Camden-Wyoming Senior all-stars earn trip to Maine by battling back

CAMDEN — Relatively speaking, coming back to win from the losers’ bracket was the easy part.

Getting a youth baseball team 600 miles to play in another tournament, now that’s a headache.

But Camden-Wyoming’s Senior League baseball all-stars will gladly deal with it to play in the Eastern Regional next weekend.

The District I champions earned a trip to Bangor, ME for the Eastern Regional after downing Mid-Sussex, 11-9, on Thursday night to take the state title in Little League’s age division for 13-16 year olds.

Including the District I finals, it was the second-straight time that C-W took a must-win title game to advance. Mid-Sussex beat Camden-Wyoming, 9-2, on Wednesday to force the second championship game.

“Everybody was pretty relaxed going into it,” manager Mike Wilson said about the finals. “We hit early and we hit often. We didn’t wait until the fourth inning to get on the board.”

C-W opened up a 6-0 advantage after the second inning before holding off the Sussex County squad.

Logan Simmons and Drew Burns had two hits apiece for C-W while Makai Parker and Shane Powell both had two RBI.

Powell was also the winning pitcher after striking out three in four innings. Quinn Collins, Zack Raiche and James Suhrbier (save) all pitched one inning apiece.

Wilson said his players didn’t panic when Mid-Sussex got within striking distance.

“Really, they were just picking each other up,” he said. “They were trying to encourage each other. A couple of the guys went up to James (Suhrbier) and said, ‘You’re here for a season, you’ve got this.’

“He locked in and he did his job.”

When the final out was recorded, Wilson said his players were thrilled to have won another banner.

“Everybody was ecstatic,” he said. “A lot of them haven’t won a state tournament before. I think we only had four or five kids who ever had.”

On Tuesday, C-W’s families will start heading for Maine. The eight-team, double-elimination tournament begins on Thursday.

Camden-Wyoming opens up by facing Rhode Island at 4 p.m. with the East championship game scheduled for July 23.

The reward for winning the regional is a trip to the World Series in Easley, S.C.

With some of C-W’s players already scheduled to play in some college showcase tournaments in other states, Wilson said a few players will drive to Maine with their families while others will fly there.

He said the team’s moms are handling a lot of the travel details.

“It’s about the least fun part of all of it, especially with the short turnaround,” Wilson said with a laugh. “A lot of the moms are working together to figure it all out so the coaches can worry about the baseball aspect.

“We’ve got a lot going on this week.”

Camden-Wyoming is now 7-2 in its two all-star tournaments. But winning another tourney will be its biggest challenge yet.

No matter how far they have to go, Wilson thinks his players will be ready to compete.

“They’re real good at pulling together once they’re together,” he said..