Cape baseball’s story was legendary the moment it became history

Stoic and unflappable Cape pitcher David Erickson stood alone after the the Vikings’ state championship victory over Caravel June 4 was secured, on the far side of smiles and dog piles. He was just surveying the field, and his eyes were filled with tears.

“I’m just realizing what we accomplished – the long road to get to this moment,” he said, almost apologetically.

And then No. 3 was up the steps of Frawley Stadium and into a hundred arms of his high school buddies who embraced him as one of the heroes of a Cape sports story that was legendary the moment it became history.

The encapsulated version of the saga and quest for a championship that took 50 years to capture began May 21, with the last regular-season game. Cape lost to Saint Mark’s that Senior Day 9-7. Erickson and Mason Fluharty combined to yield nine hits and get tagged for a pair of home runs, while blowing a late-inning 7-6 lead.

“That was the perfect game for us leading into the tournament,” said Cape coach Ben Evick after the Saint Mark’s game. “We got seven runs off one of the best teams in the state. Playoff baseball is going to be crazy as we move into the survive-and-advance round. We have to deliver and endure adversity; that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Zack Gelof reached his 100th hit during the loss and, while holding his new monogrammed blue bat and looking unhappy, he said, “That was that, but I guarantee you we will not lose again.”

The DIAA tournament bracket was published shortly after, with Cape as the fourth seed opposite top-seeded William Penn. Caravel at No. 2 and Saint Mark’s at No. 3 were the power teams in the opposite bracket.

The 24-team hardball tournament is always littered with landmines. Favorites go down every round.   

Cape opened the tournament at home May 26, whacking Newark Charter 12-2 in a five-inning game highlighted by Zack “Zackzilla” Gelof crushing the first pitch over the left-field fence.

Cape hosted the Appoquinimink Jaguars May 30, as Appo coach Billy Cunningham returned to his hometown to play his former team and coach with hopes of going Freddie Krueger on the Cape dream.

The game went to extra innings. Erickson and Austin Elliott had pitched. Jackson Ostroski, in his one plate appearance the entire tournament, pinch hit for Timmy Vitella and roped a single over the third-base bag. Vitella re-entered the game to run the bases. Ostroksi solidified a focused moment for all athletes: Stay ready, ever ready.

The bases were loaded when Zach Dale, who was having a tough day at the plate having struck out the previous three trips, laced a sacrifice fly to left – known as a “Zach Fly” – chasing home Vitella for the winning run and a ticket to the semifinals at Frawley Stadium.

“Way to be Marines and keep fighting,” assistant coach Dave Vitella told the team after the game.

At Frawley, Cape met a Dover team that turned into a giant killer in the tournament. The No. 17 seed knocked off top-seeded William Penn 7-2, followed by a nine-inning 4-3 victory over Salesianum. The Senators’ winning run came on a steal of home.

“Dover is a well-coached and dangerous tournament team,” Evick said.

“Don’t Stop Believing” was Dover’s journey, and they would meet “Runnin’ Down A Dream” Cape in the semifinals June 1.

Cape went extra-inning walk-off for the second straight tournament game when Jake Gelof stroked a ball over the center fielder’s head in the bottom of the 10th inning in a 5-5 game, chasing home Timmy Vitella from second base with the winning run. Vitella, batting in the nine-hole, kept the dream alive earlier in the 10th, connecting for a two-out base knock to left that scored Mason Fluharty from second to tie the game. Jake Gelof was also the winning pitcher.

All that craziness was followed by a Sunday game-time cancellation after hundreds of downstaters drove through a deluge of rain and heavy traffic only to turn right around and go back home.

“The good news is we get Fluharty and Zack Gelof back for Monday,” Athletic Director Bob Cilento said after the game was postponed. Both players were on pitch count restrictions, but the extra day freed them from the pen.

Monday’s 5-3 championship win was a close-it-out, not walk-it-off. The championship game and overall tournament produced more heroes than Casapulla’s sub shop.

Zack Gelof’s tagging and scoring from second base on an Austin Elliott deep fly ball set the tone. Jake Gelof’s two-run single in the top of the second made it 3-0. Erickson then roped a fourth-inning RBI, and Zach Savage added another in the fifth to make it 5-0 with nine outs to get the trophy onto Half Stockley’s bus.

Caravel scored three in the bottom of the sixth to cut it to 5-3 with runners on second and third. A blooper to right threatened to blow up the balloon and pop the Cape dream, but second baseman Luke Johnson caught the ball running full speed away from the infield, then turned and fired to catcher Zach Savage, who sent it to third baseman Jake Gelof for an inning-ending double play.   

Erickson was dealing the entire game, striking out nine, but he ran out of pitches with one batter to go. Fluharty took over and struck out the final batter, and “Mission Improbable” was accomplished. Let the down-home yarns and storytelling begin, but these sports legends are different from most in that they are actually true.