Lenape wins Classic by defying odds and physics

It's the type of play that spits in the face of physics and yet a week doesn't pass in which a baserunner doesn't go against the very rules of existence.

"I'll tell you this, I'm totally for that," Lenape senior Jamie Kunz-Mulholland said. "I don't know why I did that. It's something I never do."

Head down out of the batter's box, Kunz-Mulholland beat out an infield single with a headfirst slide that allowed Brian Talbot to score the only run of the game with two outs in the seventh as Lenape beat Millville, 1-0, to win the 37th edition of the Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic at Eastern High School yesterday.

Played on the only artificial surface in South Jersey, catcher Kunz-Mulholland's chopper to second base on the final play of the game left plenty in attendance with their mouths wide-open for a variety of reasons, the least of which was whether he beat the throw.

"After what both teams have been through, to go the entire game with a bunch of zeroes is really amazing," Millville coach Roy Hallenbeck said. "It really was a great game."

"But that's baseball. You are around long enough to see all kinds of things happen. [Kunz-Mulholland] hustled down the line and made a play. My concern now is that we come back and go after Group 4 [today]."

Traditionally, the finals of the Diamond Classic have been slugfests. This is a byproduct of heavy workloads faced by staffs due to the amount of games played in this tournament, the state tournament and the back end of the regular season. The last shutout in the final came in 1996 when Gloucester Catholic beat Washington Township, 10-0. The last 14 finals have averaged 18.8 runs per game.

Suffice to say, that wasn't the case yesterday as Lenape's Jason Bohrer and Millville's Paul Mentz were up to the task against aggressive offenses.

Bohrer needed just 83 pitches to work a full seven innings. He held Millville to three hits and faced just 27 hitters.

"We didn't really know what we were doing coming in," said Bohrer, who allowed just one runner to reach third and at one point retired 14 straight.

"I wasn't expecting to go all seven, but it was the type of game where they needed me to go all seven. They were a fastball-hitting team and really aggressive. I had to make sure I had all four pitches coming out of the bullpen, and fortunately I did."

Millville (19-4) threatened in the top of the seventh as Chet Godfrey opened with the game's only extra-base hit, a double off the wall in left-center.

"He hit it hard, but as soon as it left the bat he screamed, 'Get out!' and I knew then that it would stay in the park," Kunz-Mulholland said.

Godfrey reached third on a fly ball to center, but a popout and a strikeout ended the threat.

In the bottom half of the inning, Lenape (19-4) got going on John Eigenbrood's single through the right side. Bohrer had a chance to move the runner up with a bunt, but with the count 1-1, a strike was called for delay of the game. He followed with a line out to center.

"I thought that was going to fall," Bohrer said. "They just had me played right."

Talbot singled to right and Stefan Kramitz hit a chopper up the middle. A flip by Millville second baseman Ismael Colon pulled shortstop Emilio Santiago off the bag. What could have been a doubleplay left runners on second and third for Kunz-Mulholland.

"As soon as it left my bat, I knew I had to get down that line," Kunz-Mulholland said. "I just dove and looked around to see what the umpire said. He signaled safe and that's all that matters."

Even if running through the bag would have been faster.