By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher LINWOOD – What the Mainland Regional High School baseball players are quickly realizing is that every game this season in the Cape-Atlantic League is going to be a dogfight. Following a season-opening, 1-run win over Absegami on Wednesday, the Mustangs had their hands full Thursday with a Vineland squad that was coming off an emotional, 3-1 extra-innings win over Millville. The Mustangs (1-1) and Fighting Clan (2-0) traded punches through the first five innings before Vineland sprinted to a 7-2 lead. Mainland fought back, however, plating three runs in the bottom of the seventh before Fighting Clan lefty reliever Ivan Rivera worked out of a jam to preserve a 7-5 win. 
Mainland second baseman Jack Loefflad makes a diving attempt at a line drive up the middle during the Mustangs’ game against Vineland on Thursday. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) “I like the effort at the end and the fact that we never quit. We made Vineland get all 21 outs, but you have to do a lot more a lot earlier in order to put yourself in a position to win,” said Mainland coach Billy Kern. “Especially when I thought our pitching did a great job. We had seven runs scored against us and five of them were unearned. I told the guys that when you put up five runs you expect to win and as a pitcher that’s all you can ask for. But some routine ground balls and some misplayed balls in the outfield, and Vineland got a lot with two outs when we could have just shut the inning down.” Vineland took an early 1-0 lead on a two-out double in the first by Raekwon Ortiz, who finished with four RBIs. Mainland answered in its half of the first, taking a 2-1 lead on an RBI by Drew Riska and a run-scoring single by George Morton. Vineland tied the game at 2 in the top of the third before Andrew Gee put the Fighting Clan up for good with an RBI single. Vineland also got a quality start from Nick Ward, who allowed just two runs through six innings. It was a special victory for Ward, who got the ‘W’ on his grandfather Marty Ward’s birthday. “It seems like it’s going to be a pitching dominated league. Everybody has somebody strong at the top,” Kern said. “I think you’re going to have a lot of 1- and 2-run games that are low scoring and a lot of offensive explosions toward the end of the week. So it’s going to kind of be a tale of two games as the weeks go on and teams get deeper and deeper into their bullpens.” 
Mainland’s Matt McLaughlin has to retreat back to first base after a fly ball on a hit-and-run play. Vineland ace Johnny Malatesta, who played shortstop against Mainland, went eight innings on Wednesday in the win over Millville, even as Thunderbolts star Kyle Cox had a no-hitter through the first seven innings. Also on Wednesday, EHT’s Misael Castillo twirled a no-hitter to spoil a great outing by Holy Spirit’s top pitcher, Mike Di Ianni, in a 2-0 win by the Eagles. And Mainland’s Matt Tepedino had five strikeouts in the Mustangs’ 4-3 win over Absegami. “Against ‘Gami we played really good baseball. Absegami hit the ball great, it was two good teams going at it,” Kern said. “And Vineland is a quality program. I would have liked to have gotten the win because I thought we were in position to win, but it’s a long road ahead.” Mainland mounted a rally in the bottom of the seventh, highlighted by Roman Papademetriou’s 2-run single to cut the deficit to 7-5. The Mustangs then had the tying runs on base before Rivera induced a groundout to third to end the game. Mainland’s schedule doesn’t get any easier, as it faces Cherokee, Holy Spirit, Millville and Rancocas Valley in its next four games. Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]
Late rally by Mainland falls short as Vineland hangs on, stays unbeaten
