Sunday, June 12, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Chris Fehr allowed just one earned run over 6+ innings for Audubon, which held off Waldwick, 8-6, to win the Group 1 state championship.

TOMS RIVER -- It sounded good off the bat and for a second the improbable was entirely possible. Trailing by seven runs heading into the seventh inning of Saturday’s Group 1 state final, Waldwick finally started getting some breaks. Four Audubon errors and five unearned runs later and it suddenly mattered how deep Waldwick’s last fly ball travelled off the bat of the tying run.

But when Audubon rightfielder Zachary Welsher settled under it and then gloved it a few feet in front of the fence, the Green Wave had finally found the elusive 21st out in their 8-6 victory at Toms River High School East. A year after losing in the Group 2 final Audubon won the school’s sixth state baseball championship and its first since 2001, while Waldwick came up two runs and a few feet short of its first state title.

“A couple of inches up or down the barrel of the bat and it might have been different. It had a good sound off the bat,” said Waldwick head coach Frank Clark, whose team trailed 8-1 heading into its final at bat. “They were trying to 10-run us there for a time there, but we just kept fighting. Like I told our guys, if you are a true champion you never lose, you just run out of time. If this was a nine inning game, who knows?”

James Dertouzos had a bases clearing double in the top of the seventh to get Waldwick close at the end.

While Audubon did kick the ball around a whole lot in the seventh inning, it was what the Green Wave did in the second and third innings that got them the win. The first three hitters in the second inning, the No. 7, 8 and 9 batters in the order all reached bat with Zachary Welsher singling leading off, Chris Fehr drawing a walk and Shane Furlong dropping a sac bunt turned infield single to load the bases.

That forced Waldwick to pitch to leadoff hitter Brian Flacco, the younger brother of Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, and he came through with a two-run single to put Audubon ahead. Justin Janetti added a sacrifice fly and Keoth Michalski added a run-scoring single to make it 4-0 and scored three more times in the top of the third with a little luck.

After Boomer Wickersham singled leading off, Dylan Ritondale, who came on in relief to start the frame for Waldwick, got his first strikeout, but Audubon then got back-to-back bloop singles that just cleared first base and landed just inside the foul line. Welsher’s dunker scored Eric Schorr, the courtesy runner for Wickersham, and an infield error allowed Josh McShane, the courtesy runner for Fehr, to score and Audobon had a commanding 7-0 lead.

Brian Flacco knocked in Audubon's first two runs with a second inning single.

Meanwhile, Fehr was cruising on the mound. He worked out of a two-on, one-out jam in the first, struck out the side in the second got a key defensive play from third baseman Michael Brandon, charging hard on a slow ground ball, to get out of the third inning unscathed and faced the minimum three hitters in the fourth after being helped by a 4-6-3 double play.

Waldwick finally got on the board in the top of the fifth when Nick Bradley, who led off the inning with a single, scored on a error to get the Warriors on the board, but Audubon got that run back with an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth to push the lead back to 8-1 heading into the top of the seventh.

But that was when things started going the Warriors way as two straight errors allowed Bradley and Ritondale to reach base and that spelled the end for Fehr (6+ IP, 3 R, 1 ER, 7 H, 6 K, 2 BB), who threw 102 pitches before being lifted for Kevin Kraemer, who allowed a single to the first hitter he faced, Garrett Backhaus, to load the bases.

Kreamer got a strikeout for the first out of the inning, but with the bases still loaded, James Dertouzos finally got the big hit that Waldwick was looking for, crushing a double off the wall in left centerfield that cleared the bases and brought the Warriors within 8-4. After a ground out and a walk put runners on the corners, Kraemer committed an error on a pickoff throw that was comical. He knew he had to throw to first once he started his pickoff move, but with no one covering the base, he threw the ball down the rightfield line, allowing Dertouzos to score to make it 8-5 and Ryan Biango scored on an error committed on an easy groundball chance to second base to make it 8-6.

Dylan Ritondale allowed just two earned runs and struck out 8 in four innings of quality relief for Waldwick.

That allowed Waldwick to bring the tying run to the plate.

“The nerves were going there at the end. We knew that they were going to battle and we have had a bunch of close games that we have played right down to the sixth, seventh and even eighth innings. We knew it wasn’t over, but we hoped that it would have been a little bit easier to finish it out,” said Audubon assistant coach Tyler Inkster. “To experience the loss that we had [in the Group 2 state final] last year, that served as motivation for this week of practice. We’ve played from behind so many times this year that is was nice to finally be on top and we built ourselves a lead that turned out to be just big enough.”

The Green Wave had two runs to spare when Welsher caught the final flyball and finished their season with a 23-5 mark, while Waldwick’s brilliant run that saw it get further than any other baseball team in school history came to an end at 23-7.

“A break here or there early could have helped, but we didn’t get it and they deserved to win,” said Clark. “They outplayed us early in the game and we came up a little short.”

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