West Deptford Majors Shut Out by Erial

West Deptford has experienced a power surge during the team's first seven games in tournament play, hitting homer after homer in outslugging their opponents.

On Wednesday night, that power surge turned into a power outage.

West Deptford's seven-game winning streak came to a halt as they were shut out by Erial Little League 7-0 at in the Section 4 tournament.

The loss sends West Deptford to the loser's bracket, where they will play either Linwood or Cherry Hill American on Friday.

"We came out flat, got behind early, and it just seemed to snowball,” said West Deptford coach Mark Ainsley. “I really can't put my finger on it. I expect these guys to do a little more at the plate.”

West Deptford starting pitcher Brian Bernetich got the only two hits for West Deptford, singling in both the third and the fifth innings. The rest of the team failed to get the ball out of the infield, as Erial pitchers Jake Vepsa and Jason Reynolds struck out 10 total batters in the game.

“[Vespa] was good,” said Ainsley. “But it's nothing we haven't see before. It's a little surprising to me.”

Bernetich did a good job of keeping West Deptford in the game on the mound. Bernetich threw 4 2/3 innings, allowing seven hits and two walks. He pitched much better then the stats suggested, as he retired 10 of 11 Erial hitters at one point and struck out the side in the second inning.

“Brian is our ace,” said Ainsley. “When he's on, he's as good as anyone I've seen us play.”

Bernetich bounced back from a tough first inning, where he allowed a two-run home run to Erial's Gianni D'Antonio to put West Deptford behind early. However, he seemed to recover well from it, mixing his pitches well and painting the outside corner with his fastball.

“I took my time, relaxed and said it's just a game,” said Bernetich. “I just needed to throw good pitches and play hard.”

Despite Berntich's efforts, West Deptford couldn't mount any sustained comeback as their bats shut off on Wednesday. Their best shot at scoring came in the third inning. Down 4-0, West Deptford had two runners in scoring position and first baseman Eric Ainsley at the plate. Ainsley hit a soft bouncer to third base and was thrown out, ending the inning.

Bernetich finally wore down in the fifth inning, as Erial rattled three singles off of him to put three runs on the board, extending the lead to 7-0 at the time.

It was that same inning that led to one of the game's uglier moments–after West Deptford's Tommy Franks made a catch in deep left, the coaches came out to argue the Erial runners left early.

In the span of a few minutes, it turned from a standard appeal on a ruling into a confrontation between assistant coach Sean Garrison and the home plate umpire, which resulted in Garrison being tossed from the game after having to be physically restrained.

West Deptford collected themselves after that incident, and managed to get runners in scoring position in the fifth and sixth innings, only to see their hitters strike out six times in those two innings, keeping them from moving the runners anywhere on the basepaths.

“No excuses, they outplayed us, they got big hits,” said Ainsley. “We need to do a little better job behind Brian in the field.”

While the win was certainly frustrating for West Deptford, they still have life in the Section 4 tournament. Their next game will be on Friday at Northfield Little League at 7 p.m. They will play the winner of Thursday's game between Linwood and Cherry Hill American. If West Deptford wins on Friday, they will get a much anticipated rematch with Erial in the title game on Sunday. For Ainsley, West Deptford's formula to winning is very simple.

“We need to hit the ball, that's what this team is built to do,” he said. “We didn't put enough balls in play tonight and it's something we need to do every game.”