The Catholic League had one hiccup, allowing three runs in the top of the second inning to fall behind 3-2.

After that it was shutout city as Bonner-Prendergast right-hander Michael Anderson threw three scoreless and hitless innings. That was followed by three more shutout innings by Archbishop Carroll left-hander Roman Tozzi and then La Salle right-hander Kevin Kell finished matters by putting up a zero in the ninth inning.

There was one other notable goose egg – in the error column for the Catholic League.

Meanwhile Jersey Shore committed four errors that led to five unearned runs.

That was too many runs to give this pitching staff, which included Father Judge sophomore David Rodriguez, who threw the first two innings and earned the win.

“We talked about it at tryouts, we knew we had good pitching in the league and we have like six college guys pitching,” said Carroll’s Tozzi, who will attend Division II Barton College in North Carolina.

Of course, Tozzi made sure to point out that his team did score nine runs, no matter how many of them were earned.

“The offense gave us a lead and it is easy to pitch with a lead,” Tozzi said.

With the sun bearing down on this mid ‘80’s day, nothing was easy, even though this staff made things look that way.

And the offense more than pitched it.

The scoring concluded with a sixth-inning RBI single by Archbishop Wood junior center fielder Joey Gale.

What is interesting, as with many All-Star teams, is that during the season the players don’t particularly have an affinity for each other.

Once teammates, that changes.

“You are competing against these guys all year and you learn to hate them on the field, but now that we are playing together it is awesome, it’s a great experience,” said La Salle’s Kell, who will take his talents to Fairfield University.

The biggest carrot dangling for every team is the chance to play at the Phillies stadium.

High School players are still awed at the chance to take the field at Citizens Bank Park.

“It would be awesome to play at Citizens Bank Park, it would be a dream,” Kell said.

The word “awesome” comes up quite a bit when mentioning playing in the MLB park of the home team.

“It would be awesome playing in the home team’s stadium,” said Bonner-Prendie’s Anderson, a Rhode Island commit. “Just to compete there, would be a great experience.”

Of course, standing in the way is a talented Burlington County team, looking to continue carrying the recent New Jersey Carpenter Cup banner.

A New Jersey team has won the last four Carpenter Cup titles. Tri-Cape won last year. (There was no 2020 tournament due to COVID). Burlington County was the 2019 champ, Olympic-Colonial won in 2018 and Jersey Shore in 2017.

So, the Catholic League will have its work cut out, but so will Burlington County.

The key of course will be pitching.

The elder DiGuiseppe says it’s likely that he could get innings on Friday from the pitchers who threw in the opener. He also mentioned that Father Judge senior John Westfield, who played first base in the win, is also among the pitchers who can be used. (Teams must designate before the game if a player will pitch or be a position player).