Saturday, May 11, 2013

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Domonic Caporelli hit a home run for Paramus, which opened a huge lead and then held on for a 10-6 win over crosstown rival Paramus Catholic in the opening round of the Bergen County Tourney.

PARAMUS – Inside the town’s borders, Paramus has been the baseball big dog for the past two decades. The only other high school in town, Paramus Catholic, was not even considered a rival because of the disparity in talent between the two teams. However with the Paladins resurgence this season and Paramus having an up-and-down campaign, the tide has shown signs of shifting. That came to a head on Friday when the teams squared for not only town bragging rights, but a chance to move onto the Bergen County Tournament’s Round of 16. Paramus made it clear early that on its home field against their crosstown rival, that it was still the big dog on the block.

Paramus, the No.15 seed, jumped out to a 4-0 advantage and increased that lead to nine runs going into the Paladins’ final at-bat before surviving a furious rally and getting past 18th seeded Paramus Catholic, 10-6, in the opening round of the Bergen County Tournament.

“I thought we played real well for the most part before having to hang on there at the end,” said Paramus head coach John Morrissette. “JR [Chinchar] had to battle out there on the mound and he got the big outs when we needed it. I thought our defense was spectacular and we scored some runs early to take the pressure off.”

James Colacci had two hits for Paramus Catholic, which scored five times in the top of the seventh to make it interesting.

Chinchar struggled to find a rhythm all game long and got into trouble early by loading the bases before inducing a groundout to end the threat in the top of the first. His teammates rewarded him in the bottom half of the inning with some run support. Anthony DeCeglie and Kevin Lannigan lined back-to-back RBI singles in the midst of a four-run first.

The Paladins were not without their chances to get back in the game. In the first three innings though, they were caught stealing twice, got picked off once and hit into two double plays with a man in scoring position to end innings. They also loaded the bases in the fifth when Chinchar again got himself out a jam with a comebacker to the mound.

“If you give a team too many extra outs and keep running into easy outs for them, you’re going to have a hard time beating a good team,” said Paramus Catholic head coach Scott Luna. “We have a bunch of sophomores who haven’t had the experience of playing in big games. I thought that immaturity showed on the bases today. What could have been big innings ended up with us coming away with nothing. I love the way our kids battled at the end and we never gave up, it was just too late.”

DeCeglie added another RBI single in the third and Domonic Caporelli added a long home run off Paramus Catholic starter Tom Saffoti to left to make it 6-1 after five innings.

JR Chinchar picked up the win for Paramus, which will play Bergen Catholic in the Round of 16.

“I knew their pitcher (Saffoti) was trying to bust guys inside with his fastball no matter what the count, so I anticipated him throwing a fastball there,” said Caporelli. “He had a good fastball, but he had trouble getting his other pitches over for strikes so I was sitting on a fastball. Everyone stepped up today and this was a big win for us.”

Paramus got RBI singles from Ronnie Weiss, Josh Rollins, and Caporelli in the eighth to make it 10-1 to seemingly make a winner out of Chinchar, but the game proved to be far from over.

The Paladins strung together five consecutive hits to start the top of the seventh, the last of which was a bases-clearing double by EJ Ortiz to trim the lead to 10-5. They got as close as 10-6 on an RBI single by Dan Gallagher, but Eric Rosenberg came on to get the final two outs and earn the save.

Chinchar scattered eight hits in six innings to get the win for Paramus (10-8). Caporelli went 3-for-4 with an HR and two RBI. DeCeglie also had a good day at the plate going 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored. Gallagher had three hits, while James Colacci and Dave Sdrougais each had two for Paramus Catholic (10-10).

Paramus now moves on to play second-seeded Bergen Catholic in the Round of 16 on Sunday. They will play at Emerson High School with the first pitch coming at 12:30 P.M. While they are going in as a decided underdog, the Spartans feel their side of the bracket is wide open and they have as much of a chance to pull an upset and make a run as anyone.

“We’re going to come in and play hard just as we do every other game,” said Chinchar. “We feel like we can make some noise and that will be a big test for us. Today was a tough game and I had to battle through when I didn’t have my best stuff. I have so much faith in my defense that I changed my approach from trying to strike people out to wanting them to make contact and let my defense make the plays behind me. We have nothing to lose from here on and we like being the underdog.”

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