Greater Wildwood completes stunning turnaround, wins District 16 title

LINWOOD – The Greater Wildwood Little League 11-year-old all-star baseball team completed its remarkable turnaround Tuesday evening.

Greater Wildwood rode the second consecutive strong pitching performance from Will Auty and produced some timely offense in a 9-2 victory over Linwood/Somers Point in the District 16 championship game.

The win moves Greater Wildwood into the Section 4 Tournament, which is scheduled to begin Sunday in Haddonfield.

Greater Wildwood dropped its first two games of the district tournament and faced an 8-3 deficit to Stafford Township in its third game. But Greater Wildwood rallied to post an 11-9 win in that contest and then won two straight games over Linwood to capture the title.

Auty pitched a complete game for Greater Wildwood in the title game, conceding just two hits while striking out seven against just one walk. He allowed only one hit after Linwood/Somers Point’s leadoff hitter belted a triple on the first pitch of the game.

Auty had previously pitched a four-inning complete game in Greater Wildwood’s 13-2 win over Linwood/Somers Point last Friday that qualified the team for the district title game.

Owen Bannon, Drew Robinson and Michael Sciarra each had two hits for Greater Wildwood in the title game. Gabe Volpe contributed an RBI single and made numerous excellent defensive plays at shortstop and Adrian Augsberger added a hit while also driving in a run on a sacrifice fly.