The Hammonton Blue Devils Baseball team was having an unbelievable season early on, but the most important week in the regular season, did not go well for the Blue Devils. The team was trying to make the 41st annual Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic. It was looking like they would make it, but the week of it the Blue Devils lost 3 games in a row on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Their spirits were down in the dumps but were lifted back up on Friday. The team got a call that they still made the Diamond Classic. This was the first time a Hammonton team has made the Classic in 18 years.

The Blue Devils went in to the tournament as the 2nd at large team which gave them the 10th seed. Even though they were the 10th seed out of 16 teams, they still had high expectations. They were paired with Maple Shade in the first game and had a dominating 18-2 win. Justin Smith was the winning pitcher, and Anthony Cruz hit a grand slam. The next game was against 1st ranked in the state Bishop Eustace.

Justin Smith was on the hill again for the Blue Devils, but this game was not as easy as the last. After a hard fought game the Devils lost 12-3. The team just was not on their game that day, but they also faced one of the top pitchers in the state, Devin Smeltzer. The Blue Devils just couldn’t get anything going. The runs came on a 2 out single from DJ Maimone which scored the first 2 runs. The next run came off of a solo home run by Smith.

Even though Hammonton had a rough game in the second round, the players still thought it was a great experience. Nick Ezzi had this to say, “It was an honor to be able to play in the Diamond Classic. just wish we could have lived to fight another day.”

“It was a really great experience that I think could help us down the road. We have a great team here and it was good to finally get recognition as one of South Jersey’s top teams,” said Smith.

Mike Angeline, who would have pitched Sunday had they made it that far, had a memorable moment at the ,

“Well, being a pitcher only, I don’t get many chances to hit, but I finally got a chance and I cashed in with a single in the Maple Shade game which was my first and last Varsity hit,” he said.

Cruz, who played a big part in the win over Maple Shade with his grand slam, reflected on the tournament.

“Well, the pitcher made a mistake and I capitalized on it,” he explained. “This is something that we have not done this year with runners in scoring position, but lately we have really been doing a better job of. The Bishop Eustace game was a tough loss, but they were ranked 1st in the state. We put up a tough fight, but we came up short. Hopefully we can learn from this and do better in our playoffs.”

Senior Captain DJ Maimone had a great time and talked about the experience, “This is a great group of kids we have here. We are really starting to hit our stride. After facing a tough pitcher like Smeltzer, and getting a few runs off of him, I think we are more prepared for the good pitchers we will see in the playoffs which will be a big advantage moving forward.”

Overall the Hammonton Blue Devlis baseball team is having a great year. The team is really starting to show what kind of damage hey can do. They know that if they all pull together and do the little things right, they can hang with anyone. This will be an exciting team to follow in the playoffs. They expect to make a deep run, and hopefully compete for a state title.