Haddonfield High School Baseball Team Falls in Diamond Classic; No. 1 Seed in SJ Group II

The Haddonfield High School baseball team can now focus on a sectional title.

The Bulldawgs fell to Northern Burlington, 6-4 in nine innings, in the quarterfinals of the 43rd annual Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic at Washington Township on Saturday.

Down 3-1 in the sixth, Tommy Kadar plated a run on a fielder’s choice and Joe Loperfido put Haddonfield up, 4-3, with an RBI double, according to the report.

Northern Burlington tied the game in the seventh and won it with two runs in the ninth, according to the report.

Northern Burlington will now face Bishop Eustace in the semifinals of South Jersey’s unofficial championship tournament on Sunday afternoon. The championship game is set for Sunday night at Eastern.

A total of 16 teams from what is traditionally considered the South Jersey area compete in the tournament, with 10 teams qualifying because they were in first place in their division at the cutoff date and six other teams qualifying as wild-card teams.

Haddonfield qualified as the first place in the Colonial Conference’s Liberty Division, and defeated Rancocas Valley in the first round last weekend.

Now Haddonfield’s attention shifts to an official South Jersey title. The Bulldawgs are the No. 1 seed in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group II playoffs, and host No. 16 Cape May Tech in the first round on Monday at 4 p.m.

The first round matchups are as follows:

No. 16 Cape May Tech at No. 1 Haddonfield

No. 9 Cedar Creek at No. 8 Audubon

No. 13 Middle Township at No. 4 Glassboro

No. 12 Overbrook at No. 5 Barnegat

No. 14 Sterling at No. 3 West Deptford

No. 11 Collingswood at No. 6 Buena

No. 10 Lower Cape May at No. 7 ACIT

No. 15 Woodstown at No. 2 Deptford

All first round matchups are Monday afternoon at 4 p.m.