Panthers Impress in Long-Awaited Baseball Opener

After Collingswood High School baseball team’s season opener was postponed Friday, due to flooding in The Knight Park fields, players and coaches alike were anxious to start the season.

For Panthers, the game—rescheduled for Monday, April 4—was worth the wait.

Rescheduled for Monday afternoon and relocated to Sterling High School in Somerdale, the Panthers led an impressive season opener by defeating the Sterling Silver Knights 4-0.

Pitcher Derek Gibbins reached his pitch limit of 65, after throwing six shutout innings, allowing only four hits and walking a mere four batters.

The amazing effort eventually took a toll on Gibbins, who struck out four batters before being replaced by left fielder Scott Irwin, who threw the final two innings in relief.

“It’s early in the season,” said Collingswood head coach Rob Skowronek, “So we had the pitch count on him. Once he reached 65, he gave up two hits and we could just tell he was getting tired. He has to catch tomorrow so we decided to pull him.”

Gibbins also contributed on the offensive end, by going 1-3 at the plate and scoring a run after an RBI-single hit—by right-fielder John Cappelli—during the fifth inning.

Cappelli had arguably the best day of any Collingswood batter, going 3-3 on the day with three singles.

“I’ve been working on my swing,” said Cappelli. “We played well. I was just concentrating on getting the ball, but all of us came together as a team today and got the win.”

But at the game’s start, it looked as though the Panthers were destined for a long day.

Seven of the team’s first eight batters were sat-down on strikes, and the team only totaled three base runners in the game’s first four innings.

Things began to look up for Collingswood in the fifth inning, when the team posted two runs—the first being Cappelli’s RBI-single; and the second a bunt single by senior third-baseman Taylor Venanzi, who reached third on a throwing error, bringing Cappelli in for the score.

The Panthers' other two runs were driven by center-fielder Alex Irwin, and junior short-stop Chris Michael, both on singles.

“We try to play unselfish baseball as a team,” said Skowronek. “We have to do whatever we can in order to manufacture some runs.”

The Panthers plan to continue kindling this season's hot-start on Tuesday, when they'll travel to West Deptford High School.

“I’m pretty confident,” Skowronek said of his team's next contest. "They played Saturday and today. We might see their No. 3 pitcher, but even if we don’t, hopefully we can jump up on them and spoil it.”