Woodstown (Jacob Marino, Karson Chew, Cole Lucas, Josh Crawford) 7:59.15 (Group I meet record, old record 7:59.88 by Shore Regional, 2017)
110 Hurdles: 1. Williams Cusick, Creskill 14.57
200: 1. Alexander Osayemi, Clayton 22.04; 4. David Stewart, Schalick 22.47; 5. Zaeshawn Mills, Schalick 22.48
1600: 1. Eric Schleif, Metuchen 4:22.02
4×400 Relay: 1. Camden 3:21.43; 2. Woodstown (Karson Chew, Kyle Reitz, Anthony Costello, Josh Crawford) 3:23.43; 3. Penns Grove (Kylee Goodson, Sebastian Hernandez, Bryan Garlic, Knowledge Young) 3:26.52
Discus: 1. Henry Struble, Pequannock 165-4
Triple Jump: 1. Dalsen Jean-Baptiste, Bound Brook 45-8.5; 3. Bryan Garlic, Penns Grove 44-0
Pole Vault: 1. Jacob George, Haddon Twp. 14-6

Down to the wire

Salem’s Parker, Woodstown’s Crawford, Pennsville’s Morris all win state track titles, Parker on last jump of the day, Crawford at the tape, Morris in tiebreaker

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

SOMERSET – Talk about cutting it close.

Salem senior Anthony Parker has known the disappointment of being a No. 1 seed and not being able to get the job done too many times. It looked like it was going to happen to him again in Friday’s Group I state meet at Franklin High School here, but on his last jump of the night, literally the last jump of the event, he reached back and delivered a gold-medal winning effort.

Parker, the No. 1 seed in the Group I boys long jump, won the event with a last-chance leap of 22-feet, 5-inches, passing the two jumpers who left him in danger of not even qualifying for the Meet of Champions on their final jumps.

“It feels great,” Parker said. “All the other times I’ve been seeded first for states throughout my four years and my track career I’ve never won state. This is the first time. It feels great. I’m blessed.”

Actually, all three Salem County Group I state champions Friday took their wins down to the wire. In addition to Parker winning on his final jump, Woodstown’s Josh Crawford held off Metuchen’s Eric Schleif at the wire to win the boys 800 and Pennsville’s Megan Morris won a tiebreaker over New Providence’s Ilana Kornacki to take the girls pole vault for the second year in a row.

Crawford ran a 1:53.44 and beat Schleif by 16-hundreths of a second. Teammate Cole Lucas was third.

Morris and Kornacki both cleared 10-6 and missed at 11-0, but Morris won the gold when Kornacki missed her first jump way back at 9-0.

Parker, who is still undecided on where he’ll run in college next year, has been seeded No. 1 in his specialties entering the state meet at least four times in his Salem career.

The first time was last year in the outdoor 110 hurdles and he didn’t make it to the finals. In this year’s indoor championships he was listed first in the 55 hurdles and finished second. He’s also seeded No. 1 in the 110 hurdles here Saturday, but a right hamstring injury that affects his ability to pull over the hurdle (but not the long jump) will keep him from competing.

“It feels great (to finally deliver),” he said. “When I’m seeded first and I’ve got that mindset I’m first, I’m going to go win it and then I don’t, I get down on myself. I’m pretty hard on myself. All the coaches were telling me the whole meet to get out of my head and go jump, go have fun, remember why you came here and why you’re doing it.”

It still wasn’t easy. Glassboro freshman Alex Adeleye bumped Parker’s 21-9 from the lead with a 21-11 on his final jump. After waiting all day to compete, Parker had just one more attempt to get it back. He rose about the pressure and the noise and nailed it.

“This is his first moment where he definitely rose as the favorite, kind of just controlled it almost 90 percent of the time where in most cases he’s had to work his way up,” Rams coach David Hunt said. “It’s hard to perform when everyone expects you to win. When people don’t have that pressure on them it’s like they’re playing with house money. Everyone was coming after him. So to be able to hold that spot, to win it as the favorite for him was a big step. That is the first time he’s been able to do it.”

“It’s a lot of pressure, but, honestly, I think it’s better for me that way,” Parker said. “When I jumped my PR, 23-9, it was also my last jump. I think I jump better under pressure.”

