By Jacob Mauriello
CCC Journalism Program
BLACKWOOD – Camden County College beat Delaware County Community College 21-3 in the first game of a doubleheader Tuesday afternoon.
The Cougars scored runs on errors, made the Phantoms’ starter uncomfortable on the mound and advancing well on the bases.
Camden County College starting pitcher Vincent Sangataldo had a big day on the mound. The freshman located his pitches well in the strike zone and forced the Delaware County Community College batters to ground out, pop out and strike out. Sangataldo gave up only two runs in the first four innings.
The Cougars scored six runs in the first inning and their bats stayed hot the entire game.
“Our approach in every game is to hunt the pitch in your zone. We work on it in practice, finding your own zone and nine boxes of the strike zone. Pick your favorite boxes and wherever they are most comfortable attacking that pitch,” said Head Coach John Scanzano.
The Cougars attacked Phantoms starting pitcher Hunter Whitten early on. He looked uncomfortable using his fastball in his five innings on the mound. When he did use it, the pitch was usually either outside the strike zone or the Cougars got hits off it. Whitten tried to use his breaking ball but the speed and location were off, so shortstop Tyler Napoli, center fielder Nick Napoli, second baseman Daniel Obermeier, third baseman Nate Efie, right fielder Gavin Callahan, left fielder Tyler Gavura and designated hitter Christian Caminotti worked the counts against Whitten. They forced Whitten to walk them and got hits off his breaking ball.
The Phantoms had six errors in the game. They fell apart in the bottom of the fourth inning. Phantoms left fielder Sean Duffy had a misstep in tracking the ball and Gavura reached third base from Duffy’s mistake. In the same inning, Callahan hit a single to Phantoms right fielder Michael Jenkins, which led to him reaching second base. The Phantoms’ problems continued through innings five and six.
“Every game our goal is to strike out the least amount as possible. You put the barrel on the ball, things happen. We kicked some balls today. When we hit the ball hard, we dug out extra bases and made sure not to give up on ground balls and not give them fly balls,” said left fielder Gavin Callahan.
The Cougars defeated the Phantoms 7-1 in the second game of the doubleheader.