High School Baseball:
Moorestown Wins Its Own Tournament

Saturday, April 24, 1999

By Vincent Lewis
SJSports Staff Writer

"Guess better late than never" was the term spoken when the Moorestown baseball tournament championship game was played late Saturday night. The tournament included the teams from Princeton, Riverside, Haddonfield and Moorestown. The championship game wasn't played until the wee hours of the night under the lights. When the lights were finally turned off, it would be the Quakers taking their own tournament by defeating the Haddonfield Bulldogs 8-2 and finally going home.

When the first game got started, it looked as if the first round game between the Riverside Rams and the Haddonfield Bulldogs would be a quick one. Haddonfield jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the third inning. The high scoring Rams still kept cheering their players on in their attempt to come back. But the Bulldogs had other plans and expanded their lead in the fifth inning to 14-0. Riverside didn't give up and came within one run and a chance to win the game in the bottom of the final inning. Haddonfield got out of trouble when a ground ball double play ended the treat and advanced to the championship game. This was a long first game that pushed the other games late into the evening.

Moorestown didn't waste anytime tying their game against Princeton and jumping out to a 3-1 lead in the first inning. Mike Rhoads led off with a homerun and John Shields doubled home two more runs to gain the first inning lead. The Quakers continued to add runs when they scored 6 runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and went up 10-2. Moorestown advanced to the finals against Haddonfield but had to wait for the consolation game between Riverside and Princeton to complete.

Riverside was now hungry to redeem themselves and didn't waste anytime jumping out to an early lead of 11-0 through the third inning. Mike Bloomquist belted a home run and contributed 5 runs batted in. The Rams held Princeton scoreless until the bottom of the fifth when Princeton gain two runs to bring the score to 11-2. Was this going to be a big comeback by Princeton when they scored five more runs in the next inning? No, Bill Trout would hold off Princeton to win the consolation game 11-7.

In the championship game, Moorestown and Haddonfield played to a 1-1 tie through three and a half innings. Moorestown broke the game open by scoring 7 runs in the bottom of the inning. The Quakers victory was better late (extremely late) than never.