St. Augustine survives Millville rally, 8-5

Ed Charlton turned a pitcher's duel into something completely different.

Charlton's two-out, two-run home run in the third inning opened the scoring and sent St. Augustine Prep on the road to an 8-0 lead. The visiting Hermits held off a furious Millville rally for an 8-5 victory Monday in a clash of Cape-Atlantic League powers.

Charlton was 2 for 4 with two runs, and Christian Carmolingo and Misael Aponte also drove in two runs each for St. Augustine Prep (4-0), the No. 3 team in The Inquirer's top 10.

Andrew Biggs hit a two-run home run, and Kyle O'Neill hit a three-run homer, both in the sixth inning, for No. 6 Millville (3-1).

"Our kids fought back," Millville coach Roy Hallenbeck said. "I feel a lot better now than I did in the fifth inning."

This was a well-played game between two of the top teams in South Jersey. There were no errors and just three walks on a warm, windy afternoon, with a big crowd surrounding the backstop at Millville's well-manicured field.

Biggs, a junior righthander, was locked in a pitching battle with St. Augustine senior righthander Matt Rakus in the early innings.

Biggs retired the first eight batters in order. Rakus allowed just one base runner in the first five innings.

"I was ready to go to small ball," St. Augustine coach Mike Bylone said.

Charlton changed his coach's thinking. After No. 9 hitter Christian Adorno broke up the perfect game with a two-out single in the third, Charlton drove an 0-1 curveball over the left-field fence for a 2-0 lead.

"He struck me out on a curveball in the first," said Charlton, a senior rightfielder. "I was waiting on it. I was thinking, 'Hit, hit, hit.' "

St. Augustine scored two runs in the fourth on Aponte's two-run single and added four more in the fifth as Carmolingo cracked a two-run double, and Anthony Cocuzza rapped an RBI single.

"We feel like this is our year," Charlton said. "We've got a lot of seniors, and we're not going to stop until we reach our goal, which is a state championship."

Rakus used good command of his fastball and an effective curveball to retire 15 of the 16 batters he faced in the first five innings.

"I was able to get ahead, and that allowed me to use my fastball," Rakus said.

Millville made a game of it in the sixth as Biggs and O'Neill delivered home runs to cut the margin to 8-5. The Thunderbolts got the tying run to the on-deck circle in the seventh, but couldn't complete the comeback.

"No lead is safe in this park, with that lineup," Bylone said of Millville. "It's a huge win, but it's April 11. Nobody is winning this league with no losses.

"We'll see them again and they'll be fired up for us."

St. Augustine    002 240 0 - 8 9 0

Millville    000 005 0 - 5 5 0

WP: Matt Rakus. LP: Andrew Biggs.

2B: SA-Christian Carmolingo.

HR: SA-Ed Charlton. M-Andrew Biggs, Kyle O'Neill.