Pennsville’s Morris successfully defended the pole vault title she won last year but conceded it was harder the second time around.

For starters, there was the stress of meeting the expectations she had for herself. And the field was so close any of the top five could have won it. It was so stressful she almost didn’t watch Kornacki’s last attempt at 11 feet that would have determined the champion.

As it was, Morris won because Kornacki had missed her first attempt at 9 feet, a height Morris passed to start at 9-6.

“All three of my jumps were pretty clean, but that 11 I’m just missing it,” she said. “This was honestly one of my stronger days. I wouldn’t say it’s my best, I think the Salem County Meet was my best, but this is probably top two.

“Leading up to it I thought I was going to be really nervous at the actual meet because I was nervous these two weeks leading up to it, and then when I got there all the nerves kind of went away.”

Truth be told, through all the stress and intense competition she did have a little extra incentive to repeat.

“My brother made a bet with me that if I won again he’d get us all Texas Roadhouse,” she said. “Right when I won I went to him and said I guess you owe me Texas Roadhouse.”

The top two finishers in each event are guaranteed a spot in next week’s Meet of Champions at Pennsauken, although several Salem County athletes are in contention for wildcard spots to complete the field.

Pennsville’s Connor Ayars finished fourth in the boys javelin, but his 172-10 is expected to earn a wildcard spot.

Schalick’s 4×100 relay team along with Cougars David Stewart (400 hurdles) and Jordan Hadfield (girls 3200) and Woodstown’s Lucas (800) all finished third and will be contenders for wildcards.

NJSIAA GROUP I CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Franklin H.S., Somerset
(Event winners and Salem County scorers)
(Top 2 qualify for Meet of Champions, top 6 score meet points)

BOYS
TEAM SCORES (Top 10): Glassboro 31.5, Camden 30, Hasbrouck Heights 24, Woodstown 16, Kinnelon 12, Manville 12, Schalick 12, Clayton 12, Dayton 10, Boonton 10, Metuchen 10, Salem 10, Palmyra 10.
4×100 Relay: 1. Camden 42.50; 3. Schalick (Reggie Allen, Michael Eberl, Zaeshawn Mills, David Stewart) 42.82
800: 1. Josh Crawford, Woodstown 1:53.44; 3. Cole Lucas, Woodstown 1:55.01
400 Hurdles: 1. Alexander Osayemi, Clayton 52.79; 3. David Stewart, Schalick 55:04; 6. Bryan Garlic, Penns Grove 56.45
100: 1. Jaiden Steele, Camden 10.86
3200: 1. Matthew Ware, Dayton 9:32.39
Shot Put: 1. Oscar Solis, Hasbrouck Heights 52-10.25
Javelin: 1. Walter Hedblom-Green, Boonton 178-5; 4. Connor Ayars, Pennsville 172-10
Long Jump: 1. Anthony Parker, Salem 22-5
High Jump: 1. Jaleel Latimore, Palmyra 6-6

GIRLS
TEAM SCORES (Top 10): Metuchen 24, Glassboro 18, Hasbrouck Heights 15, Clayton 15, Hawthorne 14, Haddon Twp. 12, Woodbury 11, Verona 11, Riverside 10, Audubon 10, Burlington City 10, Pennsville 10
4×100 Relay: 1. Woodbury 49.33
800: 1. Gwendolyn Neale, Verona 2:10.93
400 Hurdles: 1. Gina Minichiello, Hasbrouck Heights 1:04.56
100: 1. Sydney Greenidge, Riverside 12.31
3200: 1. Kaitlyn Connors, Metuchen 10:52.42; 3. Jordan Hadfield, Schalick 10:59.56
Discus: 1. Sunny Moore, Glassboro 142-6
Triple Jump: 1. Nyima Burley, Burlington City 35-9
Pole Vault: 1. Megan Morris, Pennsville 10-6

Playing through

Woodstown edges Schalick, Pennsville routs Pitman to reach SJ Group I semifinals; Woodstown’s Clark records 100th career strikeout

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I SOFTBALL
Friday’s Quarterfinals
Woodstown 3, Schalick 1
Pennsville 14, Pitman 4
Haddon Twp. 13, Maple Shade 3
Cape May Tech 7, Riverside 3 (first round)
Wednesday’s Semifinals
No. 4 Woodstown (14-7) vs. Audubon-Cape May Tech winner
No. 3 Haddon Twp. (16-8) at No. 2 Pennsville (21-4), 2 p.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – The lessons Rob Hildebrand learned playing baseball for a legendary coach have stayed with him long after he hung up the spikes. He reaches back for them when he needs them and Friday they helped his Woodstown softball team take a South Jersey playoff game from its biggest rival.

