By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
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EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP — After quite possibly the worst first inning of his baseball life, Mainland Regional senior pitcher Will Hickman was in need of a reset. He got it — albeit in an unfortunate way — in the top of the fourth when the home plate umpire in the Cape-Atlantic League championship game collapsed in the extreme heat at Egg Harbor Township High.
After a 20-plus-minute delay, the lead umpire was taken away by ambulance to be evaluated, and the rest of the game belonged to Mainland. In a crazy switch of momentum, the Mustangs went from being down 5-0 to storming back to take an 8-5 lead. Mainland eventually won, 9-6, capturing its second league championship in the five years of the tournament’s existence.
Hickman threw 33 pitches in the first inning and allowed a grand slam to Max Buzby, but he needed just 33 more to get through the next three innings, settling in and dominating in the final six innings of his complete game. He struck out five and walked just one batter, and after the first inning he allowed just one run on three hits.
“I give props to EHT, they came out loud and had a huge crowd today, and they swung the bats really well early. They were jumping on my first-pitch fastballs. It was shocking. I clearly haven’t been in that situation all year, but I trusted my guys and I trusted myself. We went to work the next few innings, chipped away and finally got the lead and I settled in,” said Hickman, who entered the game with a 1.00 ERA. “I was trying to be loose and let the game play itself out. I was so confident in myself that I was going to let my pitches work, and confident that we were going to score runs in this game. I was loose, calm and controlled, and had faith in our team today.”
He needed faith, because after the first inning the game looked to be well on its way to an EHT blowout. Dylan Salsbery started things off for the Eagles with an infield single, and Elijah Casey laced a one-out single. Chase Battersby followed with a run-scoring single to put EHT on the board, and a walk to Dawson Ricci loaded the bases. Hickman got the second out on a strikeout, but then Buzby ripped a home run down the left-field line, pushing the lead to 5-0.
“We just talk about being resilient all the time in the dugout. It was the first inning, and they had about the most perfect first inning they could have asked for, but we knew we had our guy on the mound and he was going to hold them right there. The zeroes on the board after that inning didn’t surprise me at all,” said Mainland senior third baseman Jake Blum. “We just had to have good at-bats. The biggest thing was getting our leadoff batter on. We struggled to do that in the first three innings and that kind of showed on the scoreboard. But once we started getting the leadoff batter on we started to get hot, had better at-bats, and it was our game from there. Will got hot on the mound, and from there I had all the confidence in the world.”
No. 4 seed (15-8, 7-5 Cape-Atlantic League American) Mainland picked up a run in the second as Hickman helped himself with an RBI single, but the fourth inning is when everything changed. After the delay to tend to the umpire, the Mustangs rallied for three runs to get to within 5-4. John Franchini — the star quarterback for the football team the past four years — laid down a perfect safety squeeze bunt to get the Stangs to within 5-2, and Blum added a run-scoring single. Mainland loaded the bases, and Bradley Delaney’s walk forced home Franchini, getting the Stangs to within 5-4.
“I think (that break) really helped us,” Hickman said. “It really helped us focus in on our momentum. Once we were able to identify what we were trying to do, we went to work on that. Me, personally, I think the heat played a factor. Hopefully the umpire is alright. (The delay) gave me a break and let me move forward.”
“That definitely turned the tables. It was right after we had that big triple by Sean Burke. We had a great at-bat (from Chase Sutley after the delay) and we knocked (Burke) in and it was a whole new ball game,” Blum said. “That was a huge run for us because it kind of got us back into the game, and the wheels kept turning.”
Roman Giaconia, on in relief for third-seeded EHT (16-11, 10-2 CAL National), got the first two outs of the top of the fifth in quick fashion, but then Mainland rallied again. The Stangs sent seven batters to the plate and scored four runs to take an 8-5 lead, as Blum and Anthony Nodado had RBI singles and a wild pitch brought Blum home after he stole third. Blum went 2-for-4 with two runs, two RBIs and three stolen bases.
“I think that the character and resilience this team has is a testament to Mainland baseball,” Hickman said. “Every single person wants to be here every day, and each person is working toward winning championships, like we did today. The players, the parents, the coaches — we all stepped up this year, and that’s just Mainland baseball.
“A game like this, where we battled back from five runs down — going forward, every game is ours. In the playoffs, every game is a one-game series and I think this game is really going to propel us over the hump and open up our eyes to see that we can win games.”
“This means a lot. There are some strong teams across the board (in the CAL),” Blum added. “Winning in the semifinals against St. Augustine Prep, at Prep, was a big confidence booster for us. I think this group got a lot of confidence from that, and coming in here we played our hearts out and came out with the win.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Mainland travels to Pennsville on Thursday at 4 p.m. Egg Harbor Township hosts Washington Township on May 27 in the opening round of the South Jersey Group 4 state playoffs, time TBD.
