BASEBALL: Marlton calmly captures Cal Ripken regional tournament – Burlington County Times

EVESHAM — The job never got too big.

A third-place showing in pool play meant it would take three wins, not two, to capture the Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament championship.

A couple of slow starts meant the Marlton Reds would have to come from behind twice in Monday’s play. A four-run rally by Kimberton, Pennsylvania, in the semifinal meant a berth in the championship game would go to whoever won the sixth inning.

Whatever.

The Reds’ jaws just never go slack. It was only when the tournament was over and their place in the Cal Ripken 12-year-old 50/70 World Series was secure that anyone looked back at the odds they’d overcome.

“They have a lot of confidence,” Marlton coach Rob Reynolds said. “They know they’re never out of it. They’ve been down and had to come back, we’ve been up and had to hold on. The group’s been together and seen a lot. There’s no panic in them. It’s phenomenal. I can’t tell you how proud I am of them.”

Marlton defeated Kimberton 10-6 in the semifinal round, then handled Saratoga/Wilton, New York, 8-2, to capture the Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament and earn a trip to the World Series, which gets underway July 29 in Aberdeen, Maryland.

The championship game was almost an anticlimax after the Reds outslugged Kimberton. Saratoga-Wilton’s Danny Cohen hit a one-out solo homer in the first inning, but Marlton pitcher Aaron Bergstrom retired the next 11 batters he faced in order.

“I knew I was throwing strikes,” Bergstrom said. “My fastball was working really good and I knew I had my team behind me, and they could make the plays. That run didn’t matter. I knew we could score more in the game.”

By the time Saratoga managed another baserunner — on Kevin Oudekerk’s leadoff single in the fifth — the Reds had the game in hand at 8-1.

Marlton sent 10 batters to the plate in a five-run second inning. Jackson Edelman singled in a run and Blake Weinstein drew a bases-loaded walk to give the Reds the lead. A two-run single by Ethan Stith, then an RBI hit by Colby Reynolds gave Bergstrom a 5-1 advantage to work with.

“It gives me confidence back, to know that we’re up,” Bergstrom said. “And we can swing the bats and get more runs later in the game, so it makes me feel better.”

Chris Bonafiglia put his stamp on the game in the third, with a no-doubter over the center field fence for a three-run homer.

“I was just trying to get the bat on the ball, and it was my pitch,” Bonafiglia said. “It was low, and I really like that pitch, so I had to get down and get it. I kind of knew it was a home run. Our defense was good, so I figured that kind of closed it up.”

Oudekerk stole second and scored the game’s final run as Will Braxton reached on an error in the fifth, but Saratoga didn’t have another runner after that; Bergstrom induced to ground balls to get out of the fifth, and then Blake Morgan finished the game with a 1-2-3 frame.

“I knew I just had to throw strikes and only get three outs,” Morgan said. “And I was hoping I could get us to move on to the next level. I just went out there with confidence.”

Morgan’s performance was a turnaround from the semifinal game, when he came in to pitch the fifth with a 6-2 lead and didn’t retire a batter. Back-to-back singles by Kimberton’s Jadan Smith and Kyle O’Connor, then back-to-back homers by Dylan Pannella and Dylan Knott, tied the game at 6-6.

“That kid, Pannella, is a really good hitter,” Morgan said. “I faced him before, and he’s hit two home runs off me now. I gave him a fastball, up and away, and he got a hold of one.”

Morgan, who’d led off the fourth and fifth innings with home runs, drew a walk that loaded the bases in the sixth inning, then Bergstrom delivered a two-run single that gave Marlton an 8-6 lead. Zach Weiner and Edelman followed with RBI hits, then Bergstrom struck out two in a perfect sixth to finish it off.

“The semi was a hard game, and we fought and we battled,” Bonafiglia said. “And we brought it through this game. We just began, and (we said) we’re going to keep going.”

The Reds will compete in the Cal Ripken World Series for the second time in three years. They won the competition in Winchester, Virginia, as 10-year-olds in 2014.

“You could feel the excitement in the kids,” Reynolds said. “They knew what was at stake. This amazes me. The group never ceases to amaze me.”