Tuesday, April 16, 2013

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Sophomore Ivan Rodriguez gave up just one run in six innings of work to pick up the win as Teaneck topped Northern Highlands, 9-2, on Tuesday to improve to 6-2 on the season.

ALLENDALE – The baseball field behind Northern Highlands High School is a spacious park. There is plenty of foul territory, there is a healthy distance between home plate and the back stop and there is an expansive outfield. To play effectively in those surroundings there is one asset that would serve a team well.

“Speed kills and we have it on this team. We can put a lot pressure on the defense to field the ball cleanly because we can run. One through 9, everyone can run, ” said Teaneck head coach Eddie Klimek. “And that also helps us defensively because we have a fast outfield and, on a field like this, we can go get it. That was the plan, let them hit the ball in the air and let our guys run after it.”

Offensively, Teaneck used everything that the Northern Highlands pitching staff and defense gave it and used its speed in the field to cover for the few mistakes that sophomore starter Ivan Rodriguez made in his six solid innings of work. With two hits, two walks, two stolen bases and two batters hit by pitches, Teaneck batted around in the top of the fourth inning, scored five times and broke open what eventually turned into a 9-2 win on Monday afternoon in Allendale.

Teaneck has now gone through one half of its league schedule with a 3-2 record and upped its overall record to 6-2 on the season with a senior class that made the Bergen County Freshman Baseball Tournament semifinals in 2010. This is the year that Kilimek, who is in his 21st season as the Teaneck skipper, has been looking forward to.

Jack Flyn drove in the run in the bottom of the first inning that gave Northern Highlands the early lead.

“A lot of times you will have athletes just out there playing baseball, but this group is a bunch of baseball players,” said Klimek. “They know what they are doing, they prepare, they did their work in the winter and it is paying off now.”

Teaneck's strength runs right down the middle of its defense with four seniors all heading to play college ball. Catcher Harrison Preschel is signed to play at Long Island University, shortstop Kwestin Smith is going to Delaware State and centerfielder Dmitri Rueger and second baseman Nick Ruscigno are both heading to New Jersey City University. Those four also hit in the top four spots in the order and against Northern Highlands they combined to score five runs and drive in three others.

In the top of the third inning, Preschel (1-for-3, 3 RBI) crushed a two-out, two-run double to straight away centerfield that rolled to the wall and scored Smith (1-for-3, 3 R, SB) and Ruscingno (2-for-3, R). That turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 Teaneck lead and the Highwaymen broke the game open in their next at bat.

Brandon Soto doubled to lead off the top of the fourth inning and, after a groundout, Tyshawn Conde walked and Jaelin Johnson, hitting out of the No. 9 hole, blooped a single into rightfield. Soto scored and when the throw back into the infield got away, Teaneck wound up with runners on second and third. Conde scored on a passed ball to make it 4-1, Rueger walked and then an error on a groundball hit by Smith allowed Johnson to score from third. Ruscingno was then hit by a pitch and so was Preschel, the second one coming with the bases loaded. A sacrifice fly by Leo Voreacos made it 7-1.

Tyshawn Conde had two hits and scored a run for Teaneck.

“Teaneck has a lot of speed and when they get on base they are going to force the action. You have to play defense and we did not do that. We could have picked a runner off of third base on a squeeze, but we missed a sign. We dropped a pop-up and the kid hit a double and we dropped a flyball. You have to make plays,” said Northern Highlands head coach Paul Albarella. “We don't have strike out pitchers on the team so we have to catch the ball when they put it in play. You can't give them bases because they will create havoc on the basepaths and that is what they did.”

Northern Highlands had won two straight games coming in as it battled back from a 1-4 start to its season and got off to a good enough start as John Hinchen led off the bottom of the first inning with a single and went to second when the ball skipped through the outfielder. Jack Flynn followed with a single to give the Highlanders a 1-0 lead after sending just two hitters to the plate and Rob Hinchen and Brian Sciortino also had first inning singles. But a caught stealing short-circuited the inning and Rodriguez settled down and struck out two straight hitters to end the threat.

After allowing four hits in the first inning, Rodriguez (6 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 6 H, 4 K, 1 BB) allowed just two more over the next five and all six hits that he gave up were singles. Highlands had three hits and drew a walk in the bottom of the seventh inning with Sciortino stroking a two-out, run-scoring single with the bases loaded, but John Duster picked off a line drive to left field to end the threat and the game as Teaneck continued its impressive start to the season. It's been a while since the Highwaymen have been considered as a real threat to make a run in the county tournament and real player in the state tournament, but they are this year.

“This could be our best team since '99 when we were 23-8. This team has better everything except pitching,” said Klimek. “Our pitching is young, but Rodriguez was great today and if we get more of that, this could be a special year.”

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