Cherry Hill West Wins Battle of Division Leaders

By Jerome Michaels
SJSports Special Correspondent

It was a contest between two Olympic Conference division leaders who had their share of victories and their records showed it. Today, the Lions from Cherry Hill West and leaders of the Patriot Division were playing host Bishop Eustace the division leaders from the National Division. Matching run for run, hit for hit, both teams demonstrated their offensive ability to score runs. Every run counted in this inter-conference game and the three scored in the bottom of the sixth inning proved to be the difference. The Cougars would outscore Bishop Eustace by an 11-8 margin.

Cherry Hill West have found themselves on top of their division by winning seven games in a row before losing to Toms River East in the semifinals of the South Jersey Group 4 playoffs. For the Crusaders, the playoff hopes of capturing the South Jersey Parochial B title is still alive as they advanced to the semifinals by defeating St. Joseph in the opening round.

The Lions jumped out to a 6-1 lead after two full innings were completed before Bishop Eustace’s bats came alive. Bill Rowell was one of the players for the Crusaders that proved some firepower. With a double and two home runs, Bishop Eustace quickly erased their deficit to tie the game twice up until the bottom half of the sixth inning. It would be the Lions ability to continue to come up with the big hits, the biggest coming from John DiPiero’s bat stroking an RBI single to finally put West ahead for good. Dave Grunwald picked up the win for Cherry Hill West.