Which South Jersey baseball team is World Series-bound?

The Cherry Hill Atlantic baseball team is going to the World Series.

The squad locked up its ticket to the big dance by winning three straight elimination games en route to the Senior League East Region title in Bangor, Maine.

Cherry Hill Atlantic was the first team to qualify for this year’s 12-team Senior League World Series to be played In Easley, S.C. from July 29 through Aug. 5. The squad will open its tournament play on Sunday at 1 p.m. against a team to be determined.

After falling to Pennsylvania 7-4 in Saturday’s semifinal round, Cherry Hill Atlantic rebounded with a 12-3 victory over Rhode Island on Sunday before earning revenge with a pair of wins over Pennsylvania, capturing the regional banner a day later.

“You can’t believe how much heroic baseball was played in the last two days by this group,” Cherry Hill Atlantic manager Christian Carkeek said. “Besides the big things with my family, (Monday) was one of the happiest days I’ve had in a long time.”

More: Which South Jersey Senior League baseball squad earned a state title?

After Austin Hanni twirled a three-hit shutout in a 2-0 win in the opener on Monday, Cherry Hill Atlantic rallied from three deficits to score a 7-6 win in eighth inning with Andrew Bechtel delivering a walk-off double, scoring Stephen Longo with the winning run.

Hanni struck out four and didn't walk a batter over his seven innings of work in Game 1 of the championship round.

“The first loss really humbled us,” said Hanni, a 6-foot southpaw and rising junior at Cherry Hill High School West who utilizes a good tailing fastball with his bread-and-butter off-speed stuff. “It helped get us back on track and made it realize we need push forward and really want to win.”

"We all love this game and it’s been fun to put something really special together. We’ve got to play together and bring this town together, too.”

Zach Salsbery provided plenty of Cherry Hill’s big knocks throughout the tournament, including a go-ahead RBI double in Monday’s first game and another run-scoring two-bagger to tie Game 2 in the bottom of the sixth.

“From Sunday to Monday, Zach had clutch hit after clutch hit for us,” Carkeek said.

Another week on the road means another week of late-night poker games, a trademark of this squad.

"This whole (tournament) started out as friends going out and having some fun playing baseball," Bechtel said. "No pressure, nothing on our shoulders. Then, we started winning and we're like lets keep this going. Now, we're playing in the World Series."

However, the road to the title wasn’t as easy as tossing a full house on the table.

There were plenty of storm clouds forming as Cherry Hill Atlantic, which hadn’t loss all summer, limped out of the first game against Pennsylvania with an ‘L’. During the game, Bechtel took a bad-hop grounder to the face and had to go to the hospital.

“I felt like all the mojo we built throughout the entire tournament had left the building after (Saturday’s loss),” Carkeek said.

After sitting out Sunday’s game against Rhode Island, Bechtel sent his manager a text early Monday morning saying he was “good to go.” Carkeek responded: “You’re going to be a star.”

"There was no chance I wasn't playing in those two games," said Bechtel, who is a rising junior at West. "It got me right on the chin and I thought it was broken. I couldn't move my jaw. Had a CAT scan at the hospital, but it didn't show anything."

Bechtel batted .500 on the final day, including three hits and two runs scored in the decisive game.

Cherry Hill Atlantic saved Hanni, the team’s ace pitcher, for Monday’s first game against Pennsylvania.

Cole Haddock took the baseball against Rhode Island and danced around trouble in the first two innings. After loading the bases with no outs in each of those frames, Haddock, who is known as "Hollywood" to his teammates, held the opponent to just one run.

The team will hop on a flight from Newark Airport on Thursday to South Carolina. Before then, many of the players will practice with their respective travel-ball teams.

"We're back on the grind," Hanni said. "But baseball is my freedom."

Packing for the trip will be the toughest challenge for Carkeek and not because he can’t decide what lucky shirts to bring.

“I’ve got pack two weeks of work into two days (this week),” said Carkeek, who works in the child protective services field.

It’s certainly been worth it for the manager and is ballclub.

“It’s been an incredible ride so far,” Carkeek said.

Tom McGurk is a regional sports editor for the Courier-Post, The Daily Journal and Burlington County Times, covering South Jersey sports for over 30 years. If you have a sports story that needs to be told, contact him at (856) 486-2420 or email tmcgurk@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @McGurkSports. Help support local journalism with a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Cherry Hill Atlantic will play for World Series title in Senior League