WILDWOOD – Devon Bradshaw went 3 for 4, circling the bases on a three-base error after one of his singles, and Brendan Phillips gave up no earned runs in six innings pitched to lead the Wildwood High School baseball team to a South Jersey Group I playoff victory Monday afternoon.
The Warriors’ 5-2 victory over Cape May Tech advances them to the second round, which is scheduled for Friday. Wildwood, the sixth seed in the tournament, will take on third-seeded Pennsville or 14th-seeded Gloucester.
The Middle Township High School golf team was on the losing side of a pair of playoffs at the Tournament of Champions Monday afternoon.
The Panthers lost on the second playoff hole in team play and freshman David Hicks was defeated on the first playoff hole in individual play as both finished second in the state in Group II.
Hopewell Valley, playing on its home course, captured the Group II title with the playoff victory after the teams were tied at 315 following 18 holes. And Hopewell Valley’s Will Young birdied the first playoff hole to edge Hicks – the individual South-Central Group II champ – for the individual title after the two were even at 74 following 18 holes.
The NJSIAA Group 3 baseball game between Ocean City and Woodrow Wilson scheduled for Monday afternoon has been postponed because of wet grounds. It has been re-scheduled for Tuesday at 4pm on the OCHS field at 5th Street and Bay Avenue.
That postponement forces Ocean City to postpone its game at Buena, oroginally scheduled for Tuesday. The Ocean City-Buena game, which could decide the CAL's National Conference title, has not yet been re-scheduled.
In addition to the Group 3 baseball game with Woodrow Wilson on Tuesday, the OCHS softball team will open play in Group 3 with a game at Moorestown.
In other Tuesday action, the Raiders boys lacrosse team hosts Woodstown. The girls lacrosse team, which leads the CAL and controls its own destiny, goes to Absegami. Also, boys tennis is at Atlantic City and golf meets Egg Harbor Township at Greentree.
Watch for more on these teams and other sports in your next Gazette.
The complete OCHS spring sports schedule, plus results, is here.
Shawnee is ranked No. 5 in the state of New Jersey in girls lacrosse and, on Friday afternoon, Ocean City found out why. The Raiders, leaders of the Cape-Atlantic League, traveled to Medford and dropped a 19-5 decision to the Renegades in the second round of the NJSIAA Group 3 Tournament. Shawnee will now face either Colts Neck or Wall in the South Jersey semifinals.
Mike Wray, Justin Healey and Vince Terry each had three hits as Ocean City defeated Bridgeton, 21-5, on Friday in a game shortened to five innings by the mercy rule. The Raiders scored eight runs in each of the first two innings. Wray had a triple and two singles, Healey had a double and two singles with Terry getting three singles. Matt Locotos added two singles with Beau Hall smacking a triple. Sophomore Ricky Dillenberger was the winning pitcher. OCHS hosts Woodrow Wilson on Monday in the opening round of the NJSIAA Group 3 Tournament.
A pair of local high school baseball teams will face each other in a first-round state playoff game next week, according to seedings released today by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.
Wildwood, has earned the No. 6 seed in South Jersey Group I and will host No. 11 Cape May Tech at Maxwell Field on Monday. The Warriors and Hawks met last weekend in the Warrior Classic baseball tournament, with Wildwood earning a 7-0 victory.
Ocean City is the only other Cape May County team to earn a home game. The Raiders are seeded sixth in South Jersey Group II and will host No. 11 Woodrow Wilson on Monday. Also in the section, No. 10 Lower Cape May will travel to No. 7 Delsea on Monday.
Middle Township is the No. 13 seed in South Jersey Group II. The Panthers will play at No. 4 Haddonfield on Monday.
Wildwood Catholic chose not to participate in the state tournament this season.
His name was Jude Sangillo and he was Lower Cape May’s pole vaulter in 1997.
Why is he the answer to a trivia question? Because he was the last pole vaulter not from Ocean City High School to win the Cape May County championship.
A big reason for that success is John Oberg, the volunteer OCHS pole vaulting coach. Since Oberg began working with the Ocean City vaulters, the Raiders are 15-0 in the county meet, 24-0 if you count the girls pole vault.
