In The Dirt 5/8

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The Daily Journal

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Friday, May 8, 2009 – C5

SPORTS

Bringing readers the best of the action on the diamond every week

Daron Moore Millville DH/OF

STANDINGS* CAPE-ATLANTIC LEAGUE American Conference I Div. Conf. Overall Millville 6-0 8-0 12-0 Vineland 3-2 5-4 6-5 Absegami 2-2 5-5 5-7 Egg Harbor Twp 1-4 5-4 7-4 Atlantic City 0-4 0-8 1-9 American Conference II Div. Conf. Overall Hammonton 4-1 6-2 8-2 Mainland 3-2 5-5 7-6 St. Augustine 2-2 4-4 5-8 Oakcrest 1-3 3-5 3-6 Ocean City 0-2 2-5 2-6 National Conference I Div. Conf. Overall Buena 4-0 7-2 10-5 Holy Spirit 5-1 10-1 13-1-1 Middle Twp 2-2 7-3 8-3 L. Cape May 1-3 2-6 4-8 Bridgeton 0-6 0-11 1-13 National Conference II Div. Conf. Overall Sacred Heart 4-0 8-1 14-3 St. Joseph 2-2 6-5 8-8 Wild. Catholic 0-2 3-6 3-7 Cape May Tech 0-2 0-8 0-9 TRI-COUNTY CONFERENCE Classic Division Div. Overall Pitman 9-0 13-2 Gloucester City 8-1 9-7 Clayton 3-6 5-8 Salem 3-6 4-10 Schalick 2-5 2-9 Wildwood 1-8 6-11 Diamond Division Div. Overall Gloucester Catholic 6-0 11-3 Woodstown 4-3 8-3 Pennsville 2-2 7-4 Glassboro 3-5 7-5 Penns Grove 2-3 5-4 GCIT 1-6 4-12 Royal Division Div. Overall Cumberland 5-0 10-1 Williamstown 6-1 9-1 Highland 3-2 9-3-1 Clearview 2-2 5-2 Kingsway 3-6 5-9 Deptford 2-5 5-7 Delsea 0-5 2-8 OLYMPIC CONFERENCE American Division Div. Overall Cherokee 3-0 7-4 Eastern 2-2 10-3 Cherry Hill East 1-1 7-3 Washington Twp 2-3 8-5 Lenape 2-3 7-6 Patriot Division Div. Overall Shawnee 5-1 10-4 Cherry Hill West 3-1 7-5 Winslow Twp 2-2 7-7 Pennsauken 2-4 5-7 Triton 0-4 1-8 National Division Div. Overall Seneca 2-1 6-2 Camden Catholic 3-2 6-5 Bishop Eustace 1-1 10-3 Timber Creek 1-2 5-8 Paul VI 1-2 3-6 COLONIAL CONFERENCE Overall Conf. Haddonfield 7-1 8-2 Gateway 6-1 9-2 Haddon Twp 6-2 9-3 Haddon Heights 6-3 10-3 Sterling 6-3 6-5 Audubon 4-2 6-5 Paulsboro 4-5 4-7 West Deptford 3-5 4-5 Overbrook 2-5 3-9 Lindenwold 2-7 6-7 Collingswood 1-7 2-11 Woodbury 0-7 0-10 BURLINGTON COUNTY CONFERENCE Liberty Division Div. Overall Rancocas Valley 5-0 8-4 Northern Burlington 2-0 4-5 Willingboro 1-2 3-5 Westampton Tech 0-1 2-8 Moorestown 0-2 5-2 Pemberton 0-3 1-8 Patriot Division Div. Overall Cinnaminson 6-1 12-4 Delran 4-2 12-3 Holy Cross 3-3 8-4 Bordentown 2-2 7-5 Burlington Twp 1-1 4-6 Medford Tech 0-6 1-10 Freedom Division Div. Overall Maple Shade 4-0 5-3 Florence 5-2 6-3 New Egypt 3-2 5-4 Riverside 4-3 6-7 Palmyra 2-5 3-7 Burlington City 1-3 2-6 Trenton Catholic 0-4 0-6

* Records through Wednesday

The Daily Journal’s

Under consideration: Delran (12-3), Gateway (9-2), Haddon Twp. (9-3), Haddonfield (8-2), Cinnaminson (123). *Rankings are set by Ben Watanabe and based on records reported to area newspapers through Wednesday.

Question: What’s your a impression of all the attention n surrounding the team? d Answer: I think we like it. It makes us play better to show everyone we’re for real. It’s not a joke. We’re out there to win a state championship. Q: Has your left (throwing) shoulder fully recovered from the injury you suffered during football season? A: No, it’s still a little sore. Still has some bad days here and there, Moore but it’s okay. Q: What was the most difficult thing for you physically when the pain was at its peak? A: Probably throwing from outfield to home. Q: Any particular reason you wear No. 24 on your jersey? A: Ken Griffey Jr.’s my favorite baseball player, and that was the number he wears with the Mariners. My football number is 42, the same number flipped around. Q: What’s the story behind the pipe all your teammates swing in the on-deck circle? A: It’s (Mike) Trout’s. We use it to get quick bat speed. When we face faster pitching, we all use it so we can get the bat through the zone faster. Q: How much does the pipe weigh? A: As much as four baseball bats, so it’s pretty heavy.

Q A

Staff photo/Charles J. Olson

St. Augustine shortstop Tony Messina makes a throw to first base during a recent game. The Hermits, who were in jeopardy of missing the playoffs for the first time since 1992, found new life when the NJSIAA moved the cutoff date back to Saturday.

