By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher MAPLE SHADE — Ocean City’s first appearance in the Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic in the past 15 years started out rather smoothly. Josh Arnold needed only a handful of pitches to retire the first two Kingsway hitters he faced in the bottom of the first inning, but a hit batsman, a walk and one swing of the bat later and the air went out of the Red Raiders as quickly as a balloon popped by a dart at a boardwalk game of chance. Joe Massing launched a high fastball from Arnold over the 348-foot sign in center field for a 3-run home run that swung momentum into the Dragons’ favor. Zach Listro pitched 5 2/3 effective innings as Kingsway cruised to a 7-2 win over the Red Raiders and advanced to play Mainland Regional, a 9-2 winner over Riverside, in the next round. Ocean City second baseman Brian Casey looks for a call on an attempted tag-out of Kingsway pinch runner Erick Riley. Ocean City second baseman Brian Casey looks for a call on an attempted tag-out of Kingsway pinch runner Erick Riley. Ocean City cut into the deficit in the top of the fifth on a two-run homer to right-center by Sean Mooney, but left the bases loaded following singles by Jeremy West and Joey Clifford and a walk to Zac Williams. “I’ll say one thing, though, our kids never quit. We got two runs, then had the bases loaded and if we could have gotten a couple of hits it would have made it very interesting, but unfortunately we didn’t get those hits,” Mensinger said. “I thought their first pitcher (Listro) did a real nice job. He mixed it up and kept us off stride, and I think we were too anxious. I thought we swung at a lot of pitches we shouldn’t have. I can come up with all kinds of excuses, but the bottom line is, they beat us, and it doesn’t feel too good.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays  [adsense]