Baseball playoffs: Ray, Shoffler lead red-hot LCM; Wildwood's season ended

Posted: May 30th 2024

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

Lower Cape May advanced and Wildwood had its season ended as the high school baseball state playoffs resumed Wednesday afternoon.

The following is a recap of the two games:

Lower Cape May 6, Cedar Creek 2: Evan Shoffler and Hunter Ray have been at the heart of the Caper Tigers’ success this season. That trend continued in the South Jersey Group II quarterfinal round.

Shoffler was strong on the mound, pitching scoreless baseball into the seventh inning, and Ray went 3 for 4 with a two-run home run, a double and three RBI to pace fifth-seeded Lower to a 6-2 victory over No. 4 Cedar Creek.

Lower (16-11) advances to face top-seeded Seneca in the semifinal round on Friday. It will be the Caper Tigers’ first appearance in the sectional semifinal round since 2011.

The game was scoreless until the fifth inning before Lower struck for four runs to take the lead for good. A Ray single and a suicide-squeeze bunt by Cade Heacock each pushed across runs, with Lower also benefitting from three Cedar Creek errors in the inning.

Ray, a Division I Fairleigh Dickinson commit, extended Lower’s lead one inning later with a two-run home run to right field. 

Ray’s three hits upped his batting average for the season to .430. He has 17 extra-base hits, including four home runs. 

Shoffler scattered three hits and was lifted in the seventh only because he reached his pitch-count limit. Kody Lewis recorded the final two outs. Shoffler, who is headed to Division II Shippensburg, dropped his earned run average to 0.96 over his 36 1/3 innings pitched this season.

Aydan Heacock and Sean Kelleher each added hits and Shoffler scored two runs in the win.

For Lower, the victory avenged a pair of losses to the Pirates on back-to-back days in mid April. 

The Tigers have been one of South Jersey’s hottest teams during the month of May, with wins in 11 of their last 12 games.

Gloucester 8, Wildwood 4: Wildwood had the home team and home crowd nervous after holding a 3-1 lead following the top of the third inning of a South Jersey Group I quarterfinal.

But the Lions, helped by two critical Warrior errors, scored four times in the bottom of third to take the lead for good and advance in the tournament.

Second-seeded Gloucester added two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to pull away.

No. 7 Wildwood scored a run in the first when Junior Hans came across on a Gloucester throwing error after a ground ball by Harley Buscham. The Warriors added two runs in the third on Brian Cunniff’s RBI on a fielder’s choice and a subsequent throwing error.

The Warriors had other chances but failed to come up with a big hit. Wildwood was hurt by some base-running mistakes, getting three runners thrown out on the bases.

Hans had a hit and three runs scored to lead Wildwood. He also swiped his 38th base of the season, finishing his career with 104 stolen bases. Logan Totten nearly hit a two-run home run in the first inning but had to settle for a ground rule double when the ball landed just a few feet in front of the fence in left before bouncing over. Buscham and Ryan Troiano each added hits.

Wildwood finished the season at 17-11, the program’s most victories in a season since going 19-10 in 2016.