Bridgeton baseball out to build on recent victories

David Mosley is hoping the Bridgeton baseball team can qualify for the state tournament because "miracles can happen in the playoffs."

Bridgeton coach Mike Valella suspects he might already have witnessed one.

Valella is South Jersey baseball's answer to Job: Patient, long-suffering, ever-hopeful. He entered this season with a career record of 50-256 in 13 seasons.

Bridgeton was 1-25 in 2013 and 1-23 in 2014. The Bulldogs were 4-23 last season.

When Saturday's four-team Delaney Classic began at Clayton, Bridgeton was 0-5 in 2016. The Bulldogs were coming off an 18-0 loss to Buena. They had won not two games in a row since 2006.

Valella, one of the area's most organized, dedicated and respected coaches, was undaunted.

Same goes for Mosley, the team's speedy centerfielder and leadoff hitter.

"I always think we're going to win," Mosley said.

This time, he was right.

Twice.

Bridgeton beat Clayton in the semifinals, then fashioned an improbable rally in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat Pennsauken Tech, 13-12, in the title game.

"It was spectacular," Valella said of the scene. "The kids were so excited."

Bridgeton's eighth-inning magic was preceded by some of the same kind of stuff in the bottom of the seventh, when the Bulldogs scored five times - highlighted by a two-run home run by freshman Jobany Martinez - to knot things at 8-8.

When Pennsauken Tech put four on the board in the top of the eighth, things were looking bleak for Bridgeton.

"We couldn't quit," said Mosley, who led off the inning with a walk.

Incredibly, almost impossibly, Bridgeton scored five runs without putting a ball in play, thanks to five walks, a hit batter and five wild pitches. The two outs in the inning were strikeouts.

Martinez scored the winning run on a wild pitch, and Mosley was named the tournament's most valuable player after going 5 for 7 and scoring seven runs in two games.

"The best feeling ever," said Mosley, a senior who was the quarterback for the football team and point guard for the baseball team.

Valella said Mosley is "one of the fastest kids who plays baseball in South Jersey."

Mosley ran track as a freshman but "missed baseball" and joined the team as a sophomore.

"I didn't realize how many games they lost," Mosley said. "But I noticed, 'These guys care.' I saw how much my teammates grind. So I was going to grind, too."

Valella and his coaches stress fundamentals and strive for incremental progress in the program.

One of the program's past slogans was "Respect the 90," in reference to the distance between the bases.

This season's slogan is "Do Simple Better," as the coaches urge the players to focus on the sport's smaller details.

"Have better at-bats, work a walk, move runners up," Valella said.

Mosley said he was so tired after Saturday's excitement that he fell asleep across two seats on the bus ride home.

"It was a good rest," Mosley said.

panastasia@phillynews.com

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