Tuesday, June 8, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Freshman Nick Bradley hit a three-run homer in the top of the seventh to put the finishing touches on Waldwick's 9-5 win over Roselle Park in the Group 1 state semifinals.

DEMAREST – The last week for the Waldwick baseball team is almost worthy of a game show. It could be called “Who’s That Freshman?” and it could be hosted by Warriors head coach Frank Clark, who pulls all the strings. Last week he introduced North Jersey to Connor Walsh, who hit the game-clinching, three-run home run as Waldwick won its first state sectional title since 1998. In this week’s episode, it was Nick Bradley’s turn in the spotlight and his story is a little more complicated.

Bradley is a nationally recognized tennis player with a real future in that sport. Since high school competition is not going to do much for his preparation for the highest levels of tennis, he has chosen to play baseball. But Bradley, who could have been a state title contender in tennis or a potential starter on the diamond, has been able to do neither for most of this spring as he recovers from a shoulder injury. He had been limited to just six plate appearances and pinch running duties as Waldwick won its way into Tuesday’s Group 1 state semifinal against Roselle Park.

Onofre Cabezas had two hits and an RBI for Roselle Park but was caught trying to steal third base in the first.

Bradley’s seventh plate appearance of the season came in the top of the sixth inning and he knocked a ball to the wall in left centerfield that fell for a two-base error when the outfielders collided. He later came around to score on Garrett Backhaus’ two-out single, but Bradley’s real introduction came in the next inning. With two on and two outs in the top of the seventh and his with his team looking to pad a two-run lead, Bradley jumped on a first pitch fastball and crushed it over the centerfield fence to put the finishing touches on Waldwick’s 9-5 win.

The Warriors will play Audobon in the Group 1 final on Saturday with a chance to win the first outright state championship in the baseball program’s history.

“I’ve been injured and I haven’t been able to play tennis, so I ran back to baseball and I am just thankful that Coach [Clark] allowed to me to join the team halfway through the season. I’ve had to wait to get a chance, but just being a part of this makes it worth it,” said Bradley, who entered the game as a pinch hitter in the sixth and made the most of his two at bats. “I love this team. It is just a lot of fun to be around all of these leaders, all of these seniors and it has been a great experience. To go this far is like a once in a life time thing “

Kevin Nitsche, one of Waldwick's seven senior starters, had three hits and also pitched the first four innings to get the win.

Actually, it’s never happened before for the Waldwick baseball program, but the Warriors showed no nerves. Dylan Ritondale led off the top of the first inning with a single and Waldwick used that to jumpstart a three-run inning right out of the gate. James Dertouzos got his big day at the plate started with a run-scoring double to rightfield that plated the first run of the game and an untimely error with two outs cost Roselle Park two more first inning runs.

Roselle Park (18-7) got two of those runs back in the first inning, one of them unearned and the other coming on an RBI groundout by Nick Longo. Both starting pitchers settled after the opening frame. Waldwick’s Kevin Nitsche was touched up just one more time in his four innings of work before handing the ball off to Ritondale, who inherited a 4-3 lead after Dertouzos hit a home run to left center in the top half of the fifth put the Warriors in front for good.

Nitsche (4 IP, 3 R, 1 ER, 2H, 2K, BB) was in line for the win when he left the game, but there were still nine outs to get and Ritondale, the winning pitcher in Waldwick’s upset of Emerson in the North 1, Group 1 state sectional final last Friday, had some work to do.

“My approach is the same coming in in relief as it is when I start. I know I have to keep hitters off balance. I’ll double up on pitches; I’ll triple up on pitches if I see the hitter guessing. I try to think like a hitter when I am pitching. I try to think what I would be looking for and then do the opposite,” said Ritondale, one of Waldwick’s seven senior starters. “We know that we are coming to the end of our senior season here we all just were going to do what we had to to make sure we got to play one more game.”

James Dertouzos had a home run amongst his three hits for Waldwick.

Ritondale worked through a two-on, one-out jam by getting Onofre Cabezas to swing at strike three for the third out of the fifth and then used a sterling play at third base to get out of the sixth unscored upon. With a runner on first and no outs, Roselle Park’s Matt Talbot hit a seed that probably had enough juice to get down the line for an extra base hit, but the problem for the Panthers was that it was in the range of Ryan Biango, the Waldwick third baseball do got off one step to his right before plucking the line drive clean for the out.

Meanwhile, the Warriors were tacking on offensively. Waldwick scored in each of its final three at bats with Dertouzos’ home run in the fifth, Bradley’s misplayed fly ball leading to a run in the sixth and then Bradley’s three-run blast in the seventh. That late offense made the two runs that Roselle Park scored in the bottom of the seventh little more than window dressing.

“We have a great hitting team so there is no pressure on one guy to try to do it all. If one guy is struggling we know that somebody else is going to get it done,” said Dertouzos, who finished the day 3-for-4 with the home run, two RBI, a double and three runs scored. “I am pretty sure that this is the first time in our school’s history that a baseball team has made it this far. We have one more to go and we just have to bring it home for our school.”

Waldwick senior Dylan Ritondale went the final three innings to record the save and also had four hits in five at bats.

It was a total team effort for Waldwick (23-6) as just about everyone who stepped between the lines contributed. In addition to picking up the win, Nitsche was 3-for-3 at the plate and in addition to recording the save, Ritondale (3 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 H, 4 K, 3 BB) had four hits in his five at bats. Garrett Backhaus had a hit, a run scored and a stolen base; Biango knocked in run with a sacrifice fly and John Simeone scored a run. And even though he went hitless, Eric Greenwald was a defensive standout. The Waldwick catcher, playing in front of an unforgiving backstop, blocked numerous pitches in the dirt for Ritondale, who can bury a curveball to get swinging strikes with the best of them.

The win was great, but for Clark, in his second season as Waldwick’s head coach, it was just another highlight in what has been a magical run that involves not only his players, but also the entire town.

“They did a great thing for us at school today. Before we left on the bus they called the whole team into the main office and said we had to go talk to the principal. Then they took us down to the middle school gym and the whole middle school was there waiting for us, looking up to these guys. The players were touched and I was touched,” said Clark, who has followed the late Jim Valvano’s advice and has had days full of laughter, tears and thought over the past week-plus. “It is the ride of my life and my coaching career. Joe Belger was my coach and we won two sectionals at [River Dell] in my junior and senior years, but when you experience being a parent and a coach, the feeling is times 100. It’s been a magic carpet ride.”

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