West Deptford 9-10 Baseball All-Stars' Run Comes to an End

After spending five games pounding the cover off the baseball, the West Deptford 9-10 All-Star team saw the tides reversed Wednesday night. And that quickly, their tournament run was over.

East Greenwich used a 12-run third inning to eliminate West Deptford, 13-0, in four innings in the District 15 Tournament semifinals at Glassboro.

East Greenwich will face Glassboro in the finals, tonight at 6 p.m.

The game was a pitchers' duel for the first two-and-a-half innings, with East Greenwich scoring the game’s only run. West Deptford had runners on base in each of those innings, but could not find the clutch hits that had carried them to five mercy rule victories in five games.

“The first three innings we got runners on first and second, but couldn’t get them across the plate,” said West Deptford head coach Adam Finocchi. “We had some chances, and that’s a credit to how good they are. They played great defense.”

East Greenwich broke the game wide open in the bottom of the third, sending 18 batters to the plate and connecting on 10 hits.

A bright spot for West Deptford was Ryan Sawyer, who was 2-for-2 with a double, one night after going 5-for-5. Jack Murphy and Maguire Lyons also had hits for West Deptford.

Though the tournament is now over, Finocchi expressed how pleased he was with the way the team had played up to this point. Most importantly, he said, was that the team always had fun on the field.

“It doesn’t matter how it ends, everyone (but the champion) ends with a loss,” Finocchi said. “These kids were so much fun. These kids made every practice fun, and that’s what keeps me coming back.”

And since this group is so young, Wednesday’s loss will hardly be the last time many of these players wear a West Deptford uniform.

Said Finocchi, “They feel bad and they are upset, but we will be back.”