“He has been a great part of our program,” said Ocean City coach Matt Purdue. “We think he might be the best pole vault coach in the state. He’s done a great job with our vaulters but he also helps out kids on other teams, too. Its remarkable the number of state finalists he’s coached.”
For Oberg, it all started with Jon Howell, who won the county title three times (1998-2000) and set an OCHS record (14 feet, 6 inches) that still stands. The next two years it was Dan Tamburini, then Tom Tyrrell. In 2004, his son, John, became the OCHS vaulter and he won the county title three times. After that came Steele Nugent, Mike Coletta and Ryan Mazzeo. Coletta set the county meet record that was broken last week by Ed Albright. In between Mazzeo and Albright was Mike Oberg, who was county champion twice.
Carling Mott scored just over a minute into overtime on Wednesday to give Ocean City a 15-14 win over Ocean Township in the first round of the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 3 Lacrosse Tournament. Casey Hanna had scored with just four seconds left in regulation to tie the game and send it into overtime. The win advanced the Raiders to a second round game on Friday at Shawnee.
Tess Solazzo paced OCHS with six goals and Megan Devlin scored four times. Hanna scored three times.
Kyle Andrews had a single and double and Justin Healey had two singles as the Raiders defeated Absegami, 5-2, in a Wednesday baseball game. Beau Hall added a double to the OCHS attack. Andrew Meyers was the winning pitcher, limiting the Braves to two hits.
WILDWOOD – A team that has had trouble playing small ball at times this season did it to perfection in a big spot Monday afternoon.
An infield single, a passed ball and a sacrifice bunt preceded the game-winning hit by Chris Dougherty in the bottom of the seventh inning as the Middle Township High School baseball team captured the Warrior Classic baseball tournament with a 6-5 win over Lower Cape May at Maxwell Field.
Dougherty, who went 4 for 8 in three tournament games and also played outstanding defense throughout, was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
The Middle Township High School golf team and the Hicks family have continued their dominance of the sectional tournament.
The Panthers won their third straight South-Central Jersey Group II championship by placing first at the tournament held Monday morning at Wildwood Golf and Country Club.
Freshman David Hicks shot 1-under-par 71 to win the individual title, after his older brother, Alex, who is now golfing at The College of William & Mary, had won two straight sectional titles in 2010-11.
Upper Township youth wrestler Charley Cossaboone captured the bantam 56-pound title at the Mid Atlantic Wrestling Association’s Eastern National Wrestling Championships held earlier this month in Salisbury, Md.
Cossaboone outpointed Branden Bower of Williamsport, Pa., by a score of 11-2 in the championship bout to win the title. All told, Cossaboone outscored his competition 38-6 during the tournament.
Cossaboone joins an exclusive list of Upper Township wrestlers who have won MAWA Eastern Nationals. Other past winners include Bobby Hanson (1990, 193), Mike Galante (1994, 1996), Vito Constantine (1997) and Greg Austin (1997).
Ocean City High School's girls lacrosse team, currently leading the Cape-Atlantic League, has been seeded seventh in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 3 Tournament and will host Ocean Township on Tuesday at the Tennessee Avenue complex.
The winner of that first round game will likely face No. 2 seed Shawnee later in the week.
This marks the eighth straight year that the Raiders have qualified for the tournament.
WILDWOOD – Lower Cape May Regional has joined Middle Township in the championship of the Warrior Classic baseball tournament. The title game, or games, will be held Monday at Maxwell Field.
Middle Township will win the fifth annual tournament with a victory in the game scheduled for 4 p.m. Lower Cape May, which advanced out of the losers’ bracket with an easy win over Wildwood Sunday afternoon, must beat Middle twice to win the double-elimination tournament. Should the Caper Tigers win the 4 p.m., a second game will follow at approximately 7 p.m.
Tess Solazzo and Casey Hanna each scored four times on Friday as Ocean City defeated Millville, 13-8, to get a firmer hold on first place in the Cape-Atlantic League. The Raiders have just one CAL loss, Millville now has two, Egg Harbor Township has three and Mainland has four.
Megan Devlin added two goals and two assists for OCHS.
