Which South Jersey Senior League baseball squad earned a state title?
Before they become rivals and head off to their respective high schools on opposite sides of town, the Cherry Hill Atlantic 16U baseball team has shown this summer what can be accomplished when they join forces.
They have a state championship banner to prove it.
Cherry Hill Atlantic captured the crown last weekend with a 14-0 win over Point Pleasant Beach in the Senior League championship game at Old Bridge.
CH Atlantic, which improved to 8-0 this summer, advanced to the East Region, an eight-team tournament which begins Wednesday in Bangor, Maine. The team will play the Maryland state champion in the 10 a.m. opener at Mansfield Stadium.
A regional title would send the team to the Senior League World Series to be played in Easley, S.C., from July 29-Aug. 5.
The team, which consists of 16 players from Cherry Hill Atlantic Little League and Cherry Hill American League, also earned district and sectional titles.
The players are Andrew Bechtel, Eric Brown, Brody Connors, Jimmy Farley, Kyle Fisher, Carter Gill, Brody Goldfarb, Mick Goldstein, Cole Haddock, Austin Hanni, Stephen Longo, Luciano Macri, Ryan Moyer, Tristan Perry, Aiden Ryder, Zach Salsbery. The manager is Christian Carkeek with coaches Chandler Dunoff and Ben Keating.
"They put aside any rivalry differences to play for this; they believe it's important for Cherry Hill," said Carkeek, who is also the freshman baseball coach at Cherry Hill High School East. "We have six from one side (West) and 10 from the other. We are rivals one day a year when East plays West, but I think we all have a little purple and red in our blood.
"This team is just into it. It's a real credit to these boys. They have a lot of other obligations going on, like playing for their travel teams. But playing alongside each other for the last six-to-eight weeks was really important to them."
CH Atlantic went 2-0 in district competition with a pair of wins over Oaklyn before beating Camden and Monroe Township (twice) to earn the sectional title. The team also went 3-0 at the state tournament, winning one game in the bottom of the seventh when Hanni scored on a wild pitch.
CH Atlantic's bats have been hotter than the summer sun. Salsbery is hitting .545 with a team-best 11 RBIs while Bechtel is batting .500 and is tied with Macri with a team-best 10 runs scored. Macri is the feared bat in the lineup, a difference maker who bats in the cleanup spot. Moyer is batting .438 with a home run in districts.
On the mound, Gill, Bechtel and Hanni all fired complete games in the state tournament.
“Every kid watches the Little League World Series on TV imagining one day they will be there, and these 16 boys now have their chance,” Carkeek said. “We’re champions of the state. We’d like to be champions of the world."
To help get the team to Bangor, Maine, for the East Region Tournament, and defray travel, lodging and meal costs, visit the team’s GoFundMe page here: https://gofund.me/456f5a17.
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 captured the Senior League state crown
