West Deptford Eliminates Maine, Advances to Monday

The action on the field, as well as the tempers of the two teams, was as hot as the 90-degree weather at the Eastern Regional in on Sunday morning.

In a game that saw a lot of offense–15 combined runs and 17 combined hits–as well as five ejections, the host West Deptford team came away with the win, defeating the Maine state champion, Waldo County, by a score of 9-6.

West Deptford actually trailed for much of the game, and didn't take a lead until the fifth inning. It was then that West Deptford put up five runs, four of them coming on a grand slam by Tom Jakubowski that was the difference-maker in the game.

All three runners that were on base when Jakubowski hit his home run reached base by walks. Maine relief pitcher Adrian Ellis struggled with his command in the fifth inning, walking two straight batters on five pitches each before facing Jakubowski.

“We asked them to be patient at the plate,” said West Deptford coach Marty Roselli. “Try to get two strikes on you before your swinging at curveballs and breaking balls. It's just one of those things where we wanted to get guys on base, and if we did, we could get ourselves an opportunity to win and score runs.”

Before West Deptford's comeback, controversy ensued in the top of the fourth inning. With Maine leading 2-1, West Deptford put Bobby McSorley in to pinch-run at first base with one out. Maine catcher Pat Later threw down to first base to pick McSorley off after a pitch.

McSorley dove headfirst back to first base awhile first baseman Dillon Carliss fielded the ball. Carliss tagged McSorley out, but in the process stepped on McSorley's hand with his spikes, breaking one of McSorley's fingers.

West Deptford was incensed by the fact that McSorley's hand was stepped on, but the play stood. West Deptford's catcher Tyler Strano then proceeded to walk at the plate.

Now on first base, Strano attempted to steal second base. While sliding feet first into second, it appeared that Strano spiked Ellis, who was at shortstop for Maine, on the arm. After conferring with each other, the umpires ruled Strano out on the play.

This drove West Deptford crazy and resulted in the ejection of Strano, assistant coach Ed Essig, and third baseman Ed Essig.

After a long delay, the umpires then went back to the original ruling, saying that Strano couldn't be ruled out for spiking an opponent. Strano was ruled safe, but the ejections still stood.

West Deptford was able to stay focused after the incident, and put up eight runs combined in the fifth and sixth innings. Their comeback was helped partially by starting pitcher Ty Castellano's performance on the mound.

While Castellano wasn't perfect, as he allowed six hits and five runs in five innings, he did keep his team in the game. Castellano helped strand five additional runners on base and struck out 10 hitters.

“We have to keep the game close so we can battle back,” said Roselli. “All of these teams are state champion teams, and we're just a district team, we're a district winner. We haven't played this level of competition, so we want to try and stay as close as we possibly can to give us an opportunity to win the game.”

After Jakubowski's grand slam put West Deptford up 9-5 heading into the seventh, Maine had time for one last rally. However, they couldn't manage a hit after a leadoff single by Cody Varney, and West Deptford was able to hold on for their first win in the regional tournament.

West Deptford remains alive for at least another day. They will have another elimination game on Monday, as they will take on the Pennsylvania state champion, Wyoming Little League, at 11:30 a.m. Roselli knows that his team will continue to face a tough challenge against the state champions that remain in this tournament.

“It's different from the perspective that a lot of them of probably played more games than us, so they're probably in better game condition,” said Roselli. “We only played five or six games in district play, and some of these guys have played a lot more games.”

West Deptford will certainly be getting more game action, especially if they win tomorrow. The winner of West-Deptford-Pennsylvania in the morning will play again in the afternoon in another elimination game, slated for 5 p.m.

Editor's note: this piece has been modified from the original to note that only third baseman Ed Essig was ejected from the dugout; the initial indication in the pressbox was that Essig, Harry Sturgis and Joe Pinto had been tossed, but the official record shows it was only Essig.