Zack Shutz, Nate Roberts and Luke Baker swept the singles as the Raiders defeated Absegami, 4-1, on Friday in boys tennis. The first doubles team of Tim DeRosa and Ben Weisberg also won.
Chris Mateer and Kevin Dougherty each scored twice on Friday and Ocean City defeated Vineland, 10-5, in boys lacrosse. The Raiders had a slim, 6-5, lead at the half but shut out the Clan in the second half.
The baseball team lost its second straight, 10-1, to Atlantic City. And the softball team lost to Wildwood Catholic, 9-2.
Watch for more on these teams and other sports in your next Gazette.
The complete OCHS spring sports schedule, plus results, is here.
WILDWOOD – Wildwood Catholic and Middle Township each won opening-round games Thursday as the Warrior Classic baseball tournament began at Maxwell Field.
Wildwood Catholic bested Cape May Tech, 5-3, in the tournament opener. All eight of the game’s runs were scored in the fifth inning. After Tech scored three times in the top of the fifth, the Crusaders answered with five runs in the bottom of the frame, highlighted by a three-run double by freshman Kevin Laffey.
The NJSIAA voted on Wednesday to add a fifth group to its lineup for the football playoffs, beginning in 2012. The association had previously announced that changes to the Non-Public Football Tournament will not be made until at least 2013.
Based on last year’s enrollment figures, here is the way South Jersey public schools would be divided under the new plan. The only exception in this list is Cedar Creek. That school’s enrollment was increased by 50% to allow for the additional class that will be added in September.
The new enrollment figures, which will determine the actual group alignment for 2012, should be announvced within a month.
ERMA – OceanCityHigh School’s boys and girls teams claimed team championships and MiddleTownship senior Yvonne Wolef made history at the Cape May County Track and Field Championships Thursday afternoon at LowerCape MayRegionalHigh School.
The Raider boys used dominance in the distance events and the pole vault to pull away from second-place MiddleTownship. OceanCity scored 132 points to Middle’s 111.
The Raider girls also controlled the distance events and got seven first-place finishes overall in scoring 176 points to second-place Middle’s 71.
Ed Albright tied the OCHS record in the pole vault by clearing 14 feet, 6 inches in a tri-meet with Oakcrest and Hammonton. The record was set by Jon Howell in 2000 and also tied last year by Mike Oberg. See the complete list of boys track record-holders at the bottom of this story.
All of Wednesday’s action has been postponed by rain and wet grounds. The softball and boys lacrosse games were moved to tomorrow. Boys tennis will be on May 15th and golf of May 22nd.
Watch for more on these teams and other sports in your next Gazette.
The complete OCHS spring sports schedule, plus results, is here.
RAIDER BOYS TRACK RECORDS
100 METERS 10.60 – Leon Brown, 1986 / Kevin Sinclair, 1995 / Pat Tolomeo, 2006
Ocean City’s nine-game winning streak in girls lacrosse ended on Tuesday when Rancocas Valley defeated the Raiders, 13-6. Casey Hanna scored four times for OCHS and Tess Solazzo added two.
The boys tennis team found out it was seeded 11th in the NJSIAA Group 3 Tournament and is scheduled to open play on Thursday at Timber Creek.
On Wednesday afternoon, softball hosts Pleasantville and boys lacrosse welcomes Absegami. The baseball team puts its five-game winning streak on the line at Cedar Creek on Wednesday, boys tennis is at Atlantic City and the golf team plays Egg Harbor Township at Greentree.
Watch for more on these teams and other sports in your next Gazette.
The complete OCHS spring sports schedule, plus results, is here.
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE – The Lower Cape May Regional High School baseball team got a tremendous pitching performance from Josh Pennington and a clutch RBI hit from Billy Kocis that produced the winning run.
Meanwhile, Middle Township lost its fifth straight game and for the sixth time in seven games, dropping yet another one-run game.
Pennington, just a sophomore, used mostly a blazing fastball to strike out 13 batters in the Caper Tigers’ 2-1 victory Monday afternoon. He allowed only two hits – none after the fourth inning – and struck out at least two batters per inning from the third inning to the finish.
