High School Baseball:
Cougars Continue Winning Ways In Diamond Classic

Saturday, May 15, 1999

By Art Redd
SJSports Staff Writer

The quarterfinals of the Diamond Classic on Saturday at Deptford High School looked like one of those classic playoff games where every game schedule was a good one. First on tap were the Lenape Indians hosting the Cherry Hill East Cougars. Lenape had an easy time against Holy Spirit in the first round while East battled Cherry Hill West to advance. Well, the battle continued against the Indians as Cherry Hill broke a close game open to capture a 19-7 victory to advance. Last year's winners, Gloucester Catholic, played in the second game against Shawnee. The Renegades erased any hopes of Gloucester Catholic's bid for a fourth consecutive title by defeating them 8-1.

All of the teams participating in the Diamond Classic use this prestige tournament as a tune-up for the South Jersey NJSIAA baseball tournament. Lenape (5-4, 13-6) knew that Cherry Hill East (5-1, 16-3) was right behind them in the standings right before the game started. The Indians saw first hand how good their opponents were when East jumped out to a 9-0 lead midway through the third inning. The Cougars, in their top half of the third inning, batted around and scored five runs. Brett Canosa and Dan Goldstein had back to back two run doubles, while John Braut knocked in the final run in the inning.

This tournament seems to bring out the best in some teams and the Indians were here for a reason. Michael Weiss led off the bottom of the third inning with a stand up double. Three batters latter, Chris Hall drilled a double of his own down the third base line to plate a run. The Indians would bat around in the inning and trailed 9-4. Their success continued in the fourth inning as Weiss drilled his second leadoff double off the foot of the left field fence. Dan Delaney followed suit with a RBI double to score Weiss. After Jake Mannon's sacrifice fly, Kevin Lydon came through with a key two run double to cut a nine run deficit to one.

Good teams coached by good coaches always find ways to motivate their players and keep their heads in the game no matter what the score. Coach Jim Forrest had a good view from the third base coaches box when Delaney scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at nine. But as mentioned before, good coaches find ways to win as Dave Martin would demonstrate. After Joe Kolodzey and Chris Canosa led off the 6th inning with back to back singles and advanced on a wild pitch, Arnold Zappasodi came through with a two run single to regain the lead. The Cougars weren't finished scoring when they sent ten batters to the plate in the top of the seventh. The first five batters reached base before the first out was recorded. When the inning was over, six runs crossed the plate and Cherry Hill East was up big, 17-9, and advanced to the Diamond Classic semi-finals game against Shawnee.

Photos by Art Redd