Eastern Regional Recap: The NJ Streak Ends

The 34-game win streak for New Jersey state champs at the Senior League Eastern Regional is over, after Freehold lost to Maryland state champion Talbot in the nightcap Saturday.

In other action, Massachusetts champ Quincy put together the first back-to-back shutouts in the 21 years of action at the Eastern Regional.

The complete recap of Saturday's games:

Maryland 12, New Jersey 2
Maryland scored six runs in the top of the first and didn't stop the offense in a 12-2 drubbing of New Jersey in the night game.

Brooks Harrison had the big hit in the inning for Maryland with a two-run single–one of four hits in the inning for the team.

New Jersey was its own worst enemy in trying to mount a comeback, hitting into double plays to end the second and third innings with runners in scoring position. The team also had the bases loaded with no outs in the fourth and came away with nothing.

Maryland put up another five runs in the fifth to put the game into mercy-rule territory.

The loss was the first for a New Jersey state champ at the regional since 2003 when Cambridge, MD topped South Vineland, NJ in the winner’s bracket final. Since then, New Jersey teams had won 34 consecutive games, including 10 straight regional titles.

Delaware 9, Pennsylvania 4
Delaware started slow, but came through in the last two innings to post a 9-4 win over Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania seemed to be cruising with a 3-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, but Delaware, which had just two hits to that point, woke up in the fifth. Leslie Kennedy, who finished the day 3-for-4, smacked a two-run single to put Delaware ahead for good.

Massachusetts 10, Maine 0
Massachusetts champ Quincy became the first team in 21 years of regional play at West Deptford to record consecutive shutouts as it blanked Maine, 10-0, in five innings.

Dan Cobban and Andrew Currie combined on the two-hit shutout as Massachusetts advanced to a winner’s bracket game at 5 p.m. Sunday. Cobban struck out five and walked one in 3-1/3 innings of work, while Currie worked the final 1-2/3 to earn the victory.

The only other time a team recorded two shutouts in a regional tournament was when South Vineland did it in 2000, but those games were not back-to-back.

Connecticut 7, Rhode Island 5
Connecticut posted a 7-0 lead heading into the seventh, then weathered a hurricane of hits to hold on for the win over Rhode Island.

Jourdon Wydra was 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored to lead Connecticut. Jarrett Michaels had a two-run single to key Connecticut’s four-run third that broke the game open.

Rhode Island broke up the shutout in the seventh with a two-run double by Gus Culpo off the wall in right. Whitney followed two batters later with two-run double off the wall in left-center.

Matt Corey followed with a sac fly to cut it to 7-5, but that was as close as Rhode Island would get.