OCEAN CITY – In their first action of the 2025 baseball season the Ocean City Red Raiders took on the Egg Harbor Township Eagles in a two-game series. Each team won on the road as Ocean City fell to Egg Harbor Township 8-4 on March 26.
Senior Travis Large got the opening-day start for the Raiders and was sharp through his nearly five innings of work. He struck out five of his first six batters and pitched for nearly five innings. He picked up where he left off last year as Ocean City’s premier power pitcher and finished with nine strikeouts.
Large leads a strong returning pitching staff from a year ago, as Ocean City retained five of their six main pitchers. He is joined by upperclassmen Evan Taylor and Kameron Street, who both can do damage at the plate.
Team captain Cole Laursen took the leadoff spot for the Raiders and delivered the first run of the season with a solo home run in the third inning. With two outs he swung at the first pitch he saw and sent it over the fence, which cleared the Ocean City dugout as they waited for him along the third base line to celebrate.
After the Eagles tied it up the following inning, pitcher/left fielder Street hit a triple off the fence to set up an instant scoring opportunity. It was the junior’s second hit that fell a few feet short of a home run. Street was brought home by Kyle Williams for the lead heading into a pivotal fifth inning.
After four innings of a pitchers’ duel between Large and the Eagles’ Chip Clooney, the game was turned completely upside down for Ocean City in the fifth.
Large picked up two more outs before he was pulled with 86 pitches and a 2-1 lead. The lead fell apart in a flash after a series of errors brought four Eagles home. Well-hit balls and costly mistakes on defense put the Raiders behind 5-2 with three innings to play.
Ocean City did not wait around to try to chip away at the lead and made a move in the bottom of that same inning. With zero outs the Raiders loaded the bases and had the tying run at the plate. Clooney was pulled after the third base runner was put on, and Ian Elko was called upon to get out of the jam.
Elko struck out his first two batters and had his defense ground out the third for a quick end to a promising opportunity for Ocean City.
“They executed and made plays and we just did not get it done when the pressure was on,” Raiders head coach Andrew Bristol said after the game. “We had bases loaded and no outs and got nothing out of it. Hats off to them. We gave them our two best pitchers and they went after it.”
In the top of the seventh inning, Laursen collided with a teammate while in pursuit of a fly ball and left the game with an injury. (See related story.)
Down 8-2 with one inning to go the Raiders did not go down quietly and scored twice to make Egg Harbor Township sweat out the final outs. Ocean City had a couple more base runners but were in too deep of a deficit and eventually struck out.
After the game, Bristol praised the team for “continuing to fight in that final inning with their teammates in their hearts. The beauty in this game is that we play back-to-back games, so we get to come right back tomorrow.”
Ocean City carried that fight into the next day on their trip to Egg Harbor Township for the series finale. The Raiders’ offense exploded in the rematch, as they routed the Eagles 15-4 behind three home runs.
Star third baseman/pitcher Evan Taylor hit his first home run of the season with a three-run slam to clear the bases. Taylor remains one of the top prospects in the state and started off his senior year strong at the plate after he led the team in home runs in each of the last two seasons.
On their day off from the mound, Ocean City’s pitching staff got to work at the plate. After his nine-strikeout performance the day prior, Large went 2/4 including a home run and 3 RBI while Street added another two hits to his early season total.
Despite what the score might suggest, the Raiders exercised patience at the plate and drew a combined 10 walks. One of the few Raiders to not get walked was senior Ryan Baldwin, who got on base the old-fashioned way. He recorded two singles and a double for a three-hit performance to keep the traffic on the bases steady.
Kyle Williams joined Baldwin as the only Ocean City players to have at least 1 RBI in both games after his three-run homer.
The Raiders are loaded with upperclassman pitchers, but some young and upcoming arms are firmly in the rotation. Freshman pitcher Preston Pahang saw his first live action of his high school career after he came on in relief of sophomore Josh Lenko. Pahang went two innings and struck out two with one hit and earned run. Lenko picked up the win with four innings of work.
After nearly a whole week off the Raiders will be at home at 4 p.m. April 2 against Hammonton and then at 4 p.m. April 4 on the road against Absegami.
The Raiders will move on to face cross-bay rival Mainland Mustangs in a two-game series. Mainland Regional will host the first game on April 7 while the game will head across the bridge to Ocean City April 8. Both are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.
Ocean City won the first two games of the series last season against Mainland but fell to the Mustangs in the Cape-Atlantic League tournament semifinals. Starting pitchers for each team are unknown but both teams will be coming off three days’ rest which could set up a pitching duel.
– By WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel
