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Shawnee baseball helped fuel Carpenter Cup championship month after taking Diamond Classic
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JULY 3-JULY 9, 2019
Burlington County pride
By RYAN LAWRENCE Sports Editor
Most of them had met each other a dozen years earlier, as they were first learning the game. They grew up in Medford youth athletics and then starred together at Shawnee High School as they hit their teenage years. While the month of June was celebratory with graduation ceremonies, it was also bittersweet as the Renegades baseball players are all going their own way for college. But the senior core of Shawnee’s team sure went out with a proverbial bang. Burlington County’s entrant in the 34th annual Carpenter Cup was crowned champion of the celebrated Philadelphia-area tournament on June 18 at Citizens Bank Park, where they overcame deficits twice in their final five at-bats to beat Lehigh Valley 4-2. The victory was extra sweet for Burlington County since they’d lost in the finals on the same field a year earlier to a South Jersey rival, Olympic-Colonial. For Shawnee’s six players on Burlco’s team, it capped a 2019 season that saw them win both the premier, Delaware Valley postseason tournament (Carpenter Cup) and South Jersey’s esteemed in-season tournament (the Diamond Classic) a month earlier. “It’s great, I’ve been playing with these guys for my whole life, my whole entire baseball career,” said senior catcher Joey Moore. “To go out on top in a tournament like this, it’s awe-
MILES KENNEDY/The Phillies Burlington County celebrates its fourth Carpenter Cup championship since 2006 on June 18 at Citizens Bank Park. some.” “It feels really good,” said senior shortstop Connor Coolahan. “ I know we went out (early) in (state) playoffs, but at least we got one championship and some of us got another, so it feels good.” Shawnee’s fingerprints were all over Burlco’s successful run in the Carpenter Cup. Senior Jackson Balzan, the star of the Diamond Classic championship game in May, threw three scoreless innings and Coolahan hit a sacrifice fly in the team’s 3-2, semifinal win at Citizens Bank Park over Philadelphia Catholic. In the
championship game win over Lehigh Valley, Moore had two hits, including a game-tying hit in the fourth inning, and a stolen base; junior Bobby Falese and Coolahan turned a tough, clutch, 4-6-3 double play to thwart a rally in the fifth; senior Joe Dalsey had a single and a sacrifice bunt that set up the gamewinning rally in the eighth; and junior Dom Frigiola struck out two and allowed one unearned run in 2 1/3 innings of relief work late in the game. “Not just today, but all four games,” said Shawnee coach please see BURLINGTON, page 2