St. Joe’s extends hot streak with its first Liberty Bell Classic championship since 2016
The Hawks missed out on the Liberty Bell Classic championship for the past decade after being frequent visitors. This year’s group snapped that streak: “We look forward to this every year.”
While mid-week college baseball may not be as high-stakes as a weekend conference series, Tuesday night’s game between St. Joseph’s and Penn was different.
The Big 5 rivals faced off in the Liberty Bell Classic championship at Citizens Bank Park for local bragging rights. The Liberty Bell Classic is a tournament of eight local colleges from Pennsylvania and Delaware; with the other six being Lehigh, Lafayette, Villanova, Delaware, Rider, and Delaware State.
The tournament has been running since 1992, with the championship always played at the Phillies’ home stadium, first Veterans Stadium and now Citizens Bank Park.
Both teams entered with plenty to play for. St. Joe’s hadn’t won the Liberty Bell Classic since 2016, while Penn has never won the event. Despite the Quakers (15-19, 9-6 Ivy League) taking a first inning lead, the Hawks (26-13, 16-2 Atlantic 10) pulled away with an 8-2 win and took home the Liberty Bell championship.
“We look forward to this every year and we’ve been close,” said St. Joe’s coach Fritz Hamburg. “We talk every year about the significance of it. The biggest point for us is to have the opportunity to be in a big league stadium and play on a big league field. It’s really cool.”
St. Joe’s dominated the Liberty Bell Classic in the early 2010s. The Hawks were frequent visitors to Citizens Bank Park, winning the tournament in 2012, 2014, and 2016.
However, they had been shut out of the championship game since 2016. This year, the Hawks are in the midst of a strong campaign, and with that came success in the Liberty Bell Classic.
After a 7-6 loss to Fordham on March 29, which ended a seven-game winning streak, St. Joe’s bounced back in its Liberty Classic quarterfinal game against Lehigh on March 31. The Hawks won 16-10 to propel an eight-game winning streak.
» READ MORE: St. Joe’s is a top Atlantic 10 baseball contender and aims to continue its upward trajectory
During that streak was a semifinal win against Rider where St. Joe’s went down 5-1 in the third inning before rallying in the final innings to secure an 11-10 win and punch its ticket to the championship.
“Credit to those guys because they have become so tight, they care about each other and they want to win,” Hamburg said. “One through nine, we have had all different pitchers pick us up, come up with big moments and big games and when you do that, there is a confidence that grows in the team.”
Despite the championship game being a mid-week game, and the Hawks’ top pitchers being unavailable, they approached it like it was for a trophy.
“We were really looking forward to coming in here and not just participating in [the championship game],” right-handed pitcher Justin Sweeney said. “But we were coming in here to win from the first pitch.”
Right hander Patrick Veintimilla, who entered the day with just nine innings pitched all season, drew the start and put the Hawks in position to win. He tossed 3⅔ innings, giving up two runs and striking out four batters. Sweeney followed him and pitched as well as Hamburg would have hoped.
The junior went 4⅓ scoreless innings and struck out six Penn batters. His strong outing allowed the St. Joe’s offense to gradually build out a lead.
“Huge start by Patrick and then Sweeney was fantastic,” Hamburg said. “We weren’t sure how pitching was going to shake out but those two guys were fantastic.”
The bats collected 10 hits, drew nine walks, and were hit by five pitches, which generated enough offense to wear down the Quakers’ bullpen and defense. A two-out rally in the third inning, where St. Joe’s scored three runs to go ahead for good, was all it needed.
With four conference series remaining, St. Joe’s is looking to use this experience to help in the final stretch of the regular season.
“This is a preparation run for what we hope to be doing in a couple of weeks,” Hamburg said. “We have a plan with everything we do. Even the semifinal to get here was the day before a championship. There are lessons in every opportunity that we have, and we had one today where this is a championship game. That’s how we looked at it.”