West Baseball Gets Revenge on Camden Catholic

The streak lives on.

Facing the last opponent to deal them a loss, Cherry Hill West's baseball team brought tons of offense—including A.J. Wright's 3-for-3, five-RBI performance—in their eighth straight victory, 11-7, over Camden Catholic Wednesday.

It ninth win in ten games for the Lions, who have outscored their opponents 55-15 during the win streak alone, and it's hard to argue with the players who say it's all clicking right now.

“It's really exciting, especially starting out where we did,” said senior Brad Machinski, who scored three of West's runs. “We all just stuck to it, and we started playing baseball like we should. The chemistry on this team is nuts—I can't even describe it.”

Somewhere in that 1-3 start, Machinski and the other seniors on the team took stock of what the Lions could do, and it was just a matter of getting the team to go from individual talents to one that gelled.

“We saw the potential,” he said. “Even losing to these guys the first time, we saw how many runs we could put up. We knew we could all hit, so at that point, we just buckled down, got everyone on board with us and got it going.”

This go-round against the Irish, the hits—15 in total—came from everywhere. While Wright's effort stood out, the Lions got a ground-rule double from Matt Giampetro in the first inning that could've done more damage, had it not scooted under the left-field fence, and got a three-hit, three-run performance from Wilson Brickner, who batted in the nine hole.

“We have so much confidence in everyone,” Machinski said. “We're having fun—we're having a lot of fun.”

Head coach Dan McMaster echoed that sentiment, and pointed to the strength of the team's feeder programs at the freshman and junior varsity level as part of the reason they've been able to turn over most of the roster, yet still find success.

“The guys came into this season hungry to earn that position, hungry to earn that starting spot,” he said. “They're believing in themselves—that has a lot to do with it...as they say, in baseball, good hitting is contagious, good pitching is contagious.”

West jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first and looked like they'd run away with it until Dom Messina's two-run home run in the third pulled Camden Catholic back within a run.

Two innings later, it was Wright's turn to send one out of the park, and the Lions kept piling it on, scoring two more runs in the sixth—insurance runs, as it turned out, for Christian Bilan's three-run home run that capped Camden Catholic's two-out rally in the bottom of the seventh.

While the competition is likely to get tougher as the season goes on—as Machinski noted, West is starting to see most opponents' No. 1 starter, instead of a third or fourth pitcher—the expectations haven't changed.

“We knew they were talented,” McMaster said. “With a younger team, we always assumed that we would be stronger as we went through the season. We have to continue to push ourselves and expect to continue to get better. If we stay status quo, as-is, we won't be as successful in the second half of the year—we have to continue to improve, because every team is going to improve as we move through the season.”

The remainder of the season could potentially include a repeat appearance in the Diamond Classic, which begins May 10, and almost certainly includes a playoff berth—at 9-3, the worst West could be would be 9-6 at the playoff cutoff.