Cherry Hill West works way into South Jersey baseball lore with Diamond Classic gem

PITMAN – Dan McMaster had a simple message for the Cherry Hill West High School baseball team following Thursday’s title-clinching victory.

“You’re a part of South Jersey baseball lore forever,” the head coach said.

That’s because the Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic trophy is coming home to the Westside of Cherry Hill for the first time since 1989 following a 3-1 win over Delsea in the 50 ^th edition of the prestigious tournament at Pitman’s Alcyon Park.

“This means so much, I love these guys so much,” West senior shortstop Jon Young Jr. said about this teammates. “I’ve been dreaming about this since I was a little kid. Winning this title means the world to us, but we’re not done. We’re coming for South Jersey (Group 3) next, then the state.”

But there was no doubt that West was going to celebrate this championship, especially for McMaster, who will forever have a special tie to the Diamond Classic.

“My son and I and my parents came to watch the Diamond final last year, watched it from the right-field hill out there,” McMaster said. “After my father (Bill) passed (away in November), our family and friends took up a collection and donated a bench up there. It has his name on it, some of his sayings and kind of what he was all about.

“I feel like he was watching down on us either from up there (looking skyward) or from the right-field stands. I’ll remember this the rest of my life.”

Cherry Hill West (22-3) has a simple formula for winning the big game: Put the baseball in Ryder Garino’s right hand.

The 6-foot-5, 180-pound South Carolina commit showed again why he’s regarded as one of the top pitchers in the Garden State. He struck out 10 over 6 1/3 innings before reaching his pitch limit. He took a shutout into the seventh inning before allowing an earned run, which raised his season ERA all the way up to 0.50.

Garino had some extra incentive to beat Delsea, a team that knocked him off twice last season in the Diamond Classic semifinal round and South Jersey Group 3 semifinals.

“He’s had a chip on his shoulder after last year,” Young said. “I think he’s the best pitcher in the state. He’s got that dog mentality. He doesn’t think anyone can beat him.

“When he runs out there, I know we’re going to beat the team we’re playing every time out. I think we can beat any team in the state, any team in the country, with him on the mound. He’s just different this year. He’s locked in, his mindset is just crazy.”

And his breaking stuff is filthy.

Garino kept Delsea hitters buckling at the plate or chasing the spinning pitches off it.

“I was spotting my breaking ball really well,” said Garino, who has 71 strikeouts in 41 2/3 innings. “When I can get that going, I don’t think anyone can hit me.”

Sophomore southpaw Isayiah Pierce-Gonzalez got the final two outs, including the clincher on a strikeout, to touch off a wild celebration. Senior catcher Brian Martello took the game ball and flipped it to McMaster, who put it in his back pocket before joining his players in right field.

Cherry Hill West, which needed 10 innings to beat Shawnee less than 24 hours earlier, didn’t produce a lot offensively against Delsea’s Frank Cairone, but the Lions didn’t need to.

Andrew Bechtel provided the Lions’ first hit, a great bunt single to put runners at first and second base with one out in the third. Young followed with an RBI single up the middle and Leo Orefice, who had the game-winning hit in Saturday’s semifinal win over Gloucester Catholic, provided an RBI sac fly.

West added an insurance run in the sixth when Grant Fourier singled home Orefice.

Frankie Master reached base all four times for Delsea (20-3), which has now dropped to games in a row following a 17-game win streak. Master had three of the Crusaders’ five hits.

Cairone allowed only four hits and a walk over six innings and struck out six. He fired four 1-2-3 innings.

“I think when you have two standout pitchers on the mound, no matter how tough and hard-nosed both offenses are, pitching usually gets the job done,” McMaster said.

“A lot of the big games that we’re in when Ryder is on the mound, it’s the team that is going to score first and is able to tack on runs (that’s going to win), and we were able to do that (Thursday).”

Tom McGurk is a regional sports reporter 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 West works way into South Jersey baseball lore with Diamond Classic gem