Baseball's Strong Pitching Clinches NJCAA Region XIX Playoff Spot
Baseball traveled to Delaware County on Tuesday for the last game of their regular season. It might as well have been a playoff game, as the Mustangs needed to win in order to clinch a spot in the NJCAA Region XIX playoffs. Anything less would bring the 2018 season to an end. And, with their backs against the wall, they did just that.
Devon Crossin was the starting pitcher for the Mustangs and the game started off great. Will Brownlowe brougt in Logan Curley and Luke Deleo ended the bottom of the inning with a double play. The same exact thing happened in the third inning, except this time Brownlowe made it home himself.
Delco grabbed their first run of the game in the fourth, where a freak play due to an error and confusion about a call lead to a run off of a pickoff attempt. However, Luke Deleo got one back due to Delco's own error in the 5th. That was where the game started to get interesting.
A 3-run lead is almost never safe in baseball, but Devon Crossin was trying his best to keep it. He was pitching a no-hitter into the 6th inning, but that was broken up when Delco loaded the bases and scored another run. When one Mustang struggles, another comes in to pick up the slack, and this game was no different. Aaron Benner came in to pitch and got the two outs necessary to get the Mustangs out of the inning.
Benner and Crossin would combine to allow only 1 ER and 5 hits. They racked up 7 K between the two of them.
Delco began to match the strong pitching presence from the Mustangs. Neither team could seem to grab a run in the final three innings, before we came to the bottom of the ninth. Three outs stood between Montgomery and a playoff spot.
Things looked a bit scary when the first batter popped a single through the second basemen and the shortstop. However, with Luke Deleo on your team, having a runner on first is almost a disadvantage. Deleo grabbed his third double play of the game on the very next batter. Then, on the third batter of the inning, Adrian Grow grabbed the game-winng out to seal the game and clinch a playoff spot for the Mustangs!
Montgomery received the 9th seed in the region and will play a play-in game against Lehigh Carbon at 11am Saturday. Should they win, they'll take on the home team and number one seeded Rowan College at Gloucester County Roadrunners immediately following the first game. The series with the Roadrunners will be a best of three series, with games two and three being held on Sunday.
Key Stats:
Devon Crossin - 5.67 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1.59 ERA
Aaron Benner - 3.33 IP, 2 H, 0 ER
Will Brownlowe - 4 H, 2 RBI, 1 R