Radbill's strong outing powers Cherokee into South Jersey Group 4 quarterfinals
EVESHAM - Mary Truran remembers the beginning.
"He couldn't even walk yet and he was trying to swing a bat and hit a ball off a tee," the proud grandmother said, speaking of her grandson and Cherokee's, hard-throwing ace, Henry Radbill. "Around the time he started playing tee ball, he would go outside and... simulate hitting, and practice running around the bases... He was very ingenious about doing things like that."
Fast forward to Thursday afternoon, and Radbill was having fun on the baseball field again, with a lot of people watching.
The junior threw four strong innings, helping to lead the fourth-seeded Chiefs to a 5-1 victory over No. 13 Cherry Hill East in the opening round of the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 4 Tournament.
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Baseball runs deep in Radbill's family, and the roots stretch to Cherry Hill East.
"It feels amazing. My dad used to coach (East), which a lot of people know," Radbill said with a grin. "It feels good to get this win.
The lefty said he didn't have his best stuff on Thursday. Still, his fastball was firing and he mixed in a slider, enabling him to limit the Cougars to one run and five hits while striking out five against zero walks and one hit batter.
Said the junior: "I didn't have my best stuff, but my teammates got behind me and we battled through."
Radbill saw a lot of familiar faces over in the East dugout.
"I went to a lot of baseball games growing up," he says with a laugh.
In addition to his dad coaching at East, his mom, Katie, has taught there for 28 years.
"I went to a lot of games (at East) and knew a lot of the guys...Some of those guys have brothers on this team, so it was nice facing them," Radbill said.
"Baseball's my whole life, pretty much," he added. "It felt good to be out here."
A rock for Cherokee all season long, with an ERA below 2.00, Radbill did his part to get the Chiefs off to a solid start in the postseason.
Cherokee head coach Marc Petragnani said, "Henry battled his rear end off."
The Chiefs got all the offense they needed in the fourth and fifth.
Cherokee took advantage of four hit batsmen in the fourth, along with a sac fly to right by Nate Linden, to take a 2-1 lead. A two-run double by Mason Kelleher widened the gap to 4-1.
Then in the fifth, back-to-back doubles by Alex Odud and Jason Brown produced the final margin.
"That was tough, going against a Division I arm (Michael Schulke), a freshman (Mike Fekete) who pitched against us twice and pitched very well against us, and a division opponent that we know very well," said Petragnani. "But we were able to hang in there early against them.
"We've gotten here on the strength of our pitching. We have to try to scratch and claw for any runs that we can get."
Cherokee advances to a home contest Wednesday against No. 5 Eastern in the quarterfinals while a fine season for East came to a close.
"We took the lead, and then it kind of just got away from us that one inning," Cherry Hill East head coach Jason Speller said. "Besides that one inning, I thought we put the ball in play all day. I was proud of the way our team fought, our spirit, and the way we hit the ball today. And pretty much the way we played defense."
Kev Hunter is a freelance reporter for the Courier-Post. He can be reached at cpvarsity@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Cherokee moves into quarterfinals with win over Cherry Hill East
