By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
MARGATE — The Delsea Regional High baseball team — the defending South Jersey Group 3 champion — had a lot of question marks coming into this season. Who would step up offensively after the Crusaders graduated most of their starting lineup from a year ago? What pitchers could get the job done behind senior ace Frank Cairone? How would the team make up for the loss of senior outfielder Austin Buchanan, the team’s best returning hitter who hasn’t played at all yet because of a hand injury?
Those questions are all starting to get answered as the Crusaders keep finding ways to win. A team that lost a huge core from a squad that went to the state championship game a year ago is now 11-0 after a 3-2, comeback win over Shawnee on Friday afternoon at the Downbeach Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at Jerome Avenue Park in Margate.
Delsea — ranked No. 12 in the state coming in by nj.com — had Cairone on the hill, and the senior southpaw was impressive, running his fastball up to 95 miles per hour in front of a handful of Major League Baseball scouts behind the plate. Yet Shawnee (6-5, 2-2 Olympic American) found a way to put up a couple runs against a pitcher who had allowed just five hits all year and came in with a 0.00 ERA.
Cairone allowed just a bunt single through the first three innings, but Shawnee put up a run in the fourth on a drag bunt RBI single by senior shortstop Chase Roberts and added another in the fifth on a run-scoring single to right field by Mak Heino off Delsea reliever Kyle Harrison.
But the Crusaders (11-0, 5-0 Tri-County Liberty) evened things up, 2-2, in the top of the sixth on a two-run home run by Cole Hudson.
“It was a frustrating day, we didn’t execute very well, a lot of missed signs,” said first-year Crusaders coach Vincent Londino, a former assistant who took over when Joe Smith took over at Mainland Regional. “I was a little unhappy with the execution through the first five innings, but we loved up on (Hudson), gave him some love — we told him he was going to do it. To have a senior in that spot, right guy, right spot. He got a pitch to hit and he definitely didn’t miss.”
“I made a couple of mistakes earlier and I had to make up for that. I was thinking fastball. I knew first pitch they were probably going to go offspeed, so I was just making sure when I got my fastball I didn’t miss it,” said Hudson, who hit his second home run of the season and fourth of his career. “I’ve always known we’re the toughest team around. We have heart, and we’re not going to give up until it’s over. I wasn’t worried at all, even though we were down the whole game. I’m sure we’re surprising a lot of people, but we’re still not playing our best. We have a lot of young guys who are still finding their way, figuring things out, but every day we’re getting better.”
“(The momentum switched) 100 percent,” senior left fielder Alex Grippo said. “Everyone got immediately right up, we knew it was gone. Once he turned around (toward our dugout), we all knew the momentum had flipped to us and we knew we were going to win the game right there.”
“It was a shock (that they took the lead), but we knew once they scored we weren’t going to go down without a fight. That’s just what Delsea does in everything.”
Gavin Reissek led off the top of the seventh with a walk, was sacrificed to second then reached third on another bunt, and trotted home with the eventual game-winning run when Ethan DuBois roped a single up the middle.
“That kid has ice in his veins,” Londino said of DuBois. “He hit two rockets earlier — he should have had three hits today but he had two stolen from him. They weren’t stealing that one, it was 15 feet high. Shaq himself wasn’t stopping that baseball. That kid has been a stud all year and I expect another couple solid years out of that kid.
“We’re tough, Delsea tough. We are what we’re supposed to be. We’re young and we’re learning,” Londino continued. “This team, coming into May, I think we’re going to put it all together. It’s hard to say that at 11-0 right now — it’s hard to say we haven’t put it all together yet — but our best bat hasn’t taken a swing yet and we’re still in the spot where we are. It’s a testament to the dudes who are here right now, we’re working every day, we’re being tough and we’re doing our jobs.”
Delsea also got a big lift defensively when Grippo — one of the stars of Delsea’s state championship-winning wrestling team — made a diving catch on a low liner by Cole Anderson to get the first out of the bottom of the seventh. Otley Makosky retired the next two batters in order to nail down the save.
“It’s always fun to make those catches,” Grippo said. “With nobody on base, just go out and have some fun, that’s what I was thinking. Just lay out, why not? I was surprised I caught it, and held onto it.”
All eyes were on Cairone at the start of the game, and he delivered a solid performance. He allowed just four hits in four innings of work, just one earned run and didn’t walk a batter while striking out eight. In 22 innings so far this season, he has 51 strikeouts against just six walks and has allowed only nine hits and one earned run.
“It was the same thing as every game, I had to bring my ‘A’ game,” he said. “For the most part, (my start) was good. You have to be focused all game, and even before the game. It’s not just what you do on the field, but what you do the night before, the morning of.”
“Frank handles pressure better than any 17-year-old kid I’ve seen. He’s ice cold. He’s a tough kid. The plan today was to get him out after four innings. Ideally, in a one-run game, you don’t want to pull your best guy, but we stuck to the plan. Pitch-count-wise, we had a plan coming in and that’s what we stuck to,” Londino said. “He just did his job. We knew they were going to be tough, that’s a good Group 3 school with a lot of grinders who are well coached. They beat us at our own game for five innings, but then finally we cracked through at the end. We did enough to keep it close through the first five innings, then we did enough at the end to win it.”
Cairone, one of just a handful of seniors returning with any significant varsity experience, said he didn’t see an 11-0 start coming, considering all the positions where the Crusaders had to replace all-star caliber talent.
“To say this is a surprise is an understatement,” he said. “We lost a lot of guys from last year and have a lot of young guys, but we’re trying to figure things out. We figured something out (today). We weren’t coming in scared. We got down but didn’t stop fighting, put a couple hits together and came back and won the game.”
“It’s just practice. We’re just going hard at practice,” Grippo said. “We’re not out there for hours and hours, but we’re getting good work in while we’re there. It starts with that and then translates (to game day).”
WHAT’S NEXT: Delsea travels to Highland Regional on Monday at 3:45 p.m. Shawnee hosts Triton today at 10 a.m.
