April
15, 2007
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| Sophomore Rich Anastasi came in with two on and a 3-1 count on his first hitter, but came through with 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief that closed out St. Joseph's 10-7 win over Old Tappan. | |
OLD TAPPAN -- It is always intriguing to watch a baseball game between St. Joseph and Old Tappan late in the season. The teams have met in the Bergen County final three times in the last four seasons and are at or near the top of a short list of the county's most consistent winners. So when they have met up in late May the last few years, much has been on the line.
But this year, it is just as interesting to see these two programs early in the schedule as things are different. The players with the last links to the recent rivalry are now seniors, there are not too many of them left and both teams are in the similar situation of semi-rebuilding; of replenishing talent while still expecting to win.
“It is different for me,” said Tom LaStella, St. Joseph’s senior second baseman and a three-year starter. “When I first came up I had Brent [Weiss] here, I had [Steve] Caseres here, I had [Dave] Schwartz here, all three and four-year players. Even last year I wasn’t really the leader. We had Terrence Klein, so it is a little different with me being expected to take on a leadership role.”
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| Senior Luke Petrocelli allowed no runs and just two hits over four innings of relief for Old Tappan. |
It was LaStella who gave his team the lead for good. His two-run home run to the opposite field just three batters into the game spurred one of two five-run innings for St. Joseph, which held on for a 10-7 win in an independent matchup in Old Tappan on Saturday morning.
With one out in the top of the first inning, Rob Cervino reached on an error and it was an early turning point. Cervino scored on LaStella’s blast and the miscue extended the inning by what turned out to be five batters, three hard hit balls and three more unearned runs against Old Tappan starter Jonathan Scott. Scott also saw his pitch count elevate quickly and OT was forced to play catchup the rest of the way.
“Right from the get-go it was about damage control. With that lineup they are going to score runs, but you have to minimize the damage. You can’t give up five spots, and we did it twice,” said Old Tappan head coach Tim Byron. “We scored seven runs and that should be enough to win every time.”
St. Joe’s hit for the cycle as a team in that first inning when it sent nine hitters to the plate. LaStella had the home run and was followed by a Ryan Levine single, a Pat Kivlehan triple and a double by White that accounted for two runs. Dave Wood’s single capped the rally and put SJR up 5-0.
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| SJR sophomore Tyler Tucci went 4 2/3 innings and picked up his first ever varsity win. |
Old Tappan has just two everyday starters back from last year’s team, but both of them -- senior third baseman Rob Segedin (1 for 4, 2B, R, SB) and senior centerfielder Nick Pulsonetti (1 for 3, R, BB) -- were first team All-County selections and both are two of the best returning offensive players in North Jersey. Segedin hits third and Pulsonetti fourth to form the backbone of the lineup, but it is how the players around them do that will determine what kind of pitches they get to see.
One aspect of Old Tappan’s game that has not changed is its aggressiveness on the basepaths. Trailing by five early, Byron kept the wheels turning. He sent Pulsonetti from second base on a single by James Puglia (2 for 4, 2 RBI, 2 R, SB) in the bottom of the second inning and Pulsonetti just beat the play at the plate to score OT’s first run. Puglia then stole second and was in position to score on a single by Charlie Fallon, a platoon player last season who is now the starting shortstop. Fallon scored on an infield single by Matt MacLean with two outs to get the Knights to within 5-3.
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| James Puglia had two hits, knocked in two runs and scored twice hitting in the No. 5 spot for Old Tappan. |
But before Old Tappan could draw any closer, SJR put together another five-run inning in the top of the fourth. Back-to-back singles by White and Wood and a walk to Anthony Estevez, who was trying to give himself up with a sacrifice, loaded the bases with no outs.
Jake Fochetta then drove in a run with a single and Cervino, the last hitter Scott (3+ IP, 10 R, 6 ER, 9 H, 3K, 1 BB) faced, smacked a two-run double to the wall in centerfield to make it 8-3. On came senior Luke Petrocelli, who may have earned some more innings with his work out of the OT bullpen over the final four innings.
He traded a run for an out when LaStella lifted a sacrifice fly to make it 9-4, and gave up an RBI single to the second hitter he faced, Brendan Lobban, but gave up just one hit the rest of the way to give Old Tappan at least the opportunity to make a comeback.
OT got a single run back in the bottom of the fourth on a single by MacLean (2 for 4, 2 RBI, SB) that scored Max Blank, the courtesy runner for Tyler Gallo, and made a bid to get all the way back in the bottom of the fifth.
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| SJR senior Tom LaStella hit a first inning home run and made this leaping catch for the final out. |
But St. Joe’s bullpen was also up for to the task. After Segedin led off the fifth with a double and scored on Puglia’s single, Al Caravella singled to put runners on the corners, and Fallon (2 for 4, 2 RBI, R) squeezed home Puglia. That drew OT to within 10-6 and brought on SJR's Rich Anastasi in relief of fellow sophomore Tyler Tucci.
Anastasi walked the first batter he faced and then allowed an inherited runner to score when pinch hitter Matt Bischoff got down the Knights’ second successful suicide squeeze of the inning, but he allowed little else. Anastasi got a called strike three to end the fifth inning, gave up just a harmless two-out single in the sixth and worked a 1-2-3 seventh with LaStella making a leaping grab at second base, to rob Gallo of his third hit of the game for the final out.
Anastasi (2 2/3 IP, 0R, 1 H, 0 K, 0 BB), who picked up his first varsity win when he relieved Tucci in a tie game that SJR went on to win over Belleville, picked up his first varsity save. He also preserved Tucci’s first ever varsity win.
“Me and Tyler both know we have an opportunity and we want to take advantage of it. We talked about it before we came out here,” said Anastasi. “We both appeared in one game together before against Belleville and we had the same chance today and we got a win over a good team with two great hitters in the lineup.”
The tandem’s success has been just what SJR has needed in getting off to a 5-1 start.
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| Matt MacLean had two hits and drove in two runs for Old Tappan. |
“Right now we are hurting as a staff. My No. 1 (starter), Brendan Lobban, has had pneumonia and today was his first game back and Tim Norton, my No. 2, has a fever. So to get through a Tim Byron coached Old Tappan team with two sophomores on the mound is big for us,” said Salvano, whose teams have won seven league titles, three county titles and a state championship in the last nine years. “They had a chance to step and, against that lineup, both Tucci (4 1/3 IP, 7 ER, 10 H, 4 K, 2 BB), and especially Anastasi in relief, did a great job.”
Six games into the season, however, Old Tappan is far from throwing in the towel.
“Right now were are at the point where we are trying to find the right combinations,” said Byron. “But I think once we get 8, 10 games in, we are going to be a better team. When we get the feel of it, we will be a much better team as we go.”
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