By Al Muskewitz
CARNEYS POINT, N.J. – Fueled by two strong complete games from its pitchers, the Salem Community College baseball team dumped Camden CC 10-2 and 12-4 Saturday to sweep its third consecutive doubleheader and the three-game weekend series with the Cougars.
Freshman lefthander Sean Kelby allowed four hits and struck out nine in the first game. After giving up a walk to load the bases in the third inning, he retired 12 in a row and 14 of the last 15 batters he faced.
Sophomore righthander Aiden Ewe took a one-hitter into the seventh inning before tiring, but the converted catcher still finished with a five-hitter and six strikeouts in his first career complete game.
"They're starting to hit their strides," Mighty Oaks coach John Holt said of the two pitchers. "They both have worked very hard to get where they are. They've gradually gotten better and better throughout the year and today they get two complete games and get length out of them. That was huge for us with the schedule we have coming up."
The Mighty Oaks rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to win Game One. They tied the game with Angel Velez' RBI single in the third and took the lead in the fourth on Nick Ciesielka's RBI triple and Demetrius DeRamus' second sacrifice fly of the game.
They broke it open with six runs in the fifth, highlighted by Cole Dawson's two-run double and Velez' two-run single. Velez was 3-for-4 with three RBIs in the game and had five hits in the doubleheader.
Ciesielka, Matt Murphy and Dane Thomas all had a pair of hits in the game.
The Mighty Oaks took control of the nightcap with six runs in the second inning. Yen Rodriguez had a two-run single in the inning, while the other runs scored on a series of errors and DeRamus' third sacrifice fly of the twinbill.
They added four in the in the fifth and two in the sixth on a two-run double by Thomas.
Thomas, Velez and Murphy all had two hits in the game.
The sweep extended the Mighty Oaks' winning streak to a season-best six games. It's their longest streak since a six-gamer April 30-May 8, 2021. They have won nine of their last 10 to pull within three games of .500 (17-20).
"It's nice anytime to get a sweep," Holt said, "but where we are with our schedule and where we are with what we're trying to do, we've got to worry about one game at a time. We can't worry about sweeping series.
"Our approach is let's win inning by inning because when we get too big it can become a little bit too much. If we were worried about just winning today, let alone trying to make up a 10-game under .500 thing that's overwhelming. But if you're just worried about winning today then it kind of seems a little bit more doable."
