Saturday,
May 30, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Jake Leara was 3-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored for Emerson, which won the North 1, Group 1 state sectional title with an 11-1 win over Hawthorned on Friday afternoon. |
EMERSON – Pat Dunn’s looping single into shallow centerfield with two outs in the third inning was Emerson’s sixth hit of the game. It drove in two runs and opened a six-run lead for the Cavos. It was also the first time that a ball struck by an Emerson hitter landed safely in the outfield. The Cavos opened a comfortable lead with five infield hits in the first three innings including four bunts singles with three of those coming from the No. 2, 3 and 5 hitters in the bottom of the third.
Emerson’s mini attack was too much for Hawthorne in an 11-1, six-inning victory in the North 1, Group 1 state sectional final on Friday afternoon. The Cavos will play North 2 champion Ridgefield in the Group 1 semifinals on Tuesday with a trip to Toms River awaiting the winner.
“Our assistant coach Joe Palombit has been working with all the hitter, one through nine, on bunting and if we see an opportunity we are going to take it. It doesn’t matter who is up,” said Emerson head coach Chris Sommerhalter. “We are now a Major League baseball team. We are a Group 1 baseball team, so we are going to do whatever we can to get a win.”
Emerson’s first hit was an infield single courtesy of Jake Leara’s hustle. The junior left-handed batter pulled a shot down the first base line where it was fielded well behind the bag by Calvin Graham and the race was one. With the pitcher late to get over, Graham and Leara arrived at just about the same time. The tie went to the runner and it opened the door to a two-run second inning with two errors and a sacrifice fly by Anthony Scazzafava giving the Cavos the 2-0 lead.
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Ryan Vanderwerf racing home with the Hawthorne run in the fourth. |
Anthony Laureano reached on an error leading off the third and then the bunting began in earnest. Chris Nedilsky laid down a sacrifice turned base hit, Jon Juri did the same and Matt Durocher made it 3-0 with a sacrifice fly. Leara then laid down a suicide squeeze and, two batters later, Dunn dunked in the two-run single that made it 6-0 after three.
“There was that one inning where we had three bunts in a row right down the line. We have been practicing that a lot and we did all of the little things right today,” said Nedilsky, the senior centerfielder who finished 3-for-4 with a double, three runs scored and an RBI. “We didn’t hit any home runs today, no triples, there wasn’t a lot of power there, but there was small ball and that is the way we did it.”
Emerson also did it with a solid performance on the mound by senior right-hander Mike Callagee. A perfect 9-0 coming into the game and just named first team All-Bergen County, Callagee was in control from start to finish. He gave up just four hits and two walks while striking out seven in the six inning complete game and is now 10-0 on the season.
“I just try to stay calm and keep my team in it. That is all I am trying to do every time I go out there,” said Callagee, who retired the final 11 hitters he faced. “I used my fastball a lot because I was really able to locate it today. My curveball helped me keep hitters off balance and on 0-2 or 1-2 [counts] my slider really helped me get outs.”
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Emerson starter Mike Callagee improved to 10-0 with his complete game four-hitter. |
Hawthorne’s lone run came in the top of the fourth inning when Graham’s one-out double, the Bears’ lone extra base hit in the game, moved Ryan Vanderwerf to third from where he scored on a wild pitch.
Emerson responded with three in the fourth with Nedilsky, Durocher and Leara all knocking in runs and the Cavos closed out the festivities in the sixth when Nedilsky doubled, Juri was hit by a pitch and Durocher’s bad-hop single drive in the run that made it 10-1. Leara was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Scazzafava, facing a drawn in infield, chopped one through into centerfield to reach the 10-run spread.
Laureano (1-for-4, 2 R), Nedilsky, Juri (1-for-2, 3 R, 2 HBP), Durocher (1-for-3, 3 RBI), Leara (3-for-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, SB) and Dunn (1-for-2, 3 RBI) accounted for all of the offense for Emerson, which improved to 24-6 on the season.
Emerson is a traditional small school powerhouse, a proud program that has been led by two Bergen County coaching legends in Larry Ennis and then, until last year, Bob Carcich, who won seven state sectional titles in his tenure that included over 500 career victories. Carcich’s first state sectional title came in 1991 in a win against Hawthorne.
Twenty-four years later, Sommerhalter, who played for and coached under Carcich, his first (in his first try) came against Hawthorne on Friday. There were some big shoes to fill for Sommerhalter, who seems to be doing just fine in his first season as the Cavos’ skipper.
“Bob Carcich is the man. He is my mentor, he was my coach and he taught me everything I know about baseball. He’s the best, there is nobody better than him,” said Sommerhalter, who does have a better all-time winning percentage in the regular season, in the state playoffs and now in state sectional finals then the man he replaced (just sayin’). “I was not expecting [11-1], no one ever would. Playing for a championship you expect a tight game. That is a very good [Hawthorne] baseball team and hats off to them, they did a great job making it this far and I know that that is not easy to do.”
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