If the bats are running a little cold and it’s getting late in the game Hildebrand learned from Lee Ware, you’ve got to find a way score some runs. The Wolverines manufactured three runs in the late innings, including one off a key double steal in the sixth, to get around a strong pitching performance by Schalick’s Addi Shimp and score a 3-1 victory for a spot in the South Jersey Group I semifinals.

“I played for legendary coach Lee Ware,” Hildebrand said. “He won championships and won division titles scoring runs with not the best talented players. We don’t have that, we have talented players, but when you have games when you’re just not scoring for whatever reason it is you’ve got to have those (plays) in your back pocket.

“We’ve been working things like that, other plays too we haven’t had a chance to implement, but I knew as soon as we had that first and third opportunity, I saw the looks on their faces that said this is a chance we have to do something. It was something I was always raised up to do.”

The Wolverines (14-7) now await the winner of Monday’s Audubon-Cape May Tech quarterfinal. If top-seeded Audubon wins, the fourth-seeded Wolverines go there Wednesday. If Cape May Tech pulls the upset, they will host.

Woodstown won the first two meetings between the Diamond Division rivals this season relatively comfortably, but on this day Shimp and the Cougars gave the Wolverines all they could handle.

Schalick took a 1-0 lead in the third inning after the Wolverines fielded a sacrifice bunt along the third base line instead of letting it roll foul, putting two runners in scoring position, and played a grounder to third for an out and allowing Taylor Brown to score instead of perhaps freezing the runner or cutting down her down at the plate.

Hildebrand explained he’d gladly go for the out in those situations even if it meant giving up an early run because he was confident they’d score plenty to win. Another lesson from the master.

The way Shimp was pitching it looked for a while that might be the only run of the game. The Schalick pitcher scattered six hits and worked her way through traffic it created until the defense let her down in the late innings.

“It’s kind of frustrating because we knew we could hang with these guys and we did and our defense had a little miscue,” Schalick coach Rick Higinbotham said. “That’s frustrating, especially when Addi pitches so well.”

Woodstown pitcher Leah Clark went toe-to-toe with Shimp. She gave up only two hits and struck out eight, including the 100th of her career on the first of her two punchouts in the fourth inning. She fanned three in a row after the Cougars’ leadoff hitter reached and ended the game on a strikeout.

“Obviously it’s a huge goal, but I didn’t really think of it very much,” she said. “I was definitely getting a little nervous in the beginning (of a tight game) but I have to put my nerves aside and just relax on the mound and throw it in and just do what I can to get the outs.”

The Wolverines won the game with two runs in a sixth inning that was a master class in softball strategy.

Woodstown had runners Gracie Hitchner and Avery Battle at the corners with one out after the Cougars threw away the force on Clark’s grounder to short. Both coaches called their players over to talk about the way they were going to play the inevitable double steal.

Kendall Young showed bunt and courtesy runner Battle took off for second. Schalick catcher Alex Shimp threw all the way through and the Cougars couldn’t make the throw back quickly enough to get Hitchner tearing down the line from third.

“We have a play that we put in place and it was in place, we didn’t execute the way we should have,” Higinbotham said. “You teach the girls how to do things but they have to see things for themselves and make adjustments and we didn’t make that adjustment. There were a couple things we look for and they didn’t.”

“My hope,” Hildebrand said, “was if they tried to get an out, we were getting a run. If they tried to get the run, we’re going to have second and third. It was a win-win.”

Hitchner knew she was coming to the plate as soon as she got to third.

“He told me to,” she said. “Mr. Hildebrand told me and Kendall the play, that she was going to fake bunt, but keep the bunt there a little longer and Avery was going to go and on the throw above the pitcher’s head I would go for it. We had it all planned out. We did a whole practice about it.”

