Deptford/SJ Spartans believed it had reason to celebrate.
Gloucester Catholic/Brooklawn felt it was done.
Jefferson and Sussex Red//High Point/Wallkill were scheduled to play in a regional final but uncomfortable meeting due to COVID-19 concerns.
The Last Dance World Series has had its share of storylines, a 222-team statewide baseball tournament organized for the purpose of giving seniors an opportunity to play with their teammates one last time. Over the past 24 hours, it's taken a hit but continues on.
A number of developments surfaced Friday that resulted in scheduling two play-in games at St. Joseph (Met.) on Monday. The Round of 32 - which will be single elimination - is slated to begin Tuesday.
- After going 3-0 in the Brooklawn Regional, Deptford was ruled to have violated a pitching rule in its victory over Gloucester Catholic. Instead of removing it from the tournament, organizers allowed the Spartans to remain in the event and will take on Jefferson.
- Gloucester Catholic, which lost to Deptford and finished 2-1 in pool play, was permitted to remain and will face Sussex Red in the other play-in.
- The regional final between Jefferson and Sussex Red was rescheduled two times. Because the two did not want to play each other, the unrelated situation now opened the door for tournament officials to create the crossovers with Deptford and Gloucester Catholic.
"In an initial conversation, we were going to have to pick which one was to advance," tournament director Mike Murray said. "This tournament is about playing games. It was my recommendation with all of the facts that we weren't going to eliminate a team from this. There were two teams (Jefferson and Sussex Red) that needed games because of an unrelated situation."
In its win over Gloucester Catholic, Deptford used a player who was ineligible to pitch under tournament rules. The player in question was added to the roster and came from a different school.
"Players from other schools were not permitted to pitch until they lost a game or reached the Round of 32," tournament official John Kroeger said. "You have to use your pitchers first. We didn't want to make this become something where teams were all out to win. We wanted to see their seniors play, and a lot of seniors were pitchers.
"Deptford didn't know. Jim (Adamski) is a good guy and we didn't want to kick them out. He just didn't see the email."
When made aware of the rules violation, Adamski felt a bit better about the decision.
"I feel at least a little more at peace with it," Adamski said. "They could have laid down the hammer and kicked us out, but that's not the purpose of the tournament.
"They know I didn't do anything to subvert the rules. If I had seen the rules, I wouldn't have played that player. I just want to make sure people don't think we're a bunch of cheaters. I've been coaching for 20 years, since my 26-year-old was six, and I run my teams with the utmost ethical standards you could imagine."
Gloucester Catholic coach Dennis Barth thought his team was out after losing to Deptford on Wednesday.
"They beat us on the field," Barth said. "We blew a three-run lead. I thought we were done. Then I got a call (Friday) that we were back in.
"I didn't say anything to anybody. If they told me I was out, I was fine with it."
Jefferson was originally set to meet Sussex Red in a North regional final Thursday but the game was postponed when a Sussex Red player came in contact with a travel ball coach who tested positive for the coronavirus. According to Murray, that player was tested and results were negative.
The game was then rescheduled for Saturday at Skylands Stadium in Augusta but canceled and replaced by the Monday games.
"Through contact tracing, a player from Sussex Red could have had potential exposure to COVID-19," Murray explained. "His parents drove to New York for a rapid test and got the result that cleared him. It was a winner's bracket game, so that allowed us to postpone the game and get things cleared up.
"Normally it would've taken three days to get the results back. In this case, there was an abundance of caution and they wouldn't have continued if we couldn't avoid the issue. But this player took the initiative to drive out of state to hopefully help his team continue. Without a negative result, we probably would not have allowed them to continue. It was confirmed by the CDC, but Jefferson was in a situation with its administrative body that even with a negative test they were more comfortable with a crossover."
In Murray's mind, everything was handled the right way.
“This was a solution between the four coaches and we can settle it on the field,” he said. “We felt it best not to penalize the kids. The best solution was to allow them an extra game.”
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Kevin Minnick may be reached at kminnick@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @kminnicksports.
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