Wednesday, April 17, 2013

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Troy Henderson threw a complete game 3-hitter for Cresskill, which beat Emerson, 4-1, on Tuesday to get back to .500 on the season.

EMERSON – High school baseball at its worst can be interminable. Walks, errors, trips to the mound, multiple pitching changes, strikeouts and other undesirable aspects of the game can, on the worst of days, turn a seven-inning game into the equivalent of three hours in the dentist's chair. But what makes those games bearable is the promise that the next one might be like the one played on Tuesday afternoon between Cresskill and Emerson. Three walks combined between two pitchers who each threw complete games, clutch hits in keys spots, smart base-running and tough defensive plays made to look routine.

In less than two hours, Cresskill had finished off its best game of the season, a 4-1 win in Emerson that got the Cougars back to .500 on the season in sparkling fashion.

“We threw strikes, strike one the most important. We did that, we were able to field the ball when it was put in play and our shortstop [Nick DeCandia] had an excellent game. He made six or seven putouts, he made great throws and he just pitched yesterday. He came through for us,” said Cresskill head coach Charlie Giordano. “I have been telling these guys that we are a good baseball team and when we put everything together like we did today we are a very good baseball team.”

Nick Smith had one of Emerson's two hits, a leadoff single in the bottom of the second.

Both teams were very good, especially defensively and that is borne out by the pitchers' final lines. Cresskill starter, junior Troy Henderson, threw a complete-game two-hitter while only striking out two hitters. Of the other 19 outs he got, 13 of them came on ground balls cleanly fielded by his infield against just one error. Scott Hucke, a junior making his first-ever varsity start for Emerson, went the distance on a six-hitter while striking out three. His defense turned two double plays behind him, one in each of the first two innings, and while the Cavos committed three errors, they wiped away two of them with standout defensive plays against the next hitter.

“There were very good plays defensively by both teams. Our centerfielder [Joe Fisco], our middle infielders [Tyler Pavone and Bobby Palumbit] made some nice plays and their shortstop [DeCandia] was all over the place. He was very impressive,” said Emerson head coach Bob Carcich. “It was a good high school baseball game and even though I mind losing, I really don't mind losing a game like that where both teams play well. There were few walks, there were no glaring errors, there were no controversial calls. It was good baseball.”

In fact, the only time the umpires came into play was on the first pitch of the bottom of the fourth inning when the home plate ump was hit clean on the back of the left hand by a Hucke fastball. The damage was evident right from the get-go, the swelling immediate, and the game was officiated the rest of the way, without incident, by just one umpire calling balls and strikes from behind the plate and hustling out from behind it to make calls on the basepaths.

Sophomore Nick DeCandia played a flawless game at shortstop for Cresskill.

Whether there were one or two umpires in action, the defenses left little to chance. After Troy Galan led off the game with a double down the leftfield line and Glenn Allen followed with a walk, Pavone, Palumbit and first baseman Nick Palladino combined for a smartly turned 6-4-3 double play and Hucke (7 IP, 4 R, 3 ER, 6 H, 3 K, BB) got a comebacker to escape early trouble. In the bottom of the first inning, Cresskill third baseman Dan Doku ranged wide to his left to flag down a Pavone grounder and threw out Emerson's No. 2 hitter.

In the top of the second, Fisco slid in on his knees to pull in a sinking line drive and threw in behind for an 8-3 double play, that was matched by the 6-4-3, started by DeCandia and spun by Mitch Ledsen, that ended the bottom of the frame.

“Today was probably my best game defensively and it was probably our best game as a team defensively, but I can't take the credit. Coach [Giordano] placed me perfectly so many times that all I had to do was catch the ball and throw it,” said DeCandia, just a sophomore. “I just couldn't wait for my next chance. I just wanted them to keep hitting the ball to me.”