The Woodies added an insurance run two batters later when Shyann Higinbotham beat the shift her father put on and poked an RBI single into short centerfield.

Schalick (14-5)	001 000 0-	1	2	5
Woodstown (14-7)	000 012 x-	3	6	2

WP: Leah Clark. LP: Addi Shimp. 2B: Talia Guardascione (WO).

**Woodstown’s Gracie Hitchner races across the plate with the go-ahead run on a double steal in the sixth inning. (Screenshot from Gamechanger video)**

Pennsville 14, Pitman 4

PENNSVILLE – Pennsville coach Beth Jackson was a little concerned about playing Pitman for a third time, especially since the Panthers handed her team one of its four losses early in the season and the last meeting was a nailbiter, but the Eagles put those fears to rest with three runs in each of the first two innings and opened a 10-2 lead after four.

Graillyn Weber went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and Avery Watson had three RBIs to lead the Eagles’ offense. Watson had a two-run double in the second inning and the walk-off RBI single with two outs in the sixth. Weber had an RBI triple in the fourth.

Kylie Harris had two hits and two RBIs, Sawyer Simmons had a pair of hits and Mak Widener had two RBIs.

Savannah Brewer-Palverento battled through the day to give the Eagles a complete game. She gave up nine hits, just two earned runs and struck out three.

“They played well,” Jackson said. “The energy was great. They hit the ball. They took advantage of some mistakes Pitman made out in the field.

“The reality is anybody can win on any given day. It doesn’t matter what seed you are, it doesn’t matter how your regular season went, you have to win that game in hand. These games regardless of who you’re playing are different in the playoffs and you have to take each game seriously.”

The second-seeded Eagles (21-4), the winningest Pennsville softball team since 2014 (22-5), will host third-seeded Haddon Twp. in the semifinals Wednesday. The 2015 team also won 21 games.

Pitman (11-10)	110 020-	4	10	7
Pennsville (21-4)	332 204-	14	11	2

WP: Savannah Brewer-Palverento. LP: Jess Bretz. 2B: Lexi Kostiuk (P), Emery Sharpnack (P), Colette Rollins (P). 3B: Graillyn Weber (PV), Sawyer Simmons (PV).

Thursday tennis

Pennsville, Woodstown fall in South Jersey Group I semifinals; Pennsville loss was its first

THURSDAY TENNIS
SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I SEMIFINALS
Haddon Twp. 5, Woodstown 0
West Deptford 3, Pennsville 2
MONDAY’S FINAL ROUND
West Deptford at Haddon Twp.

HADDON TWP. 5, WOODSTOWN 0
Christian Erhardt (HT) def. Drew Stengel, 6-1, 6-0
Alexander Noone (HT) def. John Farrell, 6-3, 6-0
Colin Engelbert (HT) def. Nicholas DiTeodoro, 6-2, 6-1
James Arizzi-Max Radley (HT) def. Luke Shaw-Mason Shimp, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4)
Declan Mennuti-Nathan Keating (HT) def. Ben Stengel-Joseph Kurpis, 6-3, 6-0
Records: Haddon Twp. 18-0, Woodstown 15-5.

WEST DEPTFORD 3, PENNSVILLE 2
Carter Watson (WD) def. Gabe Schneider, 6-2, 6-0
Aiden Bardon (WD) def. Maddox Efelis, 6-3, 4-6, 10-4
Brody Wiggins (P) def. Carter Weber, 6-3, 6-3
Lucas Cooksey-Sawyer Humphrey (P) def. Chase Eagle-Jeffrey Hack, 6-2, 6-3
Allen Eastlack-Michael Walsh (WD) def. Ian Peacock-Carter Willis, 6-0, 6-0
Records: West Deptford 14-6, Pennsville 20-1

Feels like home

Glaspey’s homer lets Schalick breath easier in its playoff win over Glassboro for record-tying 20th of the season, improves to 4-0 at Elmer LL complex, hosts Woodstown in semifinals

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I
Thursday’s quarterfinals
Audubon 4, Buena 0
Maple Shade at Pitman (Friday)
Woodstown 2, Pennsville 1
Schalick 7, Glassboro 2
Tuesday’s semifinals
Woodstown at Schalick
Maple Shade-Pitman winner at Audubon

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

ELMER – When Evan Glaspey saw the memo informing him Schalick’s South Jersey Group I quarterfinal game with Glassboro was being moved to the Elmer Little League complex, he knew it was going to be a good day.

