Bulldawgs Title Hopes Dashed in Group II Final

After playing a crisp brand of baseball to work its way into the Group II South Jersey finals, the Haddonfield Memorial High School baseball team had a bit of an off day on Friday.

And as a result, a championship slipped out of its grasp.

The No. 8-ranked Bulldawgs held a one-run lead in the sixth inning, but saw a couple of defensive miscues haunt them as No. 10 West Deptford scored three times in the inning to claim the NJSIAA South Jersey Group II championship with a 6-4 victory at Spicer Field.

(Click here for a photo gallery of the game.)

The Bulldawgs committed three errors on the day and were unable to track down a pair of fly balls in the sixth that allowed the Eagles to plate three runs.

“We are two teams that know each other and both teams came out and battled,” said Haddonfield head coach Bob Bickel. “It wasn’t really pretty on either side to be honest, but they just made a couple more plays than we did and that’s basically why they came out with the victory.”

The big blow came from the bat of West Deptford junior Tom Jakubowski, who broke a 4-4 tie by blasting a two-out, two-run double off of Haddonfield starter Nick Cavanaugh.

“He threw a fastball right in my zone and I just smashed it,” said Jakobowski. “It wasn’t just me, it was the two guys who got on before me. (Haddonfield) didn’t make plays and we did, and that was the difference.”

The inning was set up by a trio of defense plays that weren’t made. Joe Pinto reached on an error with one out and came around to score with two outs when a pop up off the bat of Jason Fox fell in front of the Haddonfield centerfielder. Tony Urban then reached on another pop up that fell short of an outfielder, bringing Jakubowski to the plate.

“There’s no one we would rather have in that situation,” West Deptford coach Mike Rucci said. “Tommy J is hitting over .500 and has gotten big hits since the first game of the year until now. That’s the guy you want up in that situation.”

Despite the rough inning the Bulldawgs still had a golden opportunity to claim the title.

Chris Davis led off the bottom of the seventh with a double and Alex Reincker was hit by a pitch, signaling the end of the day for Fox, who threw 112 pitches.

Freshman Tyler Castellano took over and proceeded to hit Sam Silver to load the bases and move the tying run into scoring position. Cavanaugh was up next and smoked a line drive up the middle, but it hit Castellano’s shin and third baseman Tim Merget was in position to scoop it up and fire home for the force out.

“It hit off my leg and I just hoped somebody was there,” Castellano said. “Luckily Merget was there.”

Will Reid followed by hitting a grounder back to Castellano that was turned into a 1-2-3 double play that ended the game and started a West Deptford celebration.

Cavanaugh took the loss, throwing a complete game and allowing just one earned run. He was able to keep the Bulldawgs in the game even after a first inning that saw him walk three and give up three runs.

“He’s a competitor and has been that way for the last couple of years for us and I had a lot of faith in him. I knew he would bounce back,” Bickel said.

Haddonfield answered back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first, thanks to a two-run double by Reincker that was lined just over the third base bag.

The Bulldawgs tied the game in the third on an RBI single by Mike McLaughlin and took the lead in the fourth when Vince DelDuca scored on a throwing error by Castellano.

However, it wasn’t enough and Haddonfield’s season came to an end. Despite finishing a win short of the title, Bickel was proud of the way his team competed down the stretch of the regular season and during its playoff run.

“The last couple of weeks we really focused and put 100 percent into the game and we succeeded,“ Bickel said. “I told the players it’s that way in life too. When you give 100 percent, good things are going to happen.”