Saturday, June 4, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Freshman Connor Walsh squeezed home a run and hit a three-run homer on this swing in the seventh inning as Waldwick won a sectional title for the first time since 1988 with a 7-3 win over defending champion Emerson.

EMERSON – Before the Waldwick baseball team got on the bus to head for Emerson High School of Friday’s North 1, Group 1 state sectional final, it got a reminder of what it was about to play for when the last championship trophy was brought out of the case it had been sitting in 23 years. The year etched on it was 1988.

“It was brought out to us by our principal Kevin Carroll before we left on the bus and it got a little emotional in the gym before we left because it has been such a long time,” said Waldwick head coach Frank Clark. “At a Group 1 school it is a little bit like Hoosiers. There is that small town feel and the whole town is behind us. I asked the kids who is going to be our Jimmy Chitwood today?”

The answer to that question, as if out of a movie script, was Connor Walsh. Walsh, a freshman who missed the better part of three weeks earlier this season with a concussion and who got a quick instructional session in the cage on Thursday aimed at getting his bat into the hitting zone a little faster.

All Walsh did while batting out of the No. 8 hole in the lineup was get down a suicide squeeze that gave Waldwick the lead for good in the top of the fifth and then he put the game away with a line drive home run to centerfield, a three-run shot that sealed Waldwick’s 7-3 victory that lifted the Warriors into the Group 1 state semifinals on Tuesday against North 2 champion Roselle Park at Ramapo College.

David Palladino accounted for all three of Emerson's runs with this swing, a three-run blast in the third.

With his team leading by a slim 4-3 margin and after Ryan Biango and John Simeone drew back-to-back one-out walks in front of him in the top of the seventh inning, Walsh got ahead in the count before drilling a 2-1 pitch just toward the gap in left centerfield. The fence in that part of the park has two levels. Straight away centerfield has a fence with two levels that climb a combined eight feet. Just to the left it drops to a four-foot wall and almost where the two meet was where Walsh’s shot went out. A foot to the right and it would have banged off the wall, but as it was Walsh rounded the bases before being mobbed at the plate by his teammates.

“It was a good pitch. I like the ball low and in and I got it and it went over. It was a great feeling,” said Walsh, Waldwick’s first baseman. “We came in with the plan to see a lot of pitches, to make them throw a lot of pitches. The top of the order did that and the bottom of the order followed through and we thought that would help us later in the game. I guess it did.”

Waldwick’s patience was really the key to the whole ballgame. Matched against Emerson ace David Palladino, a senior who may be taken in the Major League Baseball draft next week, the Warriors, knew the best way to beat him was to wait him out.

Dylan Ritondale went the distance for Waldwick, which will play Roselle Park in the Group 1 semifinls on Tuesday.

After taking the lead in the top of the first inning on a wind-blown double by Eric Greenwald and a clutch two-out single by James Dertouzos, Waldwick used the next two innings to drive up Palladino’s pitch count at a rapid rate. Four walks in the top of the third, the last producing an easy RBI for John Simeone, gave Waldwick a 2-0 lead and Palladino’s final pitch of the inning was his 90th of the game.

Palladino undid all of that with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the third when, with Mike Origoni (2-for-3, SB, R) and Frank Parisi on base with two out, he hit as long a home run as you’ll see from a high school kid. Palladino cleared the trees in left centerfield, no one saw the ball land and there is no proof that has even done so yet. That gave Emerson (23-6) a 3-2 lead, but Palladino was quickly running out of pitches while Waldwick starter Dylan Ritondale was just settling in.

After walking Dertouzos leading off the fourth and falling behind Kevin Nitsche, Palladino was lifted, Mickey Stec was brought on in relief and Waldwick was on its way to retaking the lead. Nitsche was hit by a pitch, Biango drew a walk to load the bases and Simeone hit an RBI groundball that tied the game before Walsh’s suicide squeeze on an 0-1 pitch gave the Warriors a 4-3 advantage.

“We did not play our best game. We played error free, but there were too many walks in the game, too many hit batters, too many free passes and we did not hit in the clutch,” said Emerson head coach Bob Carcich, whose pitching staff allowed eight walks and hit three batters. “Despite all those walks it was still a one-run game into the seventh inning, but you can’t put that many guys on base and expect to win.”

Emerson's Mike Origoni had two hits, a run scored and stole a base.

Meanwhile, Ritondale was efficient. All three runs he allowed came on one swing of the bat by Palladino, but he went the distance throwing less than 100 pitches. He finished with a seven-hitter, three of them coming with two outs in the third, with three walks (one intentional) while striking out eight.

He got out of a two-on, no-out jam in the fourth by getting a pop-up and two strikeouts and allowed the tying run to come to the plate in the seventh with two outs, but left the bases loaded with a strikeout to end the game.

“I worked hard before the game to make sure that when I took the mound I had my breaking pitches the way they should be. I wanted to get ahead of hitters, the main goal was no walks, and to keep us in the game,” said Ritondale. “We knew going up against Palladino was tough, but I had a plan when I was pitching and we had a plan at the plate and Connor Walsh, a freshman, showed a lot of [guts]. The squeeze was huge, the home run was huge and now we are section champs. Now we want to win the next one and finish as the No. 1 Group 1 team in the state.”

There are only four teams left with a chance to do that as Waldwick updated its old trophy with a piece of athletic tape and a black pen. What used to say 1988 now says 2011 and Clark is not ready for this ride to end.

“This group, I can’t even tell you the joy that they have brought me and the town this season. They work so hard every day. We have guys that have never played the position they are in right now and since March 4 it has been on the job training. Don’t get me wrong, we have some studs in the lineup, but the kids have worked so hard to become a complete team,” said Clark. “We want to go for it and win two more and we will go as hard as we can, but winning the section was a goal of ours to get right here. Now we can try to build on it.”

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