OCEAN CITY – With the regular season behind them, the Red Raiders baseball team opened the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III playoffs with a win.
In the first round, Ocean City High School cruised to a 4-1 victory over Cumberland Regional High School on May 23.
After the Raiders stranded four base runners in the first two innings, Matt Pashley finally brought some home.
Pashley got the Raiders on the board first with a 2-run single in the third inning. He hit the ball right past the shortstop and brought home Colin Thomson and Evan Taylor.
Ocean City’s offensive game plan revolved around bunts. Pashley faked a bunt in his at-bat, which brought the infielders forward and opened the door for Thomson and Taylor to steal second and third base on the same pitch.
Head coach Andrew Bristol credited the double steal to earlier in the game when they showed bunt with runners in scoring position. In the first inning, the Raiders had the bases loaded with no outs. They failed to score any runs in the inning after a sacrifice bunt attempt resulted in a runner getting out at home plate.
“Early on we were trying to scratch runs but were unsuccessful,” Bristol said. “But we knew that showing bunt the way we did would make them think bunt again. We had runners at first and second with no outs and they thought bunt, but we do fake bunt into double steal to get the runners up. Pashley knocked them in as all part of the process.”
Ocean City picked up one more run in the inning after Kameron Street hit a double that brought home Pashley for a 3-0 lead. Later in the sixth inning, Ed Wisham added an insurance run for the Raiders with an RBI single.
Pitchers Travis Large and Nolan Boushard protected the lead and locked down the Cumberland offense.
Large started the game and continued his aggressive style of pitching. He struck out six batters and gave up only two hits in his five innings of work.
Boushard replaced Large in the sixth inning and was lights out. He did not allow a base runner to close out the game. Boushard saw six batters and got all of them out, including throwing four strikeouts.
“This is what we expect out of our group,” Bristol said. “Nolan came in and did his job. Travis did not want to come out, but I went with what I believe in, and it turned out it was the right time.”
Ocean City’s second-round matchup will be on the road against Delsea Regional High School on May 29. The Raiders gained nearly a week of preparation time for the biggest game of the season.
Asked about the six-day break between games, Bristol said, “I kind of like it because we haven’t had a lot of practices this year due to the weather. So, we can gear up and focus on a team that has knocked us out the last two years that we want to play. We know everything about them, and they know everything about us. We are going to work our butts off to prepare.”
Ocean City will be out for revenge against Delsea. The Raiders were eliminated in each of the past two seasons by Delsea but have an opportunity to flip the script. Game time is 4 p.m.
Mustangs win
The Mainland Mustangs (20-5) had an easy time dispatching Deptford 10-0, finishing their game in five and a half innings due to the 10-run rule.
The No. 3 seeded Mustangs scored five runs in the second and fourth innings.
They will host No. 6 seed Clearview at 4 p.m. Thursday.
– STORY by WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel
– PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
