Sean McGrath
Scouting Director, New Jersey

Williamstown 7 – Cherry Hill West 4

Game Played May 22

The South Group 4 sectional bracket is one of the most competitive brackets in the state, and may be the toughest of the public school sectionals. #3 Williamstown, who has been consistent all season, played host to a talented #6 Cherry Hill West in the second round of the tournament. Williamstown went with their number two starter, Tyler Apt, while Cherry Hill West elected to start their talented ace Jeff Dixon on short rest. As it turned out, the fresh arm would look much sharper.

Williamstown is a very upbeat, high energy team and it translated right away. Junior RHP Tyler Apt located the bottom half of the zone for much of this outing and found a way to avoid the big inning. He went 5+ innings, giving up only 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk and 1 strikeout. He pitched largely stress free thanks to the offense. They gave a 4 run lead in the first as they sent 9 hitters to the plate. They look advantage of 4 perfectly placed ground ball hits and 2 Jeff Dixon walks to give their starter the breathe of fresh air he needed to cruise.

Cherry Hill West would not go down easily however. They would score a run in the top of the 2nd on an RBI single by talented sophomore OF Jake Azar. Their live armed ace would find his groove and for the next 3 innings, the score board posted zeroes on both sides. It wasn't the bottom of the 5th when Dixon, who was sitting 84-88, would run out of gas and Williamstown, like they typically do, took advantage. A leadoff single by catcher Ross Micka, followed by an error on a well-executed sacrifice bunt and a hit by pitch would be the end of Jeff Dixon's day. Dixon went 4+ innings and gave up 4 runs, 2 of which were earned. Cherry Hill West turned to So. RHP John Stankiewicz, who would allow two of the three inherited runners to score without giving up a hit.

Cherry Hill West would score on in the top of the 6th when Sr. SS and UMBC commit AJ Wright reached on a HBP and advanced to third on a double the LF line by Jr. 1B Jake Campbell. With 2nd and 3rd with nobody out, Apt hit the next batter and Williamstown went right to their ace, Jr. LHP Denny Bentley, to limit the damage and hold the lead. Bentley would prove to be the rally killer and he retired the first three he faced; the first by strikeout, the next with a harmless sac-fly RBI, and the 3rd with another fly ball. Cherry Hill West could only cut the deficit by one, making it 6-2.

Williamstown would take on a security run in the bottom of the 6th via base hit and stolen base by 2B Dan Musilli, followed by an RBI 1B by Micka. Going into the last frame down by 5 against Bentley would prove to be too much. A hard leadoff single up the middle by So. RJ Concepcion would turn the order over. Bentley would get the Sr. OF, Josh Machtinger, to strikeout on a curveball. Joe Santaguida, who creates some pressure with his legs, would get on via error for the second time and Concepcion would use his speed and score. With a runner on 2nd with one out and now down by 4, AJ Wright came to the plate and skied a pop out to the shortstop. Bentley would miss on the outer half to Campbell, and the 6-foot-4 junior backstop Jack Goan battled with two strikes and eventually hit an RBI single to right field to make it 7-4. Down to their last out, with the tying run up to bat, Bentley would strikeout the mismatched lefthander on a slider. Bentley battled through 2 unearned runs to seal the deal.

Williamstown was lead offensively by 2017 SS who was 1 for 3 with 2 RBIs and Sr. catcher Ross Micka who went 2 for 4 with an RBI and run scored. They move on to play the 2-seed Toms River North in the semifinals where Bentley and the Braves will have to deal with one of the top hitters in the state, Jr. Oklahoma State commit, Joey Rose.