06/01 - 3:00 PM Baseball Final Point Pleasant Boro 1 Haddonfield 2 Complete Box Score »

Watching the lead-off batter cross home plate isn't the ideal way to start an NJSIAA South Jersey, Group 2 championship game, but that's exactly what happened to Haddonfield to start its sectional final against Point Pleasant Boro on Friday in Haddonfield.

Yet even with that deficit staring them in the face for the majority of the game, the Bulldogs remained unfazed and got the two runs they needed to come back and defeat the Panthers and win the title, 2-1.

Tied 1-1 in the sixth, junior Steve DiTomaso led off with a triple and scored on John Cristino's single that ended up being the go-ahead run.

Haddonfield will take on Middlesex (22-4), the Central Jersey champion which defeated Riverside 9-0, in the Group 2 semifnals on Tuesday at East Brunswick Tech at 4 p.m.

While the offense came at the right time for the No. 2 seed, the difference in the game was the composure of senior pitcher Jacob Small who tallied seven strikeouts and only allowed two total hits in the game: the opening run and one more in the seventh inning.

"Nothing changes," Small said of the early deficit. "I still go out there and try to throw my best pitch and know that my batters will pick me up, and my fielders will back me up behind me, and I knew we would be able to get another run up after that one."

Point Pleasant Boro (18-9), the fifth seed, got on the board early when junior shortstop Sam Collins reached base on a single and advanced to third on an errant throw following a sacrifice bunt from junior Christian Aurin. He was able to cross home thanks to a sacrifice fly from junior Paul Franceschini.

"It was great because we knew we were facing a really good pitcher, and we thought maybe we could get to him a little bit," said Panthers head coach David Drew. "But to his credit he really settled down and took control from there."

The Bulldogs (17-5) trailed until the bottom of the fifth inning, when junior shortstop Chris Brown reached base on a walk to open the inning. He was able to advance to third on an errant throw, and after two-straight failed sacrifice fly attempts, senior first basemen Sam Heine was able to knock him in on a single right down the middle.

Then in the sixth inning, DiTomaso, a junior, led off with a huge triple off the right field wall to set up an opportunity for senior catcher Cristino to give Haddonfield the lead. In what may have been his biggest moment of the season, Cristino delivered an RBI-single that ended up being the go-ahead run to win the game.

"That was a huge momentum changer, and I knew all I had to do was hit the ball hard," Cristino said. "Honestly I was just trying to hit a sac fly between right and center to get him in, but I ended up getting a nice little hop for a single and then running back to the dugout after with the crowd screaming, that's the best feeling ever."

Despite the loss, Point Pleasant's sophomore pitcher Nick Guzzi pitched an impressive game as he tried to keep pace with Small. He lasted the full six innings and recorded seven strikeouts to combat his seven hits.

This was the 19th sectional title in Haddonfield's team history, but only their first since 2003. The team also has four state championships, with the last one coming in 1991.

Yet with the way they played throughout the state tournament, head Coach Bob Bickel said that he doesn't believe this team is done yet.

"This is where we wanted to get to, and now that we're here we just have to keep it going for a few more games," Bickel said. "We'll probably go with (junior pitcher) Dylan Heine on Tuesday, and we're excited about that because he pitched really well against Delran in our last game. This is how we've been going throughout the tournament, just switching between these two guys, and it's worked out great for us so far."