Near-Perfect Game Leads Seniors to District Title

With the way the West Deptford Senior All-Stars had been hitting the ball, starting pitcher Ty Castellano knew he did not have to be perfect when he stepped on the mound Friday night against Glassboro.

He nearly was anyway.

Castellano was perfect through 4 1/3 innings, and had a no-hitter through 4 2/3, before settling for a one-hitter and an 11-1 win in five innings that clinched the District 15 championship and a place in the Eastern Regional Tournament.

West Deptford opens Eastern Regional play Friday at 8 p.m. against the Pennsylvania state champions.

The local all-stars entered the game with a world of confidence after beating Glassboro in the opening game of the best-of-three championship series, 13-1 in six innings Friday night. That momentum carried over as it led 4-0 after one inning and the players never looked back.

“It made it more relaxing because we knew we could put up a lot of runs against them,” said Castellano.

“The first game we played six (innings) and we knew we wanted to play five and get out of here early,” said first baseman Tom Jakubowski, who was 2-for-3 with a triple, walk, three RBIs and two runs. “We came in here with the mindset to beat them, and that’s what we did.”

While the bats stayed hot, Castellano demonstrated why he became a key piece of the West Deptford High School rotation this spring. He was perfect with one out in the fifth when he gave up a walk. One batter later, her surrendered a two-out double that ended the no-hitter.

“All I could do was smile about it,” said Castellano with a laugh. “I couldn’t do anything else.”

As remarkable as Castellano was, that type of performance is almost becoming common for this team. The run he surrendered in the fifth was only the second run, and first earned, the West Deptford pitching staff has given up this tournament.

“The pitching has been phenomenal,” said Jacubowski. “They have done their job and the offense has picked it up.”

“(Castellano) had really good command, I think he was mixing his pitches up really well,” said West Deptford manager Marty Roselli. “He’s got three nice pitches and he stayed ahead of hitters, and I think that is important for him.”

West Deptford wasted no time taking control of the game as Jakubowski ripped an RBI triple in the bottom of the first that plated Joe Pinto to open the scoring. Harry Sturgis followed with a walk and Dominic Bisirri and Ed Essig delivered RBI hits to push the home team ahead 4-0.

The lead grew to 7-0 in the second on a two-RBI single from Jakubowski and an RBI double by Bisirri.

Connor Marshall added a 2-run single in the bottom of the fourth to help the game reach the mercy rule.

“(Glassboro) won the (coin) toss and wanted to be the visitors,” said Roselli, who deflected all credit of the team‘s success to their previous coaches and his assistants. “I think they wanted to get at the plate and see if they could get up on us early so we made a decision tonight to play some good strong defense in the first inning. We wanted to go 1-2-3 and we did. When we came in to bat the guys really wanted to put some runs together and go after them offensively.”

On Friday the competition gets tougher, with the best from Pennsylvania and Delaware and other states waiting. Yet, if the District 15 Tournament was any indication, West Deptford is ready to more than hold its own.