St. Augustine falls to Delbarton in New Jersey baseball final

As a sophomore, St. Augustine’s Cole Vanderslice threw the last pitch of a 2-1 loss to Delbarton in the state final.

As a junior, Vanderslice threw the last pitch of a 1-0 win over Delbarton in the state final.

On Thursday night, Vanderslice was in the on-deck circle -- wishing for another chance to play another prominent role in another title game -- when Delbarton finished a 4-3 victory over St. Augustine in eight innings in the third straight Non-Public A final between the two programs.

“This one feels different because I’m not going to get another chance,” Vanderslice said with tears in his eyes after the marathon battle at Bob DeMeo Field in Veterans Park in Hamilton Township, Mercer County.

It was a frustrating loss for St Augustine (24-5), which was making its fourth straight appearance in the state final.

The Hermits rallied from a 2-0 deficit to take the lead against Delbarton senior right-hander Jack Leiter, a Vanderbilt recruit and the son of former major-league pitcher Al Leiter.

St. Augustine held a 3-2 edge with two outs and nobody on base in the sixth inning, but Delbarton tied the score in that frame and registered the game-winning run on Shawn Rapp’s opposite-field bloop single in the top of the eighth.

“That’s baseball,” St. Augustine coach Mike Bylone said. “I’m extremely proud of these guys. As much as this one stings, we have to take a few days and realize how much this group accomplished.

“We faced a lot of adversity this year. It seemed like every week we were getting another injury. But these guys never folded.”

Senior right-hander Jayson Hoopes, a University of Virginia recruit, worked six strong innings for St. Augustine.

Hoopes hit the first batter and allowed a two-home run to the second batter, Delbarton senior shortstop Anthony Volpe, a first-round draft choice by the New York Yankees on Monday.

But after that Hoopes shut down the North Jersey champions. He allowed just one hit with six walks and seven strikeouts.

“It was a tough loss,” Hoopes said.

Leiter, who was projected as a possible first-round pick before telling major-league teams of his intention to attend Vanderbilt, hit 94 mph on radar guns behind home plate with his fastball. His best pitch probably was his knee-buckling slider.

“He was dealing,” Bylone said of Leiter.

St. Augustine cut the lead to 2-1 in the third as Vanderslice, who had out-dueled Leiter in last year’s state final -- when both juniors threw two-hitters -- was hit by a pitch and came around to score on a passed ball.

In the fourth, the Hermits took the lead. Rob Ready led off with a double. Hoopes and Jack Peacock walked and Brian Furey chased home the tying run as his hard grounder was misplayed into an infield error.

That brought Vanderslice to the plate. He fouled off three 3-2 pitches before driving home the go-ahead run with a base-loaded walk.

“I’m so proud of this group,” Vanderslice said. “I just told them in the [postgame] huddle, ‘I wouldn’t want to play with any other group than this group of guys.'”

Delbarton (26-3) tied the score at 3 with a two-out rally in the sixth that featured two walks, a hit batter and an infield error.

Delbarton took the lead in the top of the eighth as Kyle Vinci led off with a double and scored on Rapp’s single that fell behind first base.

St. Augustine had one last chance in the bottom of the eighth as Peacock drew a two-out walk, bringing Vanderslice to the on-deck circle.

But Rapp, a hard-throwing lefty and North Carolina recruit, finished the game with his third strikeout in 1 2/3 innings of relief.

“It doesn’t get much better than this,” Vanderslice said of the atmosphere, crowd and quality of play. “Well, maybe it could be a little better if we won.”

Delbarton 200 001 01 – 4 3 1

St. Augustine 001 200 00 – 3 5 2

WP: Shawn Rapp. LP: Kenny Levari.

2B: SA-Rob Ready. D-Kyle Vinci.

HR: D-Anthony Volpe.