Blackwood Stays Alive with Team Effort

Faced with a win-or-go-home scenario, the Blackwood 11-12 all-star team played some of its best baseball.

Now, the young ballplayers will have to do it again tonight.

Blackwood got three and two-thirds strong innings of pitching from Brian Pereira and contributions up and down its lineup in a 10-1 District 14 win over Stratford Thursday night in Mount Ephraim.

The team—which was bumped into the loser’s bracket earlier in the week—will now face Haddon Heights.

“Hopefully we can play to our abilities,” Blackwood manager Jack Donegan said. “That’s what it comes down to. If we play good baseball, we will be OK. If we have a bad inning, we are going to struggle. Hopefully we can come out and play like this.”

Blackwood trailed 1-0 entering the top of the third inning Thursday night, but broke the game open with five runs, thanks to some patience at the plate and a few clutch hits. The Stratford starting pitcher struggled with his command in the frame, walking seven, including the first three batters.

With the bases loaded, Pereira came through with an RBI single that plated Dante Washington. Matt Prendergast followed with a single to right that brought Alex Rebstock and Zach Nocella around to score. John Donegan also scored in the inning as Blackwood took the lead for good.

After Pereira worked around two hits by striking out the side in the bottom of the third, Nocella led off the fourth with a towering home run to center.

“It felt good,” said Nocella.

The lead grew to 8-1 later in the inning thanks to an RBI double by John Donegan, who also came around to score by taking advantage of a failed pickoff attempt.

The run support was more than enough for Pereira and a pair of relievers, including Nocella, who entered the game with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the fourth and struck out the opposing hitter on three pitches.

“He’s a player,” Jack Donegan said of Nocella. “He’s going to be pitching for us tomorrow.”

Eddie Makel took over on the mound and got the final four outs, striking out a pair.