DeBellis mashed a triple and a homer that led to both of Pope John's first two runs in an impressive 4-2 victory over Voorhees in one of Saturday's Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex semifinal contests at Lions Pride Park in Sparta.
Pope John (15-2), ranked No. 1 in West Jersey by Open Mike, advances to its first-ever county final and will face No. 4 Hunterdon Central (16-4) for the championship 7:30 p.m. next Saturday at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
"This is a great win," said Pope John coach Vin Bello. "It's a pleasure to be around this team. They're a great group and they want to win, and hopefully make (school) history."
Red-hot Central, the 2010 champion which has won 11 straight, advanced with a 14-3 drubbing of No. 2 Hackettstown (15-1) in the other semifinal.
"We played our hearts out today," said DeBellis, the University of Connecticut recruit and Pope John's all-time hits leader who struck out three times in last year's loss. "We really want to win the county championship and hopefully state for Coach Bello. Last year (a 6-1 loss to Voorhees in the first round) felt horrible. It fired us up."
The game featured a pair of aces in starters Sean Keselica of Voorhees and Brendan Mayers of Pope John -- two Division I recruits.
Keselica, a lefty headed to Virginia Tech, held Pope John to only three hits in last year's contest and had won all of his previous seven starts this season for No. 3 Voorhees (13-2), which had won six straight coming into this one. Keselica finished with 11 strikeouts and belted a two-run homer to give the Vikings an early 2-1 lead, but DeBellis got the better of him -- crushing first-pitch fastballs on both of his hits.
The homer, a screamer to the right-center-field fence, knotted the game at 2 in the bottom of the fourth. Keselica, who struck out no fewer than nine in his seven starts, had retired six straight, five via strikeouts, to that point. DeBellis, who scored on Matt Tietz's RBI single after lacing a two-out triple in the first, said he wanted to be aggressive early so he didn't fall behind in counts.
"(Keselica) is a great pitcher," said DeBellis, who walked in his only other at-bat. "I wasn't really nervous (after the Lions fell behind 2-1). I knew we would get to (Keselica) and we're always confident we can win with (Mayers) on the mound."
The Rutgers-bound Mayers brought his A-game on the mound and also helped himself by scoring the eventual winning run following DeBellis' homer. Mayers singled with one out, stole second after nearly being picked off first and advanced to third on a wild pitch. After Nick D'Alessio popped out to second base, Keselica uncorked another wild pitch and Mayers came racing home to give Pope John a 3-2 lead.
"I'm not upset about the way Sean pitched," said veteran Voorhees coach Spark Mattson. "We called a fastball (on DeBellis' homer), especially after the (triple) and our catcher (Josh Hausler) called middle-out. These things come back to bite you."
On the mound, Mayers allowed six hits and struck out seven with one walk in seven strong frames. The right-hander felt good about his stuff and just wanted his team to give him the lead back after surrendering a two-run homer to Keselica in the third that erased the Lions' early 1-0 lead.
"That one pitch was a mistake and I learned not to throw my secondary pitch (a changeup) to a hitter who's going to whack it," said Mayers, who improved to 7-0 on the season and 14-1 over the last two years. "I believe I can beat anybody on any given day. They beat us last year, but they faced me this time."
Pope John tacked on its final run in the sixth. Mayers drew a leadoff walk and courtesy runner Jeff Whitmeyer advanced to third when D'Alessio's grounder to second -- the only groundball Keselica allowed -- was misplayed. Mike Liegel brought Whitmeyer home with a sacrifice fly to center.
In the top of the seventh, Voorhees had one last shot when Mayers allowed a one-out single to No. 9 hitter Matt Bonavita, who had two of the Vikes' six hits. That brought Keselica to the plate as the potential tying run, but Mayers came back down 3-1 in the count to fan the Vikes' leadoff man for the third time in four trips to the plate. Fittingly, Mayers then fielded Tyler Duplaga's bouncer to the mound and exclaimed "yes," before applying the tag to end the game.
"It's always great to beat a good pitcher like (Keselica), but we've got a Division I pitcher, too," Bello said. "This was a battle of great players and I was glad to be a part of it."
Mattson lamented over some costly miscues that played big in a tight game. The Vikings also left six men on base.
"The third run they scored we had the wrong kid covering (second) on a pickoff and then a double-play ball and second baseman had a rough time," said Mattson, who also saw DeBellis' sure single turn to a triple when the ball skidded off the turf and away from right fielder Bryan Konsig.
"We're pretty much a team that has to play perfect ball against that caliber of team. You can't give them these little mistakes. In games like this, that's what it comes down to. (Mayers) is a good pitcher and you have to manufacture runs. They won today."
Voorhees (13-2) 002 000 0 -- 2 6 1
Pope John (15-2) 100 201 x -- 4 5 1
VOORHEES (ab-r-h-rbi) -- Keselica, p, 4-1-1-2, Duplaga, 3b, 4-0-1-0, Hawke, ss, 3-0-1-0, Hausler, c, 2-0-0-0/Marini, cr, 0-0-0-0, T. Conroy, 2b, 3-0-1-0, Konsig, rf, 3-0-0-0, Palmer, lf, 3-0-0-0, Bonavita, cf, 3-1-2-0. Totals: 28-2-6-2.
POPE JOHN (ab-r-h-rbi) -- Ackerman, cf, 3-0-1-0, McNally, rf, 2-0-0-0, DeBellis, c, 2-2-2-1, Tietz, ss, 3-0-1-1, Mayers, p, 2-1-1-0/Whitmeyer, cr, 0-1-0-0, D'Alessio, dh, 3-0-0-0/Redwood, lf-pr, 0-0-0-0, Liegel, 2b, 2-0-0-1, McGlynn, 1b, 2-0-0-0/Salazzo, ph, 1-0-0-0, Gavan, 3b, 2-0-0-0. Totals: 22-4-5-3.
E -- T. Conroy; Liegel. LOB -- Voorhees 6, Pope John 4. 3B -- DeBellis. HR -- Keselica; DeBellis. SF -- Liegel. SB -- Tietz, Mayers, Ackerman. CS -- Redwood.
Keselica and Hausler. Mayers and DeBellis. W -- Mayers (7-0). L -- Keselica (7-1). SO-BB -- Keselica 11-3; Mayers 7-1. WP -- Keselica 3.
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