Lakewood

The Lakewood BlueClaws scored at least once in each of the first four innings last night on their way to a 9-0 rout of the Kannapolis Intimidators to win the best-of-three South Atlantic League Northern Division series, two games to none. On Monday, Lakewood will host the winner of the Southern Division Championship Series between Asheville and Greenville. Postponements. The Reading Phillies' Eastern League playoff game against Akron was rained out and will be made up at 7:05 tonight at FirstEnergy Stadium in Reading.

RICHMOND, Va. - Wilson Betemit went 2 for 3 with two runs scored and four RBIs as the Richmond Braves beat the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, 6-1, in the International League last night. Lake County 5, Lakewood 0 LAKEWOOD, N.J. - Keith Ramsey (11-4) struck out eight in seven innings and did not allow a hit as the Captains won in the South Atlantic League. Dan Eisentrager continued the shutout for the final two innings. Trenton. The Thunder's Eastern League game against visiting Harrisburg was suspended by rain with Trenton leading, 5-0, in the bottom of the fourth.

When the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 3 championship goes on the line at 1 p.m. Saturday, two very similar teams will compete: Two teams who never have been in the playoffs before, much less a final. Two teams that win or lose almost exclusively with defense. Two schools that have not had much to cheer about in football in more than a decade. When Lakewood visits Bridgeton on Saturday, each team will be looking into a mirror. BACKGROUND Lakewood, coached by George Biessette, was seeded No. 2 in Group 3 after reaching the cutoff date with a 6-2 record in the Shore Conference.

Timely hitting carried the Reading Phillies past the Akron Aeros, 6-3, in the Eastern League last night. Michael Bourn hit a two-run double to tie the score, 2-2, in the fifth and ripped an RBI single to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead in the seventh. Bourn, Ryan Fleming, Chris Roberson and Trent Pratt each had three hits for Reading. Lakewood 1, Hickory 0 HICKORY, N.C. - Andy Baldwin allowed four hits in eight innings to lead the BlueClaws to the South Atlantic League win. Josh Mader singled in the game's only run. Trenton 5, N. Hampshire 3 MANCHESTER, N.H.- Back-to-back homers by Eric Duncan and Omir Santos in the fifth started Trenton's Eastern League win. Reading 000020202 -6130 Akron 010100010 -3111 WP: Davis (9-6)

Aaron Altherr could have gone one of two ways when the Phillies demoted the outfielder demoted from low single-A Lakewood to Williamsport last year. The 21-year-old Altherr was the Phillies' ninth-round selection of the 2009 draft. He spent 2010 in the Gulf Coast League and with Williamsport. Last season he began in Lakewood, hit .211 in 41 games, and was sent down to Williamsport, where he batted .260 with 25 stolen bases. Now he's back at Lakewood and entered the weekend hitting .274 with two home runs and 14 RBIs.

The Lakewood BlueClaws are one win away from the South Atlantic League championship after blanking the Greenville Drive, 3-0, last night to take a two-games-to-none lead in the best-of-five series. Jesus Sanchez scattered three hits over six innings before relievers Austin Hyatt and Santo Hernandez completed the seven-hit shutout. Troy Hanzawa's RBI double broke up a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth to put Lakewood ahead. Harold Garcia's RBI single gave Lakewood an insurance run in the sixth.

PORTLAND, Maine - Reegie Corona's RBI single in the top of the fourth became the winning run last night in 7-3 victory by the Trenton Thunder over the Portland Sea Dogs. Austin Jackson was 2 for 3 with a pair of RBIs and a double in the seven-inning contest of what was to be the first of a doubleheader. However, rain caused the second game to be canceled, and it will be made up this afternoon. Lakewood 14, Greensboro 5 GREENSBORO, N.C. - The BlueClaws erupted for six runs in each of the first two innings to beat the Grasshoppers in the South Atlantic League.

ALLENTOWN - Juan Francisco homered and drove in four runs to lead the Louisville Bats past the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, 8-7, in the International League on Monday. Lehigh Valley's Vance Worley struck out seven in six innings and gave up only three runs but did not figure in the decision. IronPigs catcher Erik Kratz, who grew up in Telford, was 3 for 3 with two doubles and three RBIs. Elsewhere: Ervis Manzanillo struck out six in 52/3 innings to lead Lakewood past Hagerstown, 3-1, in the South Atlantic League.

LAKEWOOD, N.J. - Brad Lidge, the Phillies' closer sidelined all season by elbow and shoulder problems, allowed two singles but no runs in one inning in his first rehab appearance with the Class A Lakewood BlueClaws. Lidge, who pitched the first inning against Hagerstown, threw 15 pitches, nine for strikes. "That actually felt really good to get out there and the first time pitching in real competition since the postseason last year," he said. "I was definitely pleased by the results.