Both pitchers faced the minimum six hitters apiece in the third and fourth innings before Cresskill was finally able to break through in the top of the fifth set up by Doku's lead-off single to left. Vin Vacco got down a sacrifice bunt, DeCandia singled to put runners on the corners and Josh Rosalinsky's ground ball deep in the shortstop hole left Pavone with just one choice, the out at first that allowed pinch runner Ed Vestergaard to score the game's first run. Ledsen then came through with a two-out, run-scoring single out of the No. 9 hole to give Cresskill a 2-0 lead.

Joey Messner had Emerson's final hit, a one-out single in the fifth.

Emerson clawed by a run in the bottom of the fifth as, with one out, Joey Messner stroked Emerson's final hit, and its first since Nick Smith's leadoff single in the second, back up the middle. Palumbit and Chris Nedilsky then drew the only two walks that Henderson surrendered in succession to load the bases. Palladino dribbled one down the first base line that was good enough to get a run home and then leadoff hitter John Juri hit a ball on the screw to left field. Galan was up to it as he stood his ground and pulled in the line drive at eye level to end Emerson's rally.

The only error in the game that came back to haunt either team came with one out in the top of the sixth and allowed Glenn Allen to reach just before Henderson delivered the game's lone extra base hit, a ringing double to leftcenter that made it 3-1. Henderson followed the throw home and slid into third base, which allowed him to score on Will Fahy's blooper over the drawn in infield. The Cougars had five of their six hits in the fifth and sixth innings.

Henderson (7 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 H, 2 K, 2 BB) retired the side in order in the sixth and seventh innings to finish off his complete game gem and his third win of the season with out a loss. Needless to say, Cresskill is at its best when Henderson in on the mound. That moves DeCandia back to his natural spot at shortstop with the ace on the hill. Henderson is 3-0 in three starts and the Cougars are 3-3 on the season.

“It wasn't really me as much as it was the fielding. The guys made a bunch of great plays behind me, Nick DeCandia was great a short and I just tried to keep the ball low [in the strike zone] and make them hit ground balls,” said Henderson, who threw predominantly fastballs. “Will Fahy did a great job calling pitches behind the plate, calling for the offspeed stuff the times I needed to. We just wanted to make them put the ball in play.”

Josh Rosalimsky, one of only two seniors in Cresskill's starting lineup, drove in the game's first run.

With just two seniors in the starting lineup on Tuesday -- Doku and Rosalimsky – a quality win on the road under its belt and now back to .500 on the season, Cresskill is on the verge of contending for a league title and for a spot in the Bergen County Tournament.

“This is a great win because Emerson is a baseball town, they have one of the best coaches ever in Bergen County and they have history, but we want to show that we are a baseball school, too. We have been in the past and we can be again,” said Giordano, who is in his fourth season as Cresskill's head coach. “I told the kids before last season that we have a three year plan. Last year was to learn, this year is to win and next year is to dominate. We started the winning part a little early. At the end of the last year we were 4-1 in our last five, we won our last three and we did well in summer ball. Coming into this year we had great expectations and if we play like we did today I feel like we can play with anybody.”

Emerson has proved time and again under Carcich, who has over 500 career victories, that it can play with anyone and are off to a good enough start at 5-3. On Monday the Cavos posted an impressive 3-0 win over Glen Rock, they played well despite the outcome against Cresskill and are two games behind rival Park Ridge in the standings not yet one time through the league schedule.

“Our problems are we have a brand new third baseman, a freshman [Juri], a shortstop that played third base last year, a second baseman that is a senior and did not play baseball last year, and it is like a tryout at first base at this point of the season. I have a brand new leftfielder, a brand new rightfielder and the only guys playing the same position they were in last year are our centerfielder [Fisco] and our catcher [Smith] and they are our two best hitters,” said Carcich. “It's going to take a while to find that consistency game in and game out. Yesterday we shout out Glen Rock, a real good hitting team, with a freshman pitcher [Jake Leara]. It's up and down right now we need a little bit of time to pull it all together.”

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