By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
The team won-loss records on nj.com’s high school baseball pages go back 15 years. There are no state playoffs wins showing under Cumberland Regional’s heading.
Whatever the definition of a baseball juggernaut is — Cumberland has been on the other end of the spectrum, as playoff success has proved to be elusive for the Colts.
But Colts fans, players and coaches have reason to be a lot more optimistic this season, as Cumberland enters this week’s sectional playoffs as the No. 5 seed in South Jersey Group 3. The Colts are 16-8 this spring and won a share of the Tri-County Conference’s Liberty Division, and a team loaded with seniors believes this could be the year Cumberland makes some real noise at states.
“Coming into this season, I had a lot of confidence in the guys we have here,” junior shortstop Kameron Fiorani said after a mid-season win at Delsea Regional, one of the top teams in the area. “We’re an older team with a lot of seniors, and a lot of us have been playing together since we were small kids. It’s a great last huh-rah (for the seniors). We knew coming into this season that we had a bunch of dogs and we were going to have a chance. But it’s not going to be given to us, we have to go out there and take it.”
Cumberland has been out to prove a point that it belongs among the big dogs of this section, and so far the Colts have done just that. They beat teams like Vineland, Highland, Triton and Washington Township, and split with Delsea for a share of the regular-season division crown. They also hung with teams like Kingsway, GCIT and Cherry Hill West.
“We can go into a playoff game on the road and have confidence against competitive teams,” said head coach Kyle Daddario. “I’m an alum (2015) so I played my four years at Cumberland, played in college then came back, started as an assistant and now it’s my program. (These seniors) are my first class that I’ve had since their freshman year, and it just makes me proud. When I took over, we had seven wins (the previous year), then we shared the conference title my first year. But then we started trending the other way. So this is awesome to see Cumberland Regional near the top.
“We don’t get a lot of love,” he added, “we’re down south so it’s tough to get media coverage. I try to blast stuff out (on social media) cause the guys deserve it. It’s all for them. That’s why we’re out here. To have the ability to have a home game for the first round of the playoffs — it’s great, but I keep telling them they have to stay hungry. (Just getting into the playoffs) is not enough anymore.”
Cumberland had a solid year when Daddario took over, going 13-9 in 2023. But then the Colts went just 14-33 the next two years before turning things around in a big way.
The Fiorani brothers have been a key part of the turnaround, as Kameron is hitting .443 with 31 runs and 26 RBIs, while Kevin, a senior catcher, is at .406 with three home runs and 27 RBIs. But the Colts have gotten contributions up and down the lineup. Sophomore Boyd Fithian is leading the club with 28 hits, seniors Josh Holt and Tyler Kundera each have scored 18 runs, senior Trevor Brogan has 15 walks and fellow seniors Colin and Gavin Sheppard have combined for 18 hits and 11 RBIs. On the mound, the Colts’ top two pitchers both have ERAs under 3.00, as Daniel Orr has a 2.78 with only eight walks all season, while Jonathan Rossi has a team-leading 1.42 ERA and is averaging a strikeout per inning.
“My pitchers do a phenomenal job of moving the ball all over the zone, and they trust me to call the pitches. They put the ball where they need to,” Kevin Fiorani said. “We have a bunch of dogs on this team and we’re never going to give up. It’s a family, and I love it. We’re out here smashing the baseball. What’s going to put us over the hump is our mindset. We’re never going to give up. It doesn’t matter if (the other team) is the No. 1 ranked team or No. 100, we’re going in there to fight, every single time.”
“The biggest thing about these guys is they are fighters. We had five wins last year and now we have 16. I’d have to do some digging to find out the last time this program had 16 wins in a season, and we have the ability to win more,” Daddario said.
WHAT’S NEXT: No. 5 Cumberland Regional hosts No. 12 Moorestown on Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the opening round of the South Jersey Group 3 sectional tournament.