It's a long way to Philadelphia from Lakewood, N.J., if your chosen career is professional baseball. You cannot simply make the 70-mile drive from FirstEnergy Park to Citizens Bank Park because, for most players, there are stops in Clearwater, Reading and Allentown in between. That said, first-year manager Mark Parent's single-A Lakewood roster is filled with legitimate big-league prospects. "If you count pitchers and position players, I'd say we have seven or eight," Parent said.

Aaron Altherr could have gone one of two ways when the Phillies demoted the outfielder demoted from low single-A Lakewood to Williamsport last year. The 21-year-old Altherr was the Phillies' ninth-round selection of the 2009 draft. He spent 2010 in the Gulf Coast League and with Williamsport. Last season he began in Lakewood, hit .211 in 41 games, and was sent down to Williamsport, where he batted .260 with 25 stolen bases. Now he's back at Lakewood and entered the weekend hitting .274 with two home runs and 14 RBIs.

It appears as if the Phillies' patience with Tyson Gillies may finally be paying off. The most important statistic this season for the centerfielder acquired in the 2009 trade that sent Cliff Lee to Seattle is games played, and that number stood at 23 going into the weekend. Gillies, because of a variety of injuries, played in only 31 games over the last two seasons, including three last year, when he was sidelined by hamstring and foot injuries. "If I would have set a goal for him in the spring, it would have been for him to hit .270 or .275 in April and that he would play the entire month," said Joe Jordan, the Phillies' first-year director of player development.

Mike Fontenot is glad to be back in baseball, albeit at the triple-A level with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. Fontenot, who played parts of six seasons in the majors, was released by the San Francisco Giants at the end of the exhibition season. He signed a minor-league contract with the Phillies on April 13 and joined the IronPigs on Monday after spending time in Clearwater at extended spring training. Last season he played shortstop, second base, and third base for the Giants and batted .227 with a .304 on-base percentage in 220 at bats.

David Buchanan made only six starts at single-A Clearwater last season after being promoted from Lakewood on Aug. 1. His performance with the Threshers and during spring training last month convinced the Phillies' player development department that the 22-year-old righthander was ready to pitch at double-A Reading. "We wanted to push him and we felt he had the pitches to be able to handle that level," said Benny Looper, the Phillies' assistant general manager in charge of player personnel.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Sometimes you look at the big-league lineup for a Grapefruit League road trip and you wonder if there's a better story right here at home. Sometimes you get it all wrong and it still turns out all right. John Mayberry Jr. and Hunter Pence were the only two regulars in the lineup for the Phillies' exhibition game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at McKechnie Field in Bradenton on Friday, so I decided to stay behind and watch Jim Thome play first base for the second time in a minor-league game at the Carpenter Complex.

Two men were killed and four injured in a multicar crash in Ocean County, police said Sunday. Lakewood police said Enrique Bravo-SantaMaria, 20, of Lakewood was westbound on Cedar Bridge Avenue when he lost control of his vehicle around 3 p.m. Saturday. The car went into the oncoming lane and collided with two other vehicles, and another car whose driver went off the road to avoid them struck several small trees. Bravo-SantaMaria and his 19-year-old passenger, Giancarlo Miranda of Brick, were killed in the crash, police said.

LAKEWOOD, N.J. - The young police officer eased his cruiser down the street on the afternoon of Jan. 14, 2011, rolling up alongside a younger man to whom he wanted to speak about something. It was, as a friend of the officer would later recall, "the intersection of good and evil. " Within moments, Patrolman Christopher Matlosz was mortally wounded, shot three times at close range. Just over 38 hours later, a SWAT team arrested 19-year-old Jahmell Crockam in the bedroom of a Camden apartment to which authorities say he fled after the killing.

NEW JERSEY 40 years for slaying Jamil Parson, 28, a homeless man who fatally shot a Lakewood teenager and wounded the teen's cousin in December 2009, has been sentenced to 40 years in state prison after pleading guilty in Ocean County. The shooting victims, Luis Enrique Garcia, 17, of Lakewood, and his cousin Fernando Reyes, 16, were walking home from a convenience store when Parson forced them into a wooded area, authorities said. Parson forced the pair to the ground before shooting them, although Parson claimed that Reyes was shot when he tried to grab the gun. Prosecutors said that Parson and conspirators were involved in a dispute with the teens that led to the shooting, but no details were disclosed.

LAKEWOOD, N.J. - Thanksgiving will be just another day on the road for many school bus drivers in one South Jersey town. Lakewood in Ocean County is asking scores of drivers to work in order to transport about 18,000 Orthodox Jewish students to and from their private schools in the township. State law requires public school districts to pay for transportation to private-school students every Monday through Friday from September through June. In most places, private schools are closed on major holidays.