Sunday, June 8, 2008

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Don Bosco Prep celebrating its 33rd win of the season, a 5-4 victory over CBA in the Non-Public A state final at Toms River North High School.

TOMS RIVER – Thirty-two and one just doesn’t have the right ring to it. Despite the fact that it had already won its third straight Bergen County baseball championship and avenged its loss from a year earlier to Seton Hall Prep in the Non-Public North A state sectional final earlier in the week, nothing short of 33-0 was going to make Don Bosco Prep’s baseball season fully complete.

The Ironmen showed throughout the course of the season that they could win blowout games against lesser opponents and in the last week they did themselves one better. Bosco proved that it could win the close games against good teams that would have liked nothing better than to have put a dent in one of the best seasons in the history of high school baseball in the state of New Jersey.

Bosco rebounded from a five-run deficit against rival St. Joseph last Sunday in the Bergen County final, gutted out a one-run win over Seton Hall Prep in the section final earlier in the week and put the cherry on top of its perfect season on Saturday with a 5-4 win over Christian Brothers Academy in the Non-Public A state final at Toms River North High School.

CBA starter Pat Light kept his team in the game through his four innings of work.

With 33 straight wins and its season complete, Bosco has now won more games than any other undefeated team in the history of New Jersey and it went through the NNJIL schedule, a tough independent schedule, a county tournament and a full state tournament in the toughest bracket without a loss. Could there be any other title for this year Ironmen other than the state’s best team ever?

“I personally feel that way but that is for others to make those evaluations and judgments,” said Don Bosco head coach Greg Butler. “What I do know is that when that discussion comes about who is the best ever to play in New Jersey I know we will be part of that conversation some way, some how.”

To finish what it started, Bosco had to overcome a CBA (20-9) team that was playing its best baseball down the stretch of the season and jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the after one-and-a-half innings. The Colts got a first inning two-out home run from Dan Avella to opening the scoring and Zach Tannenbaum’s leadoff walk in the second inning started the carousel that had him advance two bases on two ground ball outs and score on a wild pitch.

But teams must play the perfect game to hold off Bosco for a full seven innings and the CBA defense let it down in the bottom of the second when two pop flys that could have been caught fell untouched for hits, one a leadoff double by Steve Proscia and the second an RBI single with the bases loaded by Ben Luderer. Only a runner’s interference call that took a run off the board kept the Ironmen from taking the lead in that frame, but they would with a three-run outburst in the fourth.

Eric Pfisterer went the final four innings to pick up the win for Bosco.

Proscia, who finished his three brilliant seasons at Don Bosco with a perfect 3-for-3 day at the plate that included two doubles, two runs scored and a stolen base, led off the fourth with a single, went to second on a groundout and scored on Bryan Struk’s infield single. Chris Picyk followed with a run scoring double that put Bosco up 3-2 and Sam Cerbo’s single knocked in Picyk to give DBP a 4-2 cushion.

Luderer, Picyk and Cerbo are the bottom three hitters in the Bosco lineup and showing just how deep the Ironmen are, the three combined to go 5-for-9 with three RBI and two runs scored in the state final.

“In the Bergen County Tournament [final] our seven, eight and nine hitters – Ben Luderer, me and Sam Cerbo – went 7-for-10. It just shows you what kind of lineup we have,” said Picyk, who had two hits, an RBI and a run scored. “Out goal since the beginning of the year was to win a Bergen County championship, a state championship and to have an undefeated season. We got it all and it was a total team effort.”

The pitching chores were also a team effort on a brutally hot day. Senior Mike Denhardt emptied his tank over the first three innings for Bosco and senior Eric Pfisterer took over to start the fourth. It was in the fifth inning that CBA made a bid to get back in the game when it used an error on a pickoff play and an RBI single by Stephen McSherry to draw even at 4.

John Himmelman about to make contaact for CBA.

But Pfisterer gave his team exactly what it need with the game still tied in the top of the sixth when he set down the Colts in order for the first and only time in the game when he struck out the side. That settled things down for the Ironmen, who took the lead for good in the bottom of the inning.

Luderer stroked a one-out single and his courtesy runner, Mike O’Keefe, went to third on Picyk’s single to right field. With runners on the corners, CBA tried for its own trick pickoff play, but the throw back to first base wound up in right field and O’Keefe scored the winning run.

Pfisterer walked pinch hitter Mike Hanlon leading off the top of the seventh and walked the next hitter, but got a pop-up, a strikeout and a ground ball to finish off the perfect season. Pfisterer, a left-hander, was selected by the Reds in the 15th round (449th overall) in the Major League Baseball draft on Thursday and Denhardt was taken in the 17th round (552 overall) by the Seattle Mariners.

“We had to ride our two horses, Denhardt and Pfisterer, our two draft picks. They came in on short rest but in the state final you ride the horses you came in on,” said Bosco pitching coach Frank Eufemia. “The whether was a factor, but they both battled. Michael [Denhardt] got out of the third inning with the bases loaded without allowing a run and Pfisterer struck out the side in the sixth when we really needed a clean inning. He gave it to us and then we went out and won the game.”

They did and it was the last game for 13 seniors on the Don Bosco Prep roster, including Proscia who has a scholarship waiting at the University of Virginia and was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 39th round.

“It was an unbelievable game. It went down to the last play, the last out and it was a great way to end a perfect season,” said Proscia, who played on an undefeated freshman team at St. Joseph before transferring to Bosco and blossoming into one of Bergen County’s best ever power hitters. “To start my high school career with an undefeated season as a freshman and then finish it with another as a senior is just unbelievable.”

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