Saturday, April 6, 2013

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Senior Rex McMillan picked up the win in relief and had the game-winning RBI for Rutherford, which came from four runs down in the sixth inning to top Glen Rock, 9-7, and improve to 3-0 on the season.

RUTHERFORD – The risk that Rutherford's Rex McMillan took with two outs in the top of the sixth inning was that he could have thrown the ball into centerfield. It's always dicey when a pitcher wheels around to try to pick off a runner at second base and in this case Rutherford was already trailing by four runs against Glen Rock. It was a calculated risk, however, as picking a runner off the base paths for the final out of the inning could also be the kind of spark the Bulldogs needed to start a comeback. When McMillan threw to the covering Ben Isola, who had sneaked in from behind from his position at second base, for the final out of the inning, the Bulldogs bounded off the field with a little extra energy and the game was at its tipping point.

“I'll be honest with you, when they picked the kid off second base to end the [top of the] sixth inning it gave them all the momentum in the world,” said Glen Rock skipper Joe Sutera. “They were, for all intents and purposes, they were done. They were flat and it looked like they were out of the ball game, and then we gave them that out and they got excited about it.”

That they did as the Bulldogs sent 11 hitters to the plate in the bottom of the inning, got contributions from just about every spot in the lineup and scored six times in the frame to turn a 7-3 deficit into a 9-7 win, Rutherford's third in a row to start the season, on Friday afternoon at Memorial Park.

Adam Lawsky had three hits and played a sterling third base for Glen Rock.

“Anything that happens in the field, you can bring it with you to the plate and it can be a huge boost,” said McMillan, who made an impact on the game from the shortstop position he started at, the relief pitcher role that saw him turn in three quality innings and at the plate where he had two hits. “Usually, if you make an error in the field you might bring that to the plate and make an out because of it, but when you do something good that can turn into a positive and we kind of got rolling there in the sixth.”

Rutherford's track back into the game was tough one as it went through Glen Rock third baseman Adam Lawsky, who made a nifty grab of a bad hop of the skin infield and a strong throw for the first out of the decisive inning. Then Ben Isola tried his luck at getting one through the hot corner and Lawsky made a dive to his right and got a glove on the ball. But this time the ricochet found its way into dead ball territory, Isola was given a pass to second base and the carousel was about to start turning.

“That first hit that went off the third baseman's glove and out of play, that is what started the whole inning,” said McMillan. “That was huge because that kid [Lawsky] is a great player and when you finally get one past him it gives you some confidence.”

Everything went right for Rutherford in that bottom of the sixth inning as sophomore Sargon Kuomi, in his first varsity at bat, came through with his first varsity hit, an RBI double that scored Isola. Senior Sean Potor then traded places with Kuomi's courtesy runner with his RBI double to right centerfield and Jordan Sarro, a left-handed pinch hitter, served an RBI double, a third straight two-bagger, to the opposite field to get Rutherford to within 7-6. That turned the lineup of over and Pat Landrigan and McMillan, who will play next season and NJIT, hit back-to-back RBI singles to give Rutherford an 8-7 lead.

Pat Landrigan had 3 hits and 3 RBI batting out of the leadoff spot for Rutherford.

“When everybody is hitting and you go up there with confidence it feels no matter what the pitcher throws you you are going to hit it and hit it well,” said Landrigan, who was 3-for-4 with 3 RBI and a run scored from the leadoff spot. “This was a big game. Glen Rock is going to be right up there for the league [title]. It is probably going to come down to us, them and Pompton Lakes, so to get this win early in the year is big. It gives us a little bit of leeway for the rest of the season.”

It was Adam Hernandez's RBI single right back through the middle that was the last of Rutherford's eight hits in the sixth inning and the one that plated McMillan, who would have a two-run cushion to work with as he took the mound in the top of the seventh. After giving up a lead off double to Lawsky (3-for-4, R, SB, 2 2B), McMillan (3 IP, 1R, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 K, 0 BB) set down the next three hitters in succession to add the winning decision to the game-winning RBI he picked up half-an-inning earlier.

“We know that you get 21 outs in every game and our approach is always batter-by-batter, pitch-by-pitch and we felt that if we just kept hanging in there and hitting the ball hard that good things were going to happen,” said Rutherford head coach Carmine Spina. “I knew that if we could keep pushing the lineup toward the top of the order that we would be OK.”

Christian Vila had two RBI for Glen Rock, one of them coming on a sixth inning suicide squeeze.

Landrigan and McMillan combined to go 5-for-7 with 4 RBI and two runs scored from the top two spots in the lineup while Rutherford pounded out 13 hits in total while also drawing three walks. Hernandez and Potor each had two hits for the Bulldogs, who made it to the Bergen County Tournament semifinals last year and have the potential for a similar run this time around. There may not be one dominant team in Bergen County this season, but there are a whole bunch of good ones and Rutherford is certainly among that group.

“Whatever we have done in the previous game, win or loss, we have to put it behind us and get on to the next game,” said Spina, whose team will play Wayne Hills on Saturday before taking on a much-improved Garfield team on Monday. “We can't bring 3-0 onto the field and expect teams to roll over for us. Like I said before, it is batter-by-batter, pitch-by-pitch.”

Lawsky led Glen Rock with his three hits and Tyler Blind (2-for-3, RBI) and Joe Cinquegrana (2-for-3, RBI, SB) each had two hits. Christian Vila drove in two runs for the Panthers, who got five innings of quality starting pitching from Greg Warner before he left with one out in the sixth.

There were some highlights for Glen Rock, but Sutera was not about to sugarcoat his team's 1-2 start to the season.

“When you have a team as good as Rutherford is on the ropes you have to be able to close it out. We were up by four runs with six outs to go and, after that, we couldn't find a way to get an out,” said Sutera. “The bottom line and what it comes down to is that we had to find a way to close out this ball game. We have too many seniors on this team to let what happen today happen again. This kind of flipped the count on us. Instead of walking out of here at 2-1, we are leaving with a 1-2 record, we are below .500 and we have a lot of work to do.”

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