Craig brings his best

It was a big game for everybody on the Delsea baseball team.

It was even bigger for Garrett Craig.

The Crusaders' senior righthander knew first place in the Tri-County Royal was on the line. He knew his team could move to the brink of its first division title since 2007.

But for Craig, something else made Monday's showdown special: Williamstown was in the other dugout.

"It's a big rivalry game for me," Craig said after leading Delsea to a 5-3 victory. "My dad went there. All my uncles went there. All my cousins go there now."

Craig controlled the game for six innings and sophomore shortstop Bryan Dobzanski cracked a two-run home run as Delsea improved to 13-9 overall and 6-3 in the Tri-County Royal. The Crusaders can clinch the division title with a victory over visiting Clearview on Friday.

Junior first baseman Jordan Rizzo hit a three-run home run for Williamstown (12-8, 5-4).

"They were the better team," Williamstown coach Jim Ambrosius said of Delsea. "[Craig] did a good job. He worked ahead in the count and pitched backwards enough to keep us off balance."

Craig faced just 20 batters, two above the minimum, through the first six innings. He didn't walk a batter, throwing strikes with a fastball, curveball, and change-up.

"My change-up was my out pitch," Craig said. "It was the best command I had with that pitch all season."

Williamstown managed just three hits through six innings. The Braves put together two singles and Rizzo's blast over the leftfield fence to cut the deficit to 5-3 with no outs in the seventh.

Delsea's Nick Freijomil relieved Craig and struck out the side to earn the save.

"Garrett did most of the work," Delsea catcher Curt Delia said. "He pitched a great game."

Delia singled and scored on Craig's sacrifice fly in the second. Delsea added three runs in the fourth on Pete Forte's RBI single and Dobzanski's blast over the left-center-field fence.

Delia's sacrifice fly made it 5-0 in the fifth.

"We're starting to get some clutch hits," Delia said.

Craig improved to 4-2. Two of the victories were over Williamstown.

"He's got the bloodlines over there," Delsea coach Tom Carney said of Craig. "He had a little something extra."

"I know all those guys," Craig said. "It makes you want to play with a lot more fire."

Williamstown 000 000 3 - 336

Delsea 010 310 x - 581

WP: Garrett Craig. LP: Kyle Grim.

HR: W-Jordan Rizzo; D-Bryan Dobzanski.