PHILADELPHIA -- At first, Jon Burks looked like a lost puppy traversing through the massive confines of Veterans Stadium, unsure of where he was or where he was supposed to go.

"I dunno," the Cumberland Regional sophomore center fielder said, as he tried to find his 2002 Tri-Cape Carpenter Cup teammates. "They just told me to go to the 300 level, or something."

Buena Regional's Damon Brown, Vince Cifaloglio and Kevin Gunter, also on the Tri-Cape roster, arrived together two hours prior to their scheduled 8 p.m. first-round game against Delaware County (Pa.) in the annual single-elimination, all-star tournament.

But once they all found their teammates, it was like being at home, despite not having practiced together as a team.

"Well, let's see. When I think about it, I've played with the two Woodstown kids (Ben Treadway and Vinnie Bowe); I played with the other guys from Buena; and I played on my summer-league team with two other guys here," said Gunter, who posted a 9-1 record and 0.77 ERA as a pitcher for the Chiefs. "So, I already know a lot of the other guys here."

Burks knew few Tri-Capers, but he was confident enough to predict a win for the team, which ranks fourth all-time in Carpenter Cup wins with 19, but still is seeking its first title in the 16-team tournament. The Olympic-Colonial team, a South Jersey rival, leads the way with five championships, the most recent coming in 1997.

Monday night's Tri-Cape-Delco game, which was delayed by rain and ended too late for this edition, hardly was about winning or losing. It was about playing on a major-league field, complete with scouts eyeing their every move from the press box high above.

"Vincente Padilla pitched on that mound, Randy Johnson pitched on that mound, and now I'm going to have a chance to pitch on that mound," said Gunter, who participated in an invitation-only Phillies' system tryout earlier this month at the Vet.

"I'm just soaking it in," Brown said. "I've never played on this turf, either. I'll probably be playing at the wall for second base. But I'm just trying to take it all in ... this packed house. I love playing in front of so many people."

"Or seats," Cifaloglio joked, noticing the abundance of empty blue chairs -- not unlike a regular-season Phillies' game.

St. Augustine Prep's Todd Davison played in the tournament as a junior last year, with the Tri-Cape team going 1-1. He said the experience was memorable.

"You've got a chance to play with better players than in the regular season, and it gives you a chance to get noticed if you're younger," said Davison, a University of Delaware-bound shortstop.

·  Davison put together a stellar season for the Parochial A South finalist Hermits, batting .475 with 34 runs, 38 hits and just three strikeouts in 80 at-bats.

·  Burks hit eight home runs, good for third in South Jersey, and batted .420.

·  Brown, bound for George Washington University, had a 30-30-30 season (38 runs, 36 hits, 32 walks), while batting .400.

·  The Widener-bound Cifaloglio had one of the area's most prolific offensive seasons, batting .511 with 10 home runs, nine doubles and 40 RBI. He also had 46 hits, the same as teammate Tim Edmeads.

·  Edmeads, a junior, made the Tri-Cape roster after batting .455 with 32 runs, 35 RBI and 11 doubles. He also possesses one of the area's best arms in left field.

"I'll just be thankful if I get to play. I doubt I'll hit a home run, though," said Edmeads, who already has displayed enough power to knock balls out of the Vet, with dimensions of 330 feet down the lines, 371 to the power alleys and 408 to dead center field.

·  Millville's Jon Andres rounded out the Tri-Cape's area representatives. A Lehigh-bound second baseman, he hit .375 with 19 stolen bases and 26 runs scored.

"It's a great honor to be selected," said Tri-Cape manager Joe DiPatri, the head coach at Penns Grove High. "Everyone here was very deserving. In fact, there were some deserving kids left off."

A prime example could be Davison's St. Augustine teammate Matt Molnar, who hit .467 with 34 RBI and five home runs. A junior, he struck out just twice in 92 at-bats.

DiPatri made no apologies for his roster. It contained five current or former all-state performers, including Gunter, Edmeads, Cifaloglio, Davison and Gloucester Catholic first baseman Kyle Davis.

"To play on a major-league field ... with the much bigger surroundings, the turf, it obviously makes for a much bigger game," DiPatri said.

"A once-in-a-lifetime experience," Burks said.

But that's what the boys got -- two extra hours of soaking up rays on the bleachers, courtesy of the longest game in Carpenter Cup history. Tri-Cape's game, originally scheduled for 1 p.m., didn't start until 3:40 because Ocean-Monmouth needed 18 innings to defeat Lehigh Valley, last year's Cup champions.

And when Tri-Cape took the field, those lackadaisical hours took their toll. As if the heat woes weren't bad enough -- it was 138 degrees on the NexTurf infield, and two Ocean-Monmouth players and the home-plate umpire were taken off the field in the previous game -- Tri-Cape's defensive woes were tough to stomach for the second game in a row.

After committing four errors Monday in the first round, it added five more against Suburban I and lost, 3-2, in a game shortened to seven innings because of the length of the earlier game.

For the second consecutive year, Tri-Cape goes home two games into the single elimination tournament.

"There's not as much chemistry as on our regular teams," said Millville's Jon Andres, a second baseman who played out of position at third base during the tournament.

Andres made a diving stop in Monday's game, but was guilty of a throwing error in the third inning Wednesday. "Maybe we were a little nervous with the surroundings," he added.

Suburban I struck first, notching two runs in the top of the third thanks to two Tri-Cape throwing errors and an RBI single by Paul Gallo. An inning earlier, Suburban I's Greg Nugent and Marco Tenaglia both rattled Tri-Cape starter Ricky Franceschi for ground-rule doubles. Justin Werline added a single, but no one scored. Franceschi picked off Nugent at third base, and Richard Prall struck out swinging with runners on second and third.

Buena Regional's Tim Edmeads tied the game in the third with a triple down the right-field line, scoring Nick Faragasso from third.

"It was a curve ball low and inside," Edmeads said. "I usually don't hit that ball well, but this time, I got my bat on it."

Suburban I answered with another run its next time up off Tri-Cape reliever Kevin Gunter, a Buena grad who said he is attending Gloucester County College, but has not ruled out attending Monmouth University.

After striking out Tenaglia and Prall to open the inning, Tri-Cape third baseman Adam Slusher fielded a John Breslin grounder going to his left, but threw wide of first baseman Rick Amos. After going to second on Enrique Arroyo's single, Breslin scored on another ground-rule double, this time by Jacob Iampietro.

"I don't know where (those errors) came from," Tri-Cape coach Joe DiPatri said. "You're not going to win many one-run ballgames when you commit five errors."

Local players did have some highlights. Buena's Damon Brown led off the game with a single up the middle, and Andres added a single in the third. Buena's Vince Cifaloglio and Cumberland Regional's Jon Burks each went 0-for-1.

St. Augustine Prep's Todd Davison, the starting shortstop in the first-round game, did not play because of a prior commitment with a summer-league college team in Maryland. He was available until 4 p.m.

Suburban I National 3, Tri-Cape 2