West Deptford 10-11 All-Stars Hit First Bump In The Road

During its run in the District 15 All-Star Tournament the West Deptford 10-11 baseball team made a habit of saving their best for last.

Now, in the Section 4 Tournament, if the youngsters wish to continue playing baseball this summer, their best can no longer wait.

West Deptford finds itself in the loser’s bracket after an 8-5 loss to Cherry Hill Atlantic in Mt. Holly in the opening round of the tournament. It will look to avoid elimination on Saturday in Audubon at 5 p.m. against a team to be determined.

Wednesday night West Deptford was once again hitting in the late innings, but this time the team dug itself too big a hole.

West Deptford trailed 5-2 after four innings, before scoring twice in the fifth to close the gap to 5-4. Cherry Hill tacked on three runs in the top of the sixth, but West Deptford still managed to bring the tying run to the plate in the sixth before finally bowing out.

“This is our first bump in the road, but as you could see by our fifth and sixth innings, these guys don’t quit,” said West Deptford manager Gus Knestaut.

West Deptford trailed 4-0 entering the bottom of the third when Jared Schultes got his team on the board with an RBI single. After Cherry Hill tacked on a run in the top of the fourth, Cole Malsbury got it back, scoring on a wild pitch in the bottom half.

The score remained 5-2 until the bottom of the fifth when Schultes smashed a two-run homer to right-center to bring West Deptford within a run. The team looked to at least tie the game as Kyle Kaminski and Adrian Mason singled to put runners on first and second with no outs.

However, a pair of base running mistakes resulted in a caught stealing and a double play that ended the threat.

Cherry Hill scored three runs in the top of the sixth to seemingly put the game out of reach, but West Deptford came back once more as Mike Flaherty delivered an RBI ground-rule double that put runners on second and third and the tying run at the plate in the form of Schultes.

This time it wasn’t to be though as Schultes grounded out sharply to the pitcher to end the game.

“We preached to them that after winning districts, everything else that happens from here on out is gravy,” Knestaut said. “Maybe they took that to heart a little too much, because they came out as flat as flat can be for those first four innings. We tell them that this is about fun, but they were so flat, I don’t think they were having any fun for a while.”

The fun came in the late innings, just a little too late.

“They did a heck of a job battling back,” said Knestaut.