Wednesday, June 1, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Brian Criscione sliding home with the winning run as Paramus used a short sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth inning to post a 2-1 win over Ramapo and earn a spot in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional final.

PARAMUS – With one out and runners on the corners in a tie game late inTuesday’s North 1, Group 3 state sectional semifinal, the wheels were turning. While Paramus head coach Joe Cervino was busy going over all of the possibilities with Brian Criscione, the potential game-winning who was standing on third base, the Ramapo brain trust of head coach Mickey Hunt and assistants Joe Spafford and Garrison Ward were throwing around ideas and there were plenty of options.

The Green Raiders could have brought the entire infield up in a do-or-die attempt to choke off the winning run or leave it back in the hopes of turning a double play or rolled up the corners and let the middle play for two. There was even the thought of issuing an intentional walk to Joe Szorentini in order to load the bases and set up a force at every base.

But what wound up happening is what makes baseball a crazy game and one that is impossible to predict. No amount of pre-pitch strategy could have foreseen a twisting pop-fly hit by Joe Szorentini that wound its way into foul territory just shallow enough to keep the rightfielder out of the play and no so deep that it precluded first baseman Rob Lerch from making a run at it in search of the second out. To make the play, Lerch had to turn his back to home plate and, after the sprawling catch, he was in no position to make a strong throw to the plate.

Ramapo starter TJ Hunt went the distance and allowed just six hits without walking a batter.

Criscione read the play like a “How to Score the Winning Run” manual, got back to third base in time to tag up and then slid across home plate by a comfortable margin. A sacrifice fly to first base that travelled barely 100 feet in the air in the bottom of the sixth inning proved to be the unlikely difference maker in Paramus’ 2-1 win.

The Spartans are now on their way to Friday’s section final against Montville while Ramapo season came to a screeching halt.

“The infield was in so coach (Joe Cervino) told me that if it was a dribbler I was going off the bat and if it was a flyball somewhere I was waiting on him,” said Criscione, who was dealt the latter circumstance. “When he popped it up foul at first I was like, ‘Oh [darn], that is not going to work.’ But when coach saw [Lerch] turn his back , he was like Go! Go! Go! As I was about to slide I saw the catcher just kind of throw his arm out and right then I knew I was going to make it.”

Cervino, Paramus’ longtime skipper who has announced that this will be his last season, has seen just about everything in his tenure in the third base coach’s box, but a sacrifice fly to the first baseman that won a state tournament game?

Paramus' Frank Colasante went the distance on a five-hitter to win the pitcher's duel.

“I don’t remember if I’ve ever seen that. Probably not,” said Cervino. “But Criscione is the second fastest player on the team and as soon as he came back [to the base] I told him that if the first baseman catches it going away [from home plate] you are going.”

While that plays stands out as the game-winner, it was the work of the two starting pitchers and the respective defenses that kept the error free game close enough for one whacky sequence to decide the outcome.

Paramus starter Frank Colasante ran into and then danced out of trouble right at the start. The first three Ramapo hitters – Nick Madormo, Justin Gartner and John Gandolfo – all reached safely and succession in the top of the first inning courtesy of two base hits and a walk. But a fielder’s choice on which Paramus third baseman Nick Henriquez cut down the lead runner at the plate, and two pop-ups got Colasante out of the jam unscathed and he settled in big time after that.

“That was a momentum shifter right there. I knew Ramapo was going to come out swinging, but I got behind in the count in that first inning before I found my control,” said Colasante. We knew that they were going to try to jump on first pitches, so we knew that we had to throw off-seed early in the count not just late in the count looking for strikeouts.”

Colasante’s approach was a good one as, after allowing two hits in the first inning, he gave up just three more the rest of the way and allowed just one walk over the final six innings of his complete game gem. He also used the deep dimensions of his home ballpark to his advantage as 10 of the 21 outs he recorded fell into the gloves of his outfielders He also forced three pop-ups and struck out two.

John Gandolfo had a double and drive in the lone run for Ramapo, which finished the season with a 21-6 record.

Ramapo starter TJ Hunt was just as sharp and all three runs scored in the game were the result of offensive execution rather than pitcher error.

Paramus took the lead in the bottom of the third when Colasante, batting in the No. 9 hole, led off with a solid single to center. A well-placed sacrifice bunt by Tyler Garguilo moved the runner into scoring position and Criscione then followed with a into leftfield. It would have been interesting to see if Cervino would have sent the runner regardless or if there would have been a play at the play, but those became moot when the ball took a wicked hop that leftfielder Andrew Boylan did well just to get a glove on. The run scored without a throw and Colasante made the 1-0 lead stand up into the top of the fifth when Ramapo found a way to get even.

Madormo drew a one-out walk and Gartner smacked a 3-2 pitch into right field to put runners on the corners. Gandolfo also ran the count full before delivering a sacrifice fly to rightfield that scored Madormo with the tying run.

TJ Hunt (6 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 6 H, 2 K, 0 BB) worked a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fifth, Colasante (7 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 H, 2 K, BB) worked around a one-out double by Chris Liquori in the top of the sixth and Paramus made the most of its opportunity in the bottom of the inning to take the lead for good.

Joe Szorentini hitting the pop fly that turned into the sac fly that put Paramus into the section final.

Colasante retired the side in order in the seventh, nabbing the final out himself on a comebacker, and gave his head coach at least one more game in the dugout.

“Every game I am looking at now as possibly my last so I am just hoping that we can take it as far as we can,” said Cervino. “This is a great group of kids and they have battled all year. We had a tough county tournament, we came right back to win the league title against Ridgewood and we are still alive now. I just hope that things work out.”

Things didn’t quite work out the way Ramapo (21-6) was hoping. Three days ago the Raiders were alive in tow tournament, but woke of on Wednesday morning with no games left to play. It was a tough finish to an otherwise stellar season led by a solid class of 10 seniors, including TJ Hunt, the coach’s son.

“It’s tough because we just want to keep playing. It’s a tough way to lose on a bad hop single that almost went over Boylan’s head and a sacrifice ply in foul territory just off of first base, but that is baseball,” said Mickey Hunt, who just finished his 10th season as Ramapo’s head coach. “I am finding it tough because this is a special group for me. This is TJ’s group and I have known most of these seniors since they were little kids. But they’ll get up tomorrow and go on to do great things.”

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