The next time Sky Duff attends a Phillies game, he might want to sit in right field.
Not that seats behind home plate or down the lines wouldn't be great, but those behind the fence will probably bring back the fondest of memories for the recent Bishop Eustace graduate.
The All-State infielder hit a solo home run to right in the seventh inning and added an RBI triple as part of a five-run ninth Friday as Olympic/Colonial rallied for a 10-6 victory over Delaware North in the semifinals of the 33rd annual Carpenter Cup Classic at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
“This place is pretty awesome; it was pretty cool,” said Duff, a second baseman/shortstop who will continue his career at the University of Pittsburgh.
“I felt (the home run) off the bat and thought it had a shot, but as I was coming down the first-base line I heard the coach yelling to get on three. I looked up and it got over the wall, so that was pretty cool.”
Sky Duff and Johnny Piacentino combined for five hits to help power Olympic/Colonial. (Kevin Minnick | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
The South Jersey team trailed 6-5 and had struck out three times in the eighth before mounting its second straight comeback. O/C trailed Tri/Cape 13-5 heading into the bottom of the seventh in its quarterfinal matchup before posting a 14-13 victory Monday.
Olympic/Colonial will play Burlington County in Sunday’s championship game. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. The game was postponed Saturday due to wet field conditions.
“There was definitely no doubt in our dugout,” Duff said. “Everyone has a great competitive nature and we knew we had a shot to make something happen. We were going to go down fighting, but we put together a pretty good inning and pulled it out.”
With its back against the wall, O/C turned its bats loose in the ninth. Collecting seven hits through the first eight innings, the winners pounded out six hits - four for extra bases - in their final at-bat.
The ninth-inning highlights:
• Lorenzo Morello (Washington Township) collects a leadoff triple.
• Duff belts an RBI triple, scoring Morello.
• Matt Orlando (Bishop Eustace) smacks an RBI double, scoring Duff.
• Johnny Piacentino (Bishop Eustace) rips RBI triple, scoring Orlando.
•Jack Owens (Cherry Hill West) contributes an RBI single, scoring Piacentino.
• Dylan Stezzi (Eastern) collects a one-out RBI single.
“We’re confident in our lineup top to bottom, and in the top of the ninth we knew who we had coming up to the plate,” said O/C coach Dan McMaster, the head coach at Cherry Hill West. “Those are some of the top guys in the Olympic, some of the top guys in the state. We were very confident Lorenzo would step up with a big hit, and hitting is contagious.
“Those Eustace guys came up and cleared the bases a couple of times. It’s nice to have them in our dugout as opposed to having to look at them across the way as I have the last couple of years.”
Bishop Eustace has six representatives on the O/C roster. Collectively, they went 8-for-14 with five runs scored and six RBIs. Morello, a Washington Township graduate, went 2-for-3 with a double, triple and two runs scored.
“We were all so confident because we had that comeback in the game before,” said Piacentino, who went 3-for-3 and fell a home run short of the cycle.
“We have an amazing opportunity to win the whole thing. Our bats are great, so I think we’ll be fine.”
Kevin Minnick can be reached at kminnick@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kminnicksports. Like NJ.com HS sports on Facebook.
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