Manchester Celebrates Baseball Team's State Section Championship

MANCHESTER, NJ — If you heard sirens Friday night and were wondering what was going on, you were hearing the sounds of joy: the Manchester Township High School baseball team won a state sectional championship.

The Hawks, who were the 12th seed in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group II tournament, finished off their run of upsets on Friday night by defeating second-seeded Delran, 7-5, in the sectional championship game.

Manchester won its first South Jersey Group II title since 2003, according to the NJ.com game report.

Sean McAllister hit a three-run home run with two outs in the seventh inning Friday, and the Hawks shut down Delran in the bottom of the seventh to win the title, the report said. Manchester (13-10) advances to meet Voorhees, the Central Jersey Group II champion, in the Group II semifinals on Monday.

Manchester defeated fifth-seeded Haddon Heights, 3-1; fourth-seeded Barnegat, 8-2, and then knocked off top-seeded West Deptford, 8-3, to reach the title game against Delran (18-6).

McAllister scored two runs and had four RBI, Blake Warren, Brandon Sogness and Michael Damato each two hits and starting pitcher Joe Sclama struck out five before Rich Coufal came on in relief. Coufal pitched the bottom of the sixth inning. Logan Duffy and Frank Kern combined in the seventh inning to finish off the victory for Manchester, the NJ.com report said.

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