Mainland shuts out St. Augustine Prep 1-0, as winning run walks in
LINWOOD – Mainland Regional High School finished off the baseball regular season with a pressure-filled Cape-Atlantic League title game.
The Mainland Mustangs scored the lone run of the game in the final inning as they walked off St. Augustine Prep 1-0 and claimed the 2024 CAL championship.
Tied at 0-0, the championship game looked to be heading to extra innings as the Mustangs were down to their final out in the bottom of the seventh inning. Mainland avoided extra innings all together and scored the game-winning run in an unorthodox fashion.
Will LaPointe came in as a pinch hitter and drew a walk from a full count to put the winning run at first base. Colton Donahue came into the game as a pinch runner for LaPointe and stole second during the next at-bat.
Two pitches later, Jake Lodgek was hit by a pitch and took first base. Brady Arena saw seven pitches in his at-bat but eventually drew another walk. Mainland loaded the bases without recording a base hit.
With a championship trophy on the line, senior Christian Elliott had the bases loaded with two outs.
Elliott fought his way to a full count and stayed alive in the at-bat after fouling off a pitch in the zone. After the foul ball, Elliott took the final pitch below the strike zone for ball four and trotted to first base as the Mustangs cleared the dugout after him. He ended the game with a rare walk-off walk.
Asked about his game winning at-bat, Elliott said, “Honestly, I had to keep my heart at a steady beat and take deep breaths. What I’m not looking forward to hitting I am not going to swing at.”
“He is our all-time, games-played leader here so there is nobody else in terms of experience you would rather have up,” Mainland head coach Billy Kern said. “You knew it was going to come down to some play and I was happy it was Christian in that spot.”
In the wild seventh inning, the Mustangs won the game when none of the four base runners recorded a hit.
Starting pitcher Finnegan Haines kept Mainland in the game as he shut out St. Augustine. Haines pitched 6.2 innings and gave up only four hits. The junior navigated some traffic with runners in scoring position but did not give up a run.
Kern said after the game he was “thrilled” with Haines’ performance and liked how Haines pitched with runners on base.
With two outs in the top of the seventh inning Kern made the call to pull Haines for closer Brady Blum. He has been Mainland’s most reliable closer and was thrust into a high-pressure situation.
Blum inherited runners on second and third base but needed only one out to preserve the shutout. In four pitches Blum struck out the final batter and opened the door for the Mustang victory.
“He’s just a guy that is a calming presence for us in any type of situation,” Kern said. “We got him loose about half an hour earlier, so he was ready to go. He has been the guy and there was total confidence in the dugout that he was going to get it done.”
Coincidentally this was Mainland’s second 1-0 victory in the past week; the Mustangs defeated Kingsway Regional High School 1-0 on May 13. In that game Haines and Blum were the two pitchers for Mainland and combined for another shutout.
The Mustangs reached the championship round after they beat Ocean City High School in the semifinals. Mainland dropped both regular-season games this season to Ocean City but pulled out a 3-2 win when it mattered most. Lodgek started at pitcher for the Mustangs in the game and struck out 11 batters in his five innings of work.
Mainland finished the regular season with a 19-5 record and claimed the third seed in the South Jersey Group III playoffs. The defending champion Mustangs will start their title defense on May 23. at home against Deptford High School. Game time is 1:30 p.m.
Playoff seedings
for baseball
and softball
The Ocean City girls softball team earned the No. 2 seed in the South Jersey Group III sectional tournament.
The Raiders (16-8) host No. 15 Toms River South at 4 p.m. today (Wednesday).
The Mainland girls are the No. 10 seed and travel to No. 7 Timber Creek.
If Ocean City and Mainland win, they would face each other in the quarterfinals next week.
The Mainland Regional baseball team is the No. 3 seed and Ocean City is the No. 5 seed in the South Jersey Group III sectional playoffs.
The Mustangs (18-5) are scheduled to host No. 14 Deptford Thursday and Ocean City (16-7) is to host No. 12 Cumberland at 4 p.m. Thursday.
Cherry Hill West nabbed the top seed and Hammonton earned the No. 2 seed. Ocean City and Mainland both beat Hammonton during the regular season.
Ocean City and Mainland have played each other three times this season, with the Raiders winning the first two contests and the Mustangs winning 3-2 on Friday in the Cape-Atlantic League tournament. The teams are on opposite sides of the sectional playoff bracket and would only meet if they made it to the South Jersey finals.
The Mustangs are the defending South Jersey Group III champions.
The new Mainland boys volleyball team just missed the playoff cutoff, finishing 17th in Power Points. The top 16 teams made the sectional tournament.
– STORY and PHOTO by WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel