Thursday brought about another Patriot Division game. It brought about another Brandon Staub start. It turned into another Pirates baseball victory, this one by a 5-2 score over Pemberton.
“To be unblemished in the division right now is awesome, especially when everyone else has at least one loss,” head coach Kevin Merrill said.
“Every team in this division can battle. They know that we need to win the division games. We’ve got a big one next week, but we have a lot of games in between.”
The opponent on Thursday was the Hornets (3-4, 1-3), but it didn’t matter who was in the other dugout for Cinnaminson. All the Pirates knew was that the game was being played within the BCSL Patriot and it was time to get down to business.
Cinnaminson scored in the bottom of the first when Nick Mahoney drove in Christian Massara with a groundout. Massara had doubled with one out and advanced to third on a balk.
“We had real good plate approaches today,” Massara said. “We made their guy throw pitches and we got some runs for Staub.”
The Hornets tied the game in the top of the fourth by scoring an unearned run, the first run allowed in 2016 by Staub.
“To be honest with you, I didn’t really have it today,” Staub said. “The first inning was a struggle. I think I threw 21 pitches. The curveball I really couldn’t get on top of. The two-seamer and the changeup were working.”
Cinnaminson immediately answered in the bottom of the inning by plating three runs to take the lead for good on RBI hits from Dominic Cicale and Jake Perkins and an RBI groundout from Mike Graff.
“The bottom of the order came through big,” Merrill said. “Guys who aren’t in the starting lineup helped. Mike Hess and Robert Berry run the bases so well. We put pressure on Pemberton and that makes one hit get runs as opposed to two or three hits.”
Pemberton would score its final run of the game in the top of the fifth, also unearned, on an RBI single.
“He (Staub) knows the game so well and knows what he has to do to get guys out,” Merrill said. “It’s the reason why he’s 3-0 in the division. We’ve got a big division game next week (Holy Cross) and they’re the last team we have yet to play in the division.”
The Pirates added their fifth and final run in the bottom of the fifth. Massara led off with a triple and scored when Joe McGugan singled to right.
“We executed today. That’s a solid, very senior-heavy team (Pemberton),” Merrill said. “They hardly made any mistakes. We found holes when we needed to.”
Staub went out for the sixth, sending the Hornets down in order before being relieved by Jack Conville in the top of the seventh.
Conville allowed a single, which was erased on a double play, before inducing a flyout to end the game. Conville picked up his first save of the year as Staub won his third game, all against Patriot Division teams.
“I trust Jack any day, no matter what the situation is,” Staub said. “I trust him to come in and get three outs.”
Staub has now pitched 18 innings across three games (two complete games) and has allowed just two unearned runs in 2016.
Cinnaminson travels to Oakcrest High School on Saturday for the Hedelt Tournament at 9:30am.
“We control our own right now. We’ve got Cross next week,” Staub said. “We’ve got a tournament this weekend to worry about first.”
“It feels good because last year we took losses from Bordentown and Pemberton,” Massara said. “We had to fight hard at the end to win the division, but now we’re in the driver’s seat.”
Follow Cinn City Sports on Twitter for news, scores and live updates from games throughout each season. Like Cinn City Sports on Facebook. Sign-up for our daily newsletter, which arrives daily at 8am with the previous day’s stories, on the homepage.
