Florence baseball edges rival New Egypt with wild finish in Central 1 1st round

  • 05/23 - 4:00 PM BaseballFinal
    Florence 7
    New Egypt 6
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NEW EGYPT -- The Florence baseball team already had beaten rival New Egypt twice this year.

But the third game, on Tuesday in the first round of the NJSIAA/Wilson Sporting Goods Central Jersey, Group 1 tournament, had the most exhilarating finish.

New Egypt trailed by seven runs after four inning, but stormed back with six runs in the next two and had a chance to win in the bottom of the seventh with the bases loaded and two out. Anthony Burr hit a hard groundball that would have plated two runs and completed the comeback for the Warriors, but the ball unluckily clipped off of baserunner Nate Peacock’s foot for the final out of the game as he was headed to second base.

Florence (7-11), the 13th seed, defeated fourth-seeded New Egypt, 7-6, in New Egypt.

The Flashes will travel to face 12th-seeded Keansburg in the sectional quarterfinals on Thursday.

"I have never experienced a game like that, especially in a playoff game," Florence coach Kyle Ballay said. "Every single emotion I could possibly experience in a baseball game happened in a two-inning span. I was impressed with how New Egypt battled back. At the end there it was just confusion and then happiness. I am obviously proud of our guys as well."

The Flashes opened the scoring with a run in the top of the first. After a leadoff single from Nick Morgan, he advanced to third on a stolen base and fly out. Morgan was eventually knocked in on a single from Jeff Smith.

The Flashes extended their lead in the top of the second as Jarrod Marshall crushed a three-run homer over the right field wall to push the Florence lead to 4-0

An RBI single from Ryan Kramer and a sacrifice fly from Morgan gave the Flashes a 6-0 lead after three innings.

In the top of the fourth, Florence took a 7-0 lead on a solo home run from Luke Arnold.

"The worst part is that we felt like we completed the comeback but we just got unlucky," New Egypt coach Tom Corby said. "The ball hits our guy when the second run would have scored. You go from the kids running out of the dugout to celebrate to what just happened. Our kids battled back like they have done all year, but it is tough when you come up that short."

New Egypt (8-11) displayed power as the Warriors got on the board in the bottom of the fifth. A two-run homer from Mickey Horner and a solo shot from Connor Healy cut the deficit to 7-3.

The Warriors further cut into the lead in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run double from Healy and an RBI single from Burr, before the fateful bottom of the seventh.

“Obviously we want to take the momentum of a win, especially one as nerve-wracking as this,” Ballay said. “We have a ton of energy from this game but we are also going to take some lessons out of it. Hopefully we can ride this positive momentum into the next game and get another one.”

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