Late Offensive Outburst Fuels West Deptford Juniors

A miscommunication regarding the start of the West Deptford Junior All-Star team’s game against Deptford led to Kristian Gonzalez arriving to the game a little later than he normally would.

As it turns out, Gonzalez’s late arrival was symbolic of the rest of the West Deptford offense. And in this case, there was nothing wrong at all with being a little behind schedule.

Gonzalez came off the bench to deliver a go-ahead, two-run single in the top of the fifth that propelled West Deptford to a 12-6 win that put the local all-stars into the winner’s bracket finals.

West Deptford will be back in action today at 10 a.m. against Gibbstown, a 4-3 winner over Woodbury.

The team got off to a rough start, falling behind 4-1 after two innings. West Deptford got two runs back in the fourth thanks to a single by Owen Hoffman, who also came off the bench, that plated Ryan Baglivo and Walt Vickery.

It was Gonzalez’s turn in the fifth—he laced a grounder up the middle, scoring Moonie Garrison and Baglivo to give West Deptford a 5-4 lead.

“I was feeling a little nervous about that at-bat, because I didn’t think I was going to do good,” Gonzalez said. “My shoulder was hurting, but I got the hit and got the two runs.”

West Deptford manager Don Hicks wasn’t as surprised.

“He was a little late getting here because he forgot the time, but sometimes that happens,” Hicks said. “He didn’t get to warm up because he got here the last minute and he came in and did a good job for us.

“Things like that seem to happen.”

The comeback was also made possible by starting pitcher Brian Bernetich, who settled down after a rough second inning to only allow one more run over the next three frames.

“Brian did a good job for us,” said Hicks. “He’s a 13-year-old, so this is his first year up on the big field. He was really good when he was a 12-year-old on the smaller field, and he has the ability to dominate out here.”

West Deptford broke the game open in the sixth, scoring four times on three hits and three Deptford errors. Bernetich, Matt Britt and Gonzalez each had RBI hits in the frame, with Britt scoring the fourth run by taking advantage of an errant pickoff throw.

Deptford responded with two runs in the bottom of the sixth, but West Deptford erased any doubt of the outcome by pouring in three more runs in the seventh.

The game lasted three hours and 15 minutes on a hot evening that was brutal for everyone, not just the players—the home plate umpire needed to be replaced due to heat exhaustion, leading to a 20-minute delay.

West Deptford hopes its bats will stay equally hot as the tournament goes deeper.

“I really feel we can make it somewhere,” Gonzalez said. “If we keep it up at this rate, we can do some really good things.”

Gonzalez and his teammates are making life tough on the coaches when it comes to lineup decisions. Of course, that’s a great problem to have.

“Half of our team plays sophomore legion and half our team plays freshman legion,” Hicks said. “It’s a great team. Actually, it’s impossible for us to put the lineup together. Everybody could start and everybody could hit in the top five of the lineup.”