Despite team’s playoff loss, Lower Cape May late-bloomer Caden Elwell enjoys storybook ending to fruitful high school baseball career

Posted: May 29th 2026

Lower Cape May Regional senior Caden Ewell slugged a home run in his final high school at bat to finish off an outstanding senior season.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

Caden Elwell will never forget the final swing of his high school baseball career.

The senior first baseman from Lower Cape May Regional slugged a three-run home run in the final at bat of his career Wednesday in the Caper Tigers’ 11-6 loss to Seneca in a first-round South Jersey Group II playoff game.

For anyone who’s into baseball history, the name of Ted Williams comes to mind. The former Boston Red Sox star, generally considered one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, hit a home run in his last at bat before retiring in 1960.

“I know about Ted Williams,” Ewell said, “but I never heard that about him.”

With Lower trailing 11-3 against Seneca in the top of the seventh inning, there was a chance Elwell wouldn’t get another at bat. But then teammates Ashton Ray and Chase Slaney managed bloop singles to bring Elwell to the plate for the final time.

“We were down to our last couple outs, so we were kind of desperate there,” Lower coach Ryan Slaney said. “I was excited that we showed some fight and got something going there but I was really excited that Caden was going to get another at bat.”

CADEN ELWELL

Elwell worked the count to three balls and no strikes but took advantage of a green light to swing. Taking advantage of a fastball thrown down the middle of the plate, he drilled a line drive about 15 feet over the fence in left field. The left-field foul pole at Seneca is marked as being 335 feet from home plate, so he certainly earned the jog around the bases once the ball cleared the fence.

“I would definitely say I would’ve rather had us win, but it was amazing to go out like that,” Elwell said. “I couldn’t ask for a better way to end my career, especially for it to be in a state playoff game.”

Elwell is a prime example of what can happen to a young athlete who works hard. He played baseball when he was young but drifted away from the game a bit after Little League, not playing the sport from seventh through ninth grade.

“I’m not totally sure why I stopped playing, but maybe it was because I was moved up a level early and I had a lot of nerves playing with the older kids,” Elwell said. “But I always had a love for baseball. I love watching it and hearing about it. My freshman year I went out and watched some of the local schools’ baseball games and that got me into it again. I thought, ‘Why not go back out and play?’ I knew I only had a few years left, so I went out to play just to have fun, really.”

Elwell registered just three hits in 23 at bats for a batting average of just .130 as a sophomore. He wasn’t happy with that performance, so he went to work.

“I did a lot of offseason work,” he said. “I’m one of those people that when I do something I want to be the best at it. I’m going to try to get better at it. I did a lot of summer workouts. I played fall ball. I went to a batting coach. I played summer league. I was constantly doing stuff with baseball. For me, it was trying to get around the sport as much as I could to try to provide for my team.”

The results of that work were remarkable. Elwell batted a solid .353 and became a reliable outfielder defensively for a senior-laden Lower team last season as a junior. Then this spring, Elwell emerged as one of the top players in the Cape-Atlantic National Conference, batting .434 with 12 extra-base hits, 30 runs scored, 21 RBI and 23 stolen bases while switching positions to first base.

Elwell finished his high school career with 66 hits, getting 63 of them over his final two seasons.

“He wasn’t much of an impact player his sophomore year,” Slaney said. “He was more known for his athleticism and speed and that’s what got him on the field a little bit. But then he came back his junior year and we could tell was going to be an impact player right away with an experienced, older ballclub. His junior year was great, but then to do what he did this year was awesome. He never had a bad stretch of games. He was consistent, always stinging the ball at the plate. He never really had a bad at bat all season.

“In the offseason, we ask the players to step up and he trained all winter. We needed a first baseman and he jumped at it right away even though by the end of last season he might have been our best outfielder. That in itself tells you a lot about him. He was willing to learn a new position and he did what he needed to do to figure it out. Even though he didn’t have the experience or the knowledge, he played an amazing first base. You’d have never known it was his first year there.”

Elwell finished his career with two home runs. Both occurred in terrific moments, the other coming on Senior Day in a win over Pleasantville a couple of weeks ago.

“You look at the (video) clips of his home runs, he’s sprinting out of the box,” Slaney said. “He’s not one to be pimping it and throwing his bat and making a huge show out of it. If you want young kids to see the right way to play, you’d have them watch Caden.”

Elwell served as a co-captain this season with outfielder Colin Hewitt, the only seniors on a team otherwise filled with freshmen and sophomores.

“Both of them are the kindest, most polite, determined, hard-working kids out there,” Slaney said. “They’re older, mature guys who led a younger, inexperienced group. They’re good character kids.

“Caden was literally the last one to leave the field and leave the locker room every day. He’s very quiet, not a real vocal guy, but he was amazing how he led by example and showed the younger kids what you’re supposed to do and how you’re supposed to do it. And then obviously the numbers he put up speak for themselves.”

Elwell, an honors student who is set to study mechanical engineering at George Mason University next scholastic year, is proud of what he and his teammates did on the field. The Caper Tigers started the season with seven straight defeats but finished the season at 10-17. They had won eight of 11 games entering the state playoffs.

“I thought considering how late I joined my career was a success,” he said. “I really went out there to play and have fun. I never really expected to get a lot of varsity time. After I improved a little, I just kept wanting to get better. It ended up being the most fun I ever had playing sports. I couldn’t have asked for it to be any better.

“Obviously, we had a super-young team this year. Those younger guys are all athletes who play other sports, some super athletic kids. Those guys are young but they’re good. They just need more experience. We worked with what we had. I think we turned it on better in the second half of the season and did pretty well and showed who we could be.”

Slaney said Elwell will always be able to cherish the memory of his final high school at bat.

“It’s nothing short of amazing,” Slaney said. “Twenty or 30 years from now, he’ll remember that. He’s never going to forget that. For him to take a few years off and then come back and get so much better, it’s a great exclamation point to his career. It couldn’t have happened to a better kid.”

(photos courtesy Heidi Ray/LCMR baseball)