Sunday, May 13, 2012

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Ryan Duran threw a complete game 3-hitter and struck out 10 for River Dell, which topped Ridgefield, 3-1, in the Round of 16 of the Bergen County Tournament on Saturday afternoon.

DEMAREST – Both River Dell and Ridgefield, the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds, respectively, in the Bergen County Tournament, were going for it. Neither was shying away from the prospect of playing top-seeded Don Bosco in next weekend's quarterfinal round as evidenced by the fact that both River Dell head coach Brandon Flanagan and Ridgefield skipper Joe Gambardella put their aces on the hill. And when that happened, it was obvious that hits were going to be hard to come by.

Ridgefield managed just three of them in the game, while River Dell strung three in a row together and that mini barrage was the difference in the game. Back-to-back-to-back doubles by Ryan Duran, Ryan McDonough and Evan Drummond in the bottom of the second inning accounted for three of the Golden Hawks' seven hits and two of its three runs in a 3-1 Round of 16 win over Ridgefield on Saturday afternoon at Northern Valley/Demarest High School.

“Five through eight [in the batting order] did some good stuff for us and when those guys get on it is something that we have to take advantage of,” said Flanagan, whose team was making its first county tournament appearance since 2008. “We've had some tough ones here, so this is a good win. This is a great place to play and the kids are really excited.”

Luis Hidalgo went the distance for Ridgefield, which was making its first Round of 16 appearance since 2004.

And the two runs produced by the three straight doubles looked a whole lot more formidable with the way River Dell starter Ryan Duran was throwing his curveball. Duran has one of the best benders in the county not just because of how far it breaks, but where it ends up. Duran can drop his curveball into the strike zone, which presents a host of difficult choices for opposing hitters.

“We knew that kid [Duran] threw a lot of breaking stuff and we wanted to see what his command was with it first,” said Gambardella, whose team was playing in the main draw of the county tournament for the first time since 2004. “We we saw that he could control it, we had to adjust and swing the bats and we did not do a good job of making those adjustments.”

Ridgefield had two base runners in the top of the first inning as Edgar Lebron drew a one-out walk and Luis Hidalgo singled back up the middle, but a snap throw to first by River Dell catcher Alex Derner set off a chain of events that ended with a 2-3-5 putout that squelched the Royals' early attempt at a rally. River Dell then took the 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second before Ridgefield clawed back and unearned run in the top of the fourth.

Hidalgo reached on a two-base error with one out, stole third and scored on a wild pitch, one of the few curveballs that Duran spiked in the dirt unintentionally. From there he retired 10 of the final 11 hitters he faced to close out the win.

John Budka single on this swing in the fifth inning and later scored River Dell's final run.

“I've been trying to use my curveball as much as I can all year because it keeps hitters off balance and I had a good one today,” said Duran, who went the distance on a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts against just two walks. “It was a lot different today being in the county tournament. It's a nice field and there is always a good crowd. It was a lot different than playing a regular season game playing in front of like 30 people. Maybe there was a little more pressure, but that is part of the game and it was good to feel that.”

Hidalgo, Ridgefield's starter, came into the game with a 6-0 record and acquitted himself well. The two runs he gave up in the second inning were the only two earned runs scored against him. Hidalgo struck out four and walked three while giving up seven hits and allowed just a single unearned run over the final four innings.

In the bottom of the fifth, John Budka hit a leadoff single and took second on a pickoff throw that eluded its target. Tim Barnes' flyball to right field pushed Budka to third and he scored on an RBI single by Brandon Martinez, plating a key insurance run that.

“We just wanted to jump on fastballs. We knew coming in that [Hidalgo] was 6-0 and that he had a good little changeup. We knew he could deal,” said Budka, River Dell's senior shortstop. “We didn't hit the ball over over the place today, but we got enough hits at the right times to score enough runs to win.”

Robert Rueda had one of Ridgefield's three hits.

In addition to picking up the complete game victory, Duran (2-for-3) was the only hitter for either team to have more than one hit. Glen Dowling and Robert Rueda each had a hit for Ridgefield, which had little time to dwell on the loss as, immediately after, it boarded the bus for the second game of its Saturday doubler against Glen Rock in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. That sums up the approach for the Royals, who will get right back after it in pursuit of a league title. They have a two-game lead with three to go.

“We'll forget about this, we'll go play tonight and then we will try to clinch at least a share of a league title on Thursday,” said Gambardella. “If we win two out of our final three we win the league and that is always the No. 1 goal for a Group 1 school and then we will try to go out and win a state title.”

River Dell improved to 16-5 heading into the final week of the regular season and then next weekend's matchup against Don Bosco Prep, the defending county champion, in the Round of 8. River Dell was on site to see St. Joseph Regional go down to a no-hitter thrown by Derek Hyland of 15th-seeded Ridgefield Park at Demarest on Saturday and knows that anything is possible after the first pitch is thrown.

“We have games on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, I scheduled three independents because I didn't want to go a week without games, and we'll start to focus on Bosco on Friday,” said Flanagan, who has to decide whether to use Duran in the county tournament or in the state tournament opener two days later. “We'll spread the pitching duties around this week and if it is [Duran] against Bosco, he'll be ready to go.”

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