Nick Atohi

  OCEAN CITY — For the past two seasons, Mainland Regional has won championships by putting the ball in play and putting pressure on opposing defenses, getting great starting pitching, and playing solid defense. On Wednesday, rival Ocean City took a page out of the Mustangs' playbook to survive a tense South Jersey Group 3 semifinal matchup against Mainland and end the Mustangs' two-year reign as

  Like Tom Petty says, the waiting has been the hardest part. The Ocean City and Mainland Regional baseball teams — bitter rivals on the field — each earned their way into the South Jersey Group 3 semifinals with wins last week, then had to spend the entire Memorial Day weekend thinking about the matchup they had been anticipating all year. The players had to wait an extra day as well, as the fiel

  LINWOOD — Two years ago, Kyle Gerace became a playoff star when, as a sophomore, he came through with several big-time outings on the hill to help lead the Mainland Regional baseball team to a South Jersey Group 3 and overall Group 3 championship. Current sophomore Nick Atohi — one of the heroes of last summer's Atlantic Shore Babe Ruth world series-winning team — looks to be following in Gerace

LINWOOD — Mainland Regional might not be playing its best baseball just yet, but the Mustangs have been finding ways to win, and that's good enough for coach Billy Kern. The Mustangs scratched a pair of runs across in the bottom of the first, and Nick Atohi and Kyle Gerace made that lead stand up as Mainland held off Vineland 2-0 on Friday afternoon.