Games People Play: Wildwood Wins Eighth Annual Warrior Classic

Wildwood High School spanked visiting Leap Academy of Camden 14-5 to win the Eighth Annual Warrior Baseball Classic at sunny Maxwell Field last Sunday afternoon.
“Our pitching was phenomenal this weekend,” said Warrior head coach Rich Hans. We had 22 strikeouts in 21 innings with just three earned runs and only six walks. We gave the tournament MVP to entire pitching staff.”
The Warriors jumped out early with a three-run first inning before plating six more runners in the third frame. A two-run fourth and fifth, respectively, put the contest out of reach before another run scored in the top of the seventh.
Anthony Korobellis, Chris Mormile, James Grauel and Billy Bolle collected two hits apiece as the Warriors banged out 12 hits on the day. Grauel drove in three runs while Brendan Bean and Korobellis scored three times.
Lefty Ian France tossed five innings for the victory for 13-7 Wildwood.
We have three lefty pitchers in Brendan Bean, Billy Bolle and Ian France and we have Chris Mormile as our righty,” said Hans. “We are pretty confident with any one of those guys on the mound, especially Chris and Brendan.”
The tournament included Leap Academy, Lower Cape May and Wildwood Catholic.
Windy and chilly conditions opened the event May 1 as Lower Cape May overwhelmed Leap Academy in game one 16-6. The Caper-Tigers scored three times in the third inning before a huge eight-run frame in the fourth. Lower sealed the win with a five-run fifth inning.
Josh Meyer smacked three hits and drove in three runs for the winners. Mike Downes stroked two hits and tossed five innings for the victory. Eric Goss, Colin Donahue, and Bradley Fournier also contributed two hits each. Donohue scored three runs and plated three more.
Game two saw Wildwood slug Wildwood Catholic 10-1, behind the pitching of lefthander Billy Bolle who tossed six innings. The Warriors spread out their offense against hard-lucking losing pitcher Kevin Laffey who also threw six innings. Wildwood plated two runs in the first and second innings, respectively. They scored one time in each of the fifth and six frames before blowing the contest open with a four-run seventh inning.
Tyler Norris led Wildwood Catholic with two hits.
Game three was a match of Friday night’s winners as the Tigers tangled with the Warriors. Wildwood came out on top 3-0, behind the complete-game, 13 strike out performance of Chris Mormile. The right-hander did not walk a batter in seven innings of mound work.
Anthony Korobellis, Billy Bolle and Mikal Poteat stroked two hits each for the winners. James Graul drove in the game-winner with a fifth-inning single.
Mike Downes drilled two hits for Lower. Ryan Hill pitched well over six innings in taking the loss.
Leap Academy stunned Lower in the loser’s bracket game May 2, with a 6-4 victory to earn a spot in Sunday’s showdown with the Warriors. Justin Tomlin and Kevin Roach smacked two hits apiece for the Caper-Tigers. Ryan Hill had a hit and an RBI. Mike Laing took the loss.
The champion Warriors are on a six-game winning streak as they look ahead to the South Jersey Group 1 tournament.
“We are working to fine tune some things before our playoff run,” said Hans. The kids believe we have a shot this year and there’s no reason why we can’t do it. We’ve proven we can play with some good teams over the last few years. This season and the next couple of years we expect to have a really good pitching staff.”
Aside from the talent, the coach really likes the Warriors’ team chemistry. “Our team is finally starting to pick each other up and I can honestly say that they all want to see one another succeed and do well and that is very rare in today’s world,” said Hans. “We have guys that are very important pieces to the puzzle starting to accept their roles and everyone is becoming team-first players. The kids played together and very hard this weekend. They really wanted it, especially after losing in the finals the last two years.”