Pirates Coach: 'We Match Up with Any Team in the State'

One more win is all that stands between Cinnaminson baseball and a permanent place in history.

Technically, the Pirates (21-9) already made history with their 7-6 win over Monmouth Regional in the state semifinal game Tuesday—outdoing the 1971 team, which won the sectional title (a feat these Pirates duplicated last Friday) but lost in the semis.

A victory this Saturday against Mahwah in the state championship game would earn the team its first-ever state title.

“For me personally, growing up in Cinnaminson, and having played baseball here, this is just overwhelming,” said coach Kevin Merrill, now in his seventh year as head coach. “I’m blessed to be coaching these kids … It’s an amazing run they’re having. They deserve all the credit.”

Merrill, a ‘97 graduate, played for Cinnaminson as a student and has coached the team—with four years as an assistant—for 11 and said emphatically that this group is “the most talented team athletically, top to bottom, I ever had.”

Teams and coaches talk all the time about “getting hot” at just the right time, and that’s just what the Pirates are doing, according to Merrill. After a shaky 11-8 start to the season, on the verge of not winning the division title, the team has won 10 of its last 11 and is riding a wave of momentum the coach hopes—believes—can carry them to a state title.

He said last Friday’s sectional title victory, the biggest game those players had ever been in, was also the team’s “absolute best game of the season so far. I hope that’s an indicator of the moment they’re in, and that they understand the moment they’re in.”

Playing with that momentum, Merrill said, “allows us to play with confidence. And baseball is such a mental game … That’s been a big part of our success the last few weeks.”

Merrill conceded he hasn’t really had an opportunity to see Mahwah (25-3) play, but said, “When we’re on our game … we have to be able to match up with any team in the state.”

Cinnaminson will play Mahwah at 11 a.m. Saturday at Toms River High School South for the state Group 2 championship.