A Look at The South Jersey Group 3 Baseball Tournament
Earlier we looked at the deep South Jersey Group 4 baseball tournament. The same can be said of Group 3, which could be as talented if not more than Group 4.
A year ago, two teams outside the seven-county South Jersey area competed in the sectional championship when Toms River East beat Toms River South, 6-1, in the South Jersey Group 3 final.
TR East then lost to eventual state champion Northern Burlington, 11-0, in the state Group 3 semifinal.
The two Toms River schools could again be factors, but they will have plenty of company.
The cutoff date for the playoffs was Saturday and the 16 teams with the highest power points will qualify. We will use projections since the official pairings will be out after publication of this article.
That said, Clearview and Cherry Hill West, are projected to be the No. 1 and No. 2 seed respectively in SJ Group 3. Both will be major contenders.
Clearview in the span of one week, beat three consensus Top 5 teams in South Jersey, Gloucester Catholic in a regular season game and St. Augustine and Northern Burlington in the Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic.
No Group 3 school has put together more big wins than Nick Core’s Pioneers.
Clearview sophomore Josh Yurgin, who beat St. Augustine in the Diamond Classic, began the week 8-1 with a 2.09 ERA. Junior infielder Sawyer Wood (.400) leads a strong offense.
Senior lefty Isayiah Pierce-Gonzalez heads up a deep Cherry Hill West pitching staff. He began the week with a 2.15 ERA in 42.1 innings. Juniors James Miller (0.98 ERA, 28.2 innings) and Brayden Falcone (1.45 ERA, 29 innings) add to the deep staff.
Toms River East, which last week beat Toms River South, 3-1, will again be a major contender.
Playing in the always difficult Shore Conference will certainly have the Raiders prepared for the state tournament.
Delsea, the projected No. 4 seed, has prepared for the playoffs by playing a difficult Tri-County schedule and not many people are talking about the Crusaders, but they will be dangerous.
One team to truly watch is Shawnee, the projected No. 6 seed, which began the week 14-8 while playing one of the more difficult schedules in Group 3.
The reason Shawnee is so dangerous is that the Renegades have two top pitchers, seniors Tim Dougherty (5-1, 0.91) and Kayden Maybury (5-1, 1.00).
Dougherty is a Delaware commit while Maybury is headed to Penn.
If the Renegades can show offensive consistency, they will be a tough out in Group 3.
Mainland, projected to be a No. 7 seed, is also dangerous. The Mustangs upset St. Augustine, 7-1, in last week’s Cape Atlantic League semifinal game. That came after suffering two regular season losses to the Hermits. Mainland also played well in losing 4-2 to Bishop in a Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic second round game.
This looks like the deepest Group 3 has been in some time and it should be an outstanding tournament.
Shawnee RHP Kayden Maybury / Marc Narducci
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Author: Marc Narducci
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