It’s not that the sophomore second baseman dislikes playing on the Cougars’ on-campus field, there’s just something about the Little League complex that makes him feel comfortable.

Glaspey has never thought of himself as a power hitter, but Thursday he hit his second homer of the season and a double in the Cougars’ 7-2 win. He also made a nifty diving stop in the field to secure the final out of the game. Both of his homers have come here on the complex’ William R. Higgins Field.

“I love playing here,” he said. “I’ve played here for a long time. Used to play here for my travel team. Played here for a lot of years. It feels like home because of all the years I’ve been playing here.”

With the win, the Cougars (20-2) matched the single-season school record, set by the 1992 team that went 20-5 and lost to Emerson Boro in the state finals. They now host sixth-seeded Woodstown (16-10) in Tuesday’s semifinals.

It would be Cougars’ coach Sean O’Brien’s preference the game be played at their on-campus field.

Glaspey was in the middle of his U.S. History class when word came that the game was moving to Elmer after athletics director Doug Volovar and an army of parent volunteers worked all morning to get the field in shape.

The Cougars are now 4-0 on the field this year having beaten Woodstown, Salem, Buena and Glassboro. Glaspey is 7-for-12 with seven RBIs, two homers and six extra-base hits in those four games.

“I was in class and then I got a ring so I was like can I check my phone real quick and I checked it and it said we were playing here,” he explained. “I knew it was going to be a good day because coming here is always just fun.

“I think we were anticipating not playing at all because the field was really mucky and we got pictures of this field this morning and it was really bad. Surprised they got it that good.”

Glaspey’s three-run homer to left — just about the same place as his first one against Buena — highlighted a four-run sixth inning that put the game out of reach. It came right after Lucas D’Agostino singled home an insurance run.

Until the big inning O’Brien was a little concerned, calling it “a little stressful.” The Cougars had to come back from deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 to take the lead, but they also missed several opportunities early to take control.

The Bulldogs reached Schalick ace Luke Pokrovsky for a run in each of the first two innings. Pokrovsky got the run back in the first with a mammoth leadoff homer O’Brien called the longest he’s ever seen in this park, but it wasn’t until the fourth they took the lead for good on Ricky Watt’s short sacrifice fly and Evan Sepers’ go-ahead double.

The Cougars loaded the bases with no outs after Pokrovsky’s homer, but Glassboro pitcher Gavin Dillard struck out the next three hitters to kill the threat. They also left two runners in scoring position in the fifth.

“We weren’t doing the situational hitting that we’ve done most of the year,” O’Brien said. “We had opportunities to get guys in and we just weren’t doing it and you can’t do that against good teams, especially young teams that have hope. You’ve got to try to get on them early. If not, they’re tough, they’re going to make you pay.”

And the Bulldogs challenged in the top of the sixth. Pokrovsky was lifted with two on and two out after reaching his pitch limit. Jamari Whitley walked his first batter to load the bases, but put out the fire and proceeded to record a four-out save.

Even when Pokrovsky is a little off, he’s still better than most. He allowed only two hits in his 5 2/3 innings, walked four and struck out 11. His game-tying homer, punctuated by a majestic bat flip, was his 10th of the season and 22nd of his career. The Bulldogs intentionally walked him each of his next two times at bat.

“He’s had that treatment especially when the playoffs come around,” O’Brien said. “Both his brothers had the same treatment, so he got the same thing. I’m comfortable with that. If they’re going to walk him then we’ve got Ricky following and Jamari. I’m good with it. I’ll take it.”

Glassboro (11-12)	110 000 0-	2	2	3
Schalick (20-2)	100 204 x-	7	11	0

WP: Luke Pokrovsky. LP: Gavin Dillard. 2B: Evan Sepers (S), Evan Glaspey (S). HR: Luke Pokrovsky (S), Evan Glaspey (S)

Top photo: Somewhere in that mass of humanity Schalick sophomore Evan Glaspey is being congratulated by his teammates after hitting a three-run homer in the sixth inning that coach Sean O’Brien called “a big moment in the game.”.