Delsea baseball shines under pressure, earns comeback win in Diamond Classic action

FRANKLIN TWP. – If anyone thought the Delsea Regional High School baseball team was going to be rattled by an early four-run deficit, they don’t know these Crusaders.

Down 4-0 in the third inning, their biggest deficit faced in the last 17 games, the Crusaders calmly went to work against a pesky Washington Township team, a No. 30 seed that was already playing with house money.

With a huge three-run blast by Tyler Schoppe in the fourth, a clutch game-tying RBI double by Mike McGinley in the sixth and a walk-off HBP by Cole Hudson in the seventh, Delsea earned a 6-5 over Washington Township in Wednesday’s quarterfinal round of the 50^th annual Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic.

Sixth-seeded Delsea (19-1), winners of 16 straight, will face No. 26-seed Northern Burlington in Saturday’s semifinal round. A win and the Crusaders would punch their return ticket to the championship game. That’s a spot they achieved for the first time in school history last season, but left Pitman’s Alcyon Park with a bitter taste following an 11-2 loss to Gloucester Catholic.

There’s a daily reminder of that game hanging in Delsea’s dugout.

“We have our goals hanging over there, the first one is Alcyon Park,” McGinley, a Rider commit who will study finance at the school, said. “If we get to the final, it would mean everything to us. We’ve sat on that loss for a year now... If we get there, we’ll be ready.”

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Delsea was ready for Washington Township, a team it had beaten 5-3 six days earlier. However, the Crusaders fell behind for just the fifth time in 20 games this season and just the third time the deficit was more than a run.

Were the Crusaders worried? No way.

“These seniors have played close to 100 games in high school, a lot of big-game experience and I don’t think anything is going to rattled them,” Delsea head coach Joe Smith said.

Tyler Schoppe got Delsea back in the game with one swing. With just one knock in his previous 11 at-bats, the senior slugger launched a mammoth three-run shot in the fourth inning, which went an estimated 430 feet. It was his sixth homer of the season.

“I just wanted to get something in play to help the team,” Schoppe said. “I haven’t provided for the team in a while, so I needed that.”

McGinley said Schoppe’s blast was one of the furthest he’s "ever seen hit to left-center field over the bushes" while teammate Zach Maxwell said “(Schoppe) hits a lot of those.”

Smith said nobody deserved the momentum-swaying swing more than Schoppe.

“He deserves it,” the head coach said. “He’s one of the hardest workers in the school in any sport and that's really saying something.”

Completing the comeback

Delsea still had work to do as it faced a 5-3 deficit in the fifth.

Junior Austin Buchanan delivered a run-scoring single before McGinley followed with his game-tying double, just missing a home run by several inches as he tucked the long drive just inside right-field fair pole.

Senior George Starr pitched the final three innings, allowing a solo homer for the lone hit over the stretch.

“He’s Mr. Reliable, ever since he was a freshman,” Smith said. “He’s been coming in those spots since he was a little 14-year-old kid and he seems to come through.”

Maxwell’s 99^th career hit was a leadoff single in the seventh. And after Buchanan was hit by a pitch and McGinley walked, Hudson took one for the team off the hip, ending the game on a HBP.

“It was really the first time with our backs against the wall,” Maxwell said. “We’ve been playing ball with each other since we’ve been little kids and that’s the bond we have. If we’re down 10 (runs), we’re going to find a way to come back.”

And now they are one win away from returning to the Diamond Classic final.

“To get to the finals for the first time in school history, it was shocking last year,” Smith said. “Anytime a public school can get to the final, especially Group 1, 2 or 3, it means a little bit more.

“The goal was always to get back there, and we’re one away now.”

Washington Township's Jack Fitzpatrick and Jared Dzierzgowski each hit solo homers and Giovanni Cristinzio had a two-run double for the Minutemen (11-10).

In other Diamond Classic action:

Gloucester Catholic 6, Rancocas Valley 5: Speaking of comebacks, the defending champion and top-seeded Rams needed four runs in the bottom of the seventh to pull off the victory over the Red Devils in a game played on Tuesday.

Braeden Lipoff delivered a two-out, two-strike hit to cut the deficit to 5-4 before Tate DeRias followed with a game-tying hit and Guy Lynam followed with the walk-off winner for the Rams.

DeRias, a Miami recruit, had three of Gloucester Catholic’s five hits while Jack Mustaro picked up the win in relief.

Northern Burlington 10, Kingsway 3: The Greyhounds (11-6) are the lowest seeded to reach the semifinals after their upset of second-seeded Kingsway.

Sophomore Cole Marchetti went 3-for-4 with three RBIs while fellow sophomore Liam Velit had five hits for Northern.

Cherry Hill West 14, Lenape 9: The fourth-seeded Lions (18-3) checked into the semifinal round where they will face Gloucester Catholic on Saturday.

Luciano Macri had three hits and three RBIs, Nick Mararchi contributed four hits and two RBIs, Aiden Ryder chipped in two hits, two runs scored and two RBIs, Grant Fournier added three hits and Jonathan Young had two hits and two runs scored to power West.

Andrew Shank had two hits and three RBIs and Michael Kahn added three hits and two RBIs for Lenape.

Tom McGurk is a regional sports reporter for the Courier-Post, The Daily Journal and Burlington County Times, covering South Jersey sports for over 30 years. If you have a sports story that needs to be told, contact him at (856) 486-2420 or email tmcgurk@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @McGurkSports. Help support local journalism with a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Delsea overcomes rare deficit to earn spot in Diamond Classic semifinals