Saturday, May 11, 2013

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Jack Gedney threw 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief and drove in a run for Glen Rock, which beat New Milford, 6-4, in the opening round of the Bergen County Tournament on Friday.

NEW MILFORD – By the time Jack Gedney was called upon to enter the game it was in a full-fledged circus atmosphere. One of those traveling festivals, the kind so common across North Jersey in the spring, opened for business just behind the first baseline at the complex behind the police station in New Milford and Gedney's entrance came with its own soundtrack of the 1980s heavy metal blaring from one of the rides. As far as the game situation that Gedney inherited, there was a little bit of a carousel feel to that as well.

Two runs were already in, New Milford had the go-ahead run standing at second base with one out and there was a 2-0 count on the batter when Gedney took the ball in the bottom of the fifth inning of a road game in the opening round of the Bergen County Baseball Tournament.

“It is definitely tough to come into a county tournament game with the score tied and two balls all ready on the batter, but I just had to go in there and throw strikes. Good things happen when you throw strikes,” said Gedney, a senior. “But my heart was definitely beating pretty fast.”

Gedney would up striking out the batter he assumed with the 2-0 count and then gave up a double to the next hitter, which gave New Milford a lead, but it was what he did after that was really the difference in the game. Gedney retired seven of the final eight hitters he faced and his shutdown relief was just what the Panthers needed.

New Milford catcher Brendan O'Brien, here making a tag in the sixth inning, had a phusical day at the plate.

Gedney tied the game himself with an RBI single in the top of the sixth and Tyler Roldan's two-out double into the right centerfield gap provided the game-winner as Glen Rock, the No. 20 seed, knocked off No. 13 New Milford, 6-4, to earn a spot in Sunday's Round of 16 against No. 5 Old Tappan.

“That kid [Gedney] has done that all year. He is not the kind of pitcher that is going to blow your doors off, his fastball is 78-to-80, but he has that hook and when he locates it, you saw what he can do,” said Glen Rock head coach Joe Sutera. “He had them baffled in there today.”

Both starting pitchers were effective early as Glen Rock's Adam Lawsky struck out the side in the first inning and in the fourth. He had eight strikeouts through the first four innings allowed just one run over that span on a two-out single by Sawyer Coughlin in the top of the third.

Coughlin was New Milford's starter and he allowed just an unearned run in the inning leading up to eventful top of the fourth. With the game tied at 1, Mike O'Neill led off with a walk and stole second before Matt Szawaluk followed with a bloop single. Both runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt and when Sutera called for the bunt again, this time in a squeeze situation, it led to some fireworks. The bunt attempt was missed and O'Neill was barreling down the third base line. The rule is 'slide or avoid' but when New Milford catcher Brendan O'Brien came down the line to apply the tag, O'Neill did neither. He ran through the catcher, which brought an automatic out call, an ejection from the game and an accompanying two-game suspension. Coughlin got out of the inning with the 1-1 tie still in tact.

Glen Rock starter Adam Lawsky struck out 8 in 4 1/3 innings.

Roldan, who had just missed in his first two at bats, both fly-outs to the outfield, got his timing right in his third at bat and yanked a double down the leftfield line to score Matt Neumann, the courtesy runner for catcher Tyler Blind. After a walk to Lawsky, the last batter faced by Coughlin (4 1/3 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, 5 H. 2 K, 3 BB), Jeff Kopyta singled back up the middle to give Glen Rock a 3-1 lead.

Lawsky (4 1/3 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 H, 8 K, 3 BB) had been cruising on the mound, mixing his curveball in to compliment his plus fastball, but he walked the first two hitters of the fifth inning before giving up a ringing double to Connor Swanson, the No. 9 hitter in the New Milford lineup, whose two RBIs tied the game at 3. When the count got to 2-0 on Coughlin, Sutera called for Gedney, who cleaned up the mess. Victor Barrera's double that scored Swanson to give New Milford a 4-3 lead was the only hit Gedney allowed.

Gedney stopped the bleeding, then had the RBI that tied the game at 4. His single up the middle scored Joe Cinquegrana, who had reached on a one-out error. Then Roldan came through with his second RBI double in as many innings to give Glen Rock a 5-4 lead and Kopyta capped the scoring with a two-out single to left.

“After my first two at bats I knew I was right there. I was just getting a little out in front and needed a little adjustment. I just had to sit back and drive the ball,” said Roldan, Glen Rock's senior shortstop. “The atmosphere of the county tournament is great. Everybody is a little more into it, it is a lot more intense and I think that happened for both sides. It's a good feeling to get a win in the county tournament because it is not easy.”

Sawyer Coughlin threw the first 4 1/3 innings for New Milford and also had an RBI single in the third.

Gedney made it look easy of his final two innings of work as he got an out on his first pitch of the sixth inning and a sparkling defensive play for the second out. Roldan charged a ball behind the mound and made a low throw to Szawaluk, who picked it out of the dirt at first base. Gedney then struck out three of the next five hitters, working around a lead off walk in the seventh to earn Glen Rock its spot in the Round of 16.

“As a team we feel like we are a county tournament only now after we won this game. We considered this a preliminary game and we were playing to get ourselves into the real tournament on a neutral field on [Sunday],” said Sutera, a former head coach at New Milford. “We came in as a No. 20 seed on the road against a good team that never went away. They had big hits in big situations, but we were able to answer that and we'll see what we can do the rest of the way.”

Glen Rock improved to 13-7 on the season, while New Milford fell to 14-6. Despite the loss, there is a lot to be proud of for the Knights, who played their way into the tournament by getting the requisite .650 winning percentage needed for automatic entry and getting home game.

“Before last year we hadn't made the county tournament since 2008. We played Ridgefield Park at their place last year and that was a great experience, so to play our way in two years in a row is a good accomplishment for us,” said New Milford head coach Mark Mongiardo. “It's a decade or more, probably since Sutera was here, that we had a county tournament home game and that is proof that we have this program going in the right direction.”

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