— Ben Watanabe

Brand new ball game NJSIAA gives some relief for teams trying to qualify for the postseason here is still hope for high school baseball teams within a few games of .500 after the state association extended the cutoff date for state tournament qualification by one day. Today was the scheduled cutoff, when all teams with a .500 record or better were to qualify for the playoffs. The NJSIAA announced Thursday that games played Saturday will count toward playoff seeding. “Because of (Thursday’s) thunderstorms, the deadline for baseball and softball entries has been extended until Saturday, May 9,” read a statement on the NJSIAA’s Web site. That was welcome— albeit surprising—news for Sacred Heart and St. Augustine, both of which are fighting for playoff contention. Vineland (6-5), Millville (12-0), Buena (115) and Cumberland Regional (10-1) have clinched playoff spots, so all that can change for them is their seeds. Sacred Heart is holding a double header today against Gloucester

T

Ben Watanabe Catholic and St. Augustine Prep to satisfy a rule requiring teams to play 70 percent of their games against in-state competition. The Lions (15-3) played six out-of-state opponents at a tournament in Cocoa Beach, Fla., in April. Sacred Heart still plans to play today’s games, weather permitting. If they are unable to play one game today, they now have a fallback in their scheduled Diamond Classic game against Cinnaminson on Saturday. The move surprised the Lions, who called the NJSIAA on Tuesday and were told the cutoff would not be extended. “All I heard was no, no, no,” Lions coach John Triantos said. “Now it comes down out of the clear blue sky that they did it.” St. Augustine (5-8), which plays Atlantic City this afternoon before the nightcap at Sacred Heart, believed it was eliminated from playoff contention Wednesday with its loss to Millville. After news of the extension came out, the Hermits began looking into possibilities for adding games for Saturday.

“Our (athletic director Tony Iaconelli) and assistant A.D. (Dennis Foreman) are aware, and the phones will be ringing off the hook” Friday, Hermits coach Mike Bylone said. While the extension was welcome news for Bylone, the weather forecast for today and Saturday made him wonder if a single extra day would do any good. “I think they should have extended it longer, to be honest with you,” Bylone said. “Who knows what’s going to happen Saturday? It’s supposed to rain (tonight) and more Saturday. I see it as an effort on their part, but I don’t see what one day is going to do. I don’t see them going farther than one day, though. I was actually shocked they moved it to begin with.” On the other side of the spectrum, undefeated Millville assumed it had done all it could to position itself for one of the top seeds in the Group IV South playoffs. With the extension, in order to secure the No. 1 seed the Thunderbolts must not only beat Mainland today, but Cherokee on Saturday in the Diamond Classic as well. “I don’t know that being undefeated going into the cutoff makes a huge difference,” Millville coach Roy Hallenbeck said. “We still have a chance to be a No. 1 seed.”

SJ Mean 15 1. Millville (12-0) 2. Gloucester Catholic (11-3) 3. Bishop Eustace (10-3) 4. Cherokee (7-4) 5. Washington Twp. (8-5) 6. Cherry Hill East (7-3) 7. Cumberland Reg. (10-1) 8. Williamstown (9-1) 9. Seneca (6-2) 10. Holy Spirit (13-1) 11. Sacred Heart (14-3) 12. Eastern (10-3) 13. Pitman (13-2) 14. Shawnee (10-4) 15. Buena (10-5)

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To see this page in full color, go to the Daily Journal’s South Jersey baseball blog every Saturday during the season. Visit: blogs.thedailyjournal.com/inthedirt

No Classic for Colts

Staff photo/Charles J. Olson

Cumberland’s D.J. Johnson and the rest of the Colts won’t be playing in this weekend’s Diamond Classic. The team was bypassed for the tournament because of a lack of conference games played.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Steve Melchiorre Hammonton Senior

1B/ P

THIS WEEK’S PLAYER POLL:

What is your favorite Major League team?* Red Sox Dodgers, Braves 2 votes Cardinals 1 vote

Yankees 8 votes

Phillies 32 votes

Hunterdon Central (15-0, Group IV Central), Millville (12-0, Group IV South) and Central Regional (14-0, Group III South) are the only teams in the state’s Top 20 that are still undefeated. … A 12-0 record like Millville’s can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, the Thunderbolts are undefeated. On the other hand, there is a danger they could forget they are still beatable. “We’ve approached it the same way all the way through,” Millville coach Roy Hallenbeck said after a win over Egg Harbor Township last week improved the Bolts to 11-0. “The result, record, none of that matters. What matters is how we play. Playing the game the right way and playing it well. Today, we won, that’s great, but we made some mistakes. Tomorrow, we’ll address those mistakes. That’s the same whether we’re 11-0 or 0-11.” … The story isn’t yet complete for Mike Trout, but the Millville

senior is already on the ballot for the Star-Ledger’s All-Decade team. Other South Jersey players on the list include Shawnee’s Sean Doolittle, Bishop Eustace’s Billy Rowell and Dewey Oriente, Audubon’s Nate Schill and Andrew Noe, and Gloucester Catholic’s Matt Ryan. Go to blog.nj.com/hssportsextra/ to vote. … Random fact: If Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter is selected to the American League All-Star team this summer, he will tie Joe Medwick for the most All-Star Game appearances by a New Jersey-born player. Medwick appeared in 10 All-Star games, primarily for the Cardinals, between 1932-1948 before being inducted into the Hall of Fame in in 1968, receiving 84.8 percent of the vote. — Ben Watanabe

Recovering from a back injury, the righthander was in a brace until a few days before the season began. In a 14-strikeout performance against Mainland, the right-hander’s recovery became officially complete. Upcoming games: Monday vs. Ocean City, 4 p.m. Wednesday at Millville, 4 p.m. Thursday vs. Egg Harbor Twp, 4 p.m.

(71 percent)

*Asked the same question last year, 52 percent of players named the Phillies as their favorite team. Staff graphic/Joe Moore

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