By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
X @GDsullysays
HAMILTON — Players on the St. Augustine Prep baseball team said they weren’t nervous heading into Friday’s continuation of the Non-Public A state championship that was interrupted by rain in the 5th inning on Thursday night. They were angry that their long-awaited celebration was being delayed for 24 hours.
If Delbarton harbored any thoughts of Friday being a different day, and a fresh opportunity for the Green Wave to dig themselves out of a 12-4 hole, the Hermits — and relief pitcher Matt Kouser — put that to rest. Kouser, a Northwestern University recruit, allowed just one run in three innings of relief of Thursday starter John Podgorski as the Hermits won, 12-5, to capture their first state championship since 2018 and the first for rookie head coach Mike Ney, who took over this year for longtime skipper Mike Bylone.
Delbarton, the No. 1 team in the state according to the latest nj.com Top 20 poll, may have seemed like the favorite, but that was before one of the greatest innings in St. Augustine Prep baseball history. On Thursday, before the rains came, the Hermits racked up 11 runs in the top of the third, breaking a 1-1 tie and running away with the game, even though it took two days to complete.
“I went home a little mad (on Thursday). Honestly, I was a little more nervous (on Friday), but we came out and stuck to it. Our bats weren’t as hot (on Friday) but we had a horse on the mound who got the job done,” said senior center fielder Jake Meyers. “One thing that coach Ney preached all year was for us to stick together, and we stuck together. When I tell you I love this team so much, I love this team. The way we battled, stuck together no matter what. We focused on the state playoffs and got the job done. It took a lot of hard work, hard practices, hard games. We overcame everything, all the adversity. I’m so happy, I don’t know what to say.”
(The 24-hour rain delay) was the oddest thing we’ve ever experienced. We didn’t know whether to be happy or angry,” said left fielder Joe Peacock. “It was the weirdest thing, but at the end of the day, we’re happy to be where we are. At certain times this season, it didn’t look good, but we got hot and we knew what kind of team we had. Our pitching was always great — that was never a question. But during the last four weeks or so, I have to give credit to coach Ney. There was this weird confidence he had, and we took on that mentality.
“Ney’s whole thing was for us to put pressure on them. There’s already so much pressure in the game, let’s put it on them, and it worked out.”
The third inning started out innocently enough, with a walk to Prep leadoff hitter Joey Erace. Brady Jackson followed with a bunt single, and a walk to Meyers loaded the bases.
That’s when the roof caved in for the Green Wave.
Peacock ripped an RBI single to give St. Augustine a 2-1 lead, and Alex Weingartner followed with another RBI single. Meyers scored on a wild pitch. Peacock scored on a wild pitch. More walks loaded the bases, then the big blow was a grand slam off the bat of junior third baseman Alex Bersani to give the Hermits a commanding 9-1 lead.
“That was unbelievable,” Bersani said. “We knew coming into this game we were going to have to put up a fight, but that inning just blew my mind. We just kept pouring it on and it looked like we were never going to stop. This whole week we had some lefties throwing to us in practice because we knew we were going to see some lefty arms. Logan Franks and Dom D’Ottavio got us ready. It was a fastball, and that might have been the hardest ball I’ve hit in my life. My first high school home run was actually my first varsity at-bat last year, and I hit one this year. When I was rounding the bases, I was thinking ‘double’ out of the box, then I heard everyone screaming. I don’t even remember half of it. It was one of the best moments of my life.”
That third inning featured four Delbarton pitchers, 11 runs, eight hits, four walks, two wild pitches that scored runs and St. Augustine Prep loaded the bases five different times. It made a winner out of the Hermits, who suffered an uncharacteristic nine losses during the season, including getting ousted in the Diamond Classic’s first round and the finals of the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament. Prep lost four of its last six games heading into the state playoffs.
“We had that little stretch where we played Delsea, Kingsway and then Gloucester Catholic, and after losing the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament to Mainland, we had our ups and downs,” coach Ney said. “But after losing that last game (to Gloucester Catholic) on a Friday, we showed up to practice the next day and it was like a new season. Just enjoy being in the moment. We said we had to be our best (in the playoffs) and that third inning was a culmination of that. (Delbarton) is a phenomenal program with great players, a great coaching staff and great tradition. I couldn’t have asked for anything more than to play this team in my first year, but it’s not about me. It just seemed like the stars aligned. The bats got hot and stayed hot, and it’s a great thing to have two aces (like Podgorski and Kouser).”
Ney said he credits the players with having the mental toughness to flush the losses out of their minds when it came time to prepare for the state playoffs.
“With Mike (Bylone), there was a standard that was set a long time ago. It’s one thing to speak it, but these guys believed it, and that’s the biggest thing. They believed it, we’ve been preaching it from Day One. This was the goal,” he said. “I have to hand it all the players. We hit a little rough patch in the middle of the season, and the biggest thing we kept saying was, ‘stay together and find a way.’ And they did exactly that.
“Our seniors are intense and they bought in. They just had to believe they could do it. Once everyone started to believe we could accomplish this goal, that was the turning point. We’re going to miss these seniors, but we have to find a way to roll it over and keep it going next year.”
Added Meyers, “our confidence grew every single game in these playoffs. This is my last year and I had no doubt in my mind that we were going to play for a state title. This is a great way to go out, as a winner. It’s the best thing I could ever ask for.”
Bersani said the Hermits came into the 2024 state playoffs with something to prove.
Mission accomplished.
“You could tell in practice and in the games, everyone was gelling the last few weeks, and the numbers don’t lie. When we went through that rough patch, we weren’t that nervous. We came back and showed them that South Jersey can compete. We heard what everybody was thinking, we saw the predictions, and we used that as fuel. We came out here and showed everybody.”
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com.
