Tuesday, May 28, 2013

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Brandon Martinex jumping on the plate after his three-run homer turned the tide in River Dell's favor on the way to a 9-8 win over Rutherford in the Bergen County semifinals.

DEMAREST – To rack up 100 hits in a high school baseball career is quite an accomplishment and for River Dell senior Brandon Martinez it came on a jam shot, a ball hit off the handle that had enough on it to spin its way over the head of the first baseman and fall untouched at the outer edge of the infield dirt. But it was hit No. 99 in Martinez's career that really resonated in the Bergen County Tournament semifinal against Rutherford played on Memorial Day at Northern Valley/Demarest High School.

With his team trailing by three runs in the top of the fifth inning, Martinez came to the plate with two on and no outs. The Golden Hawks had been playing from behind all game long and head coach Brandon Flanagan wanted his hitters to take a strike in a double-barreled attempt to get baserunners and drive up the pitch count of Rutherford starter Bobby Conrad. But Martinez is the No. 3 hitter and an exception was made.

“Coach was telling us to take a pitch but he told me that if I see one and get mine I could swing,” said Martinez. “I just a pitch right down the middle and I swung away. It was a fastball.”

It was a fastball, but it morphed into a line drive screamer that easily cleared the left field wall and turned the game completely around. The Hawks had trailed by three runs after the first inning, but Martinez got them back even and provided a clean slate for Ryan Duran, the senior ace who found his command in middle innings and carried River Dell to a 9-8 win and into the county final for just the second time in school history and for the first time in 14 years under Flanagan.

Jake Regina had two hits, two runs scored and an RBI for Rutherford.

After giving up six hits and three walks in the first three innings when River Dell fell behind by a score of 6-2, Duran (7 IP, 8 R, 6 ER, 8 H, 6 K, 5 BB) gave up just two hits and two walks the rest of the way as he improved to 5-1 on the season and 3-0 in three starts in the county tournament. Not for a kid who blew out his knee during football season and started his senior baseball season 10 games in.

“It was tough in the beginning. I wasn't on my game early and they got some hits off of me and a lot of stuff went downhill pretty quickly, but after Brandon's shot we felt the momentum change and we started to takeover,” said Duran, who will pitch at The College of New Jersey next season. “I was really excited for this game, to come out here in front of a lot of people and play another good team and maybe I over-amped it. I just had to settle down and make some pitches.”

Two of the three runs that Rutherford scored in the opening inning were unearned and the run the Bulldogs scored in the second came with two outs as Rex McMillan (1-for-3, 2 R) doubled to left and came around on two wild pitches to make it 4-0. Duran (2-for-3, 2 RBI) singled in a run to get River Dell on the board in the top of the third, but then gave them back in the bottom of the inning as Rutherford loaded the bases with one out. Rutherford head coach Carmen Spina turned to a pinch hitter in that spot and Jordan Sacco delivered a run-scoring single just inside the left field line and Par Landrigan followed with an RBI the hard way, taking a pitch off the helmet with the bases still loaded to make it 6-2.

River Dell senior Ryan Duran overcame early control problems to go the distance for his third county tournament win this season.

While it did not seem like much a story line at the time, Duran limited the damage and stranded three baserunners in that frame as Rutherford might have been just one hit away from knocking one of the best pitchers in Bergen County off the mound.

“We needed one more big hit and we didn't get it. We had the bases loaded, we were up 6-2 and he got a pop-up and a strikeout,” said Spina. “If something squirts through there, maybe he is out of the game and maybe it is a different story, but he made his pitches and got through the inning. He is a competitor and he did not want to relinquish the ball.”

Having used both Stephen Kinzler and McMillan in the state tournament loss to West Essex on Sunday, Spina was trying to stitch together seven innings on the mound and senior Bobby Conrad gave the Bulldogs just what they need through the first four, allowing just single runs in the second and third innings and working a 1-2-3 fourth. But Brett Lubben's lead-off single in the fifth set off the chain of events that led to Martinez's game-tying home run.

Christian Estevez followed Lubben's single with one of his own and Tim Barnes' attempt to sacrifice both runners up a base turned out better than planned as Barnes beat the play at first base and Lubben scored on the resulting throwing error. That cut the lead Rutherford lead to 6-3 and it was all tied when Martinez cleared the bases.

Adam Hernandez had an RBI in the bottom of the sixth inning as Rutherford drew to within one run.

River Dell sent 10 hitters to the plate in the fifth and nine more to the dish in the top of the sixth against Conrad and two relievers.

“I always take the approach of trying to win the game in front of you and we went after [West Essex] yesterday and it did not work out in our favor,” said Spina. “Bobby Conrad and Max Maasleveld, a sophomore, and Jake [Regina] did the best they could against a hard-hitting lineup. They tried to do the best they could to keep them off balance and they battled all the way.”

River Dell's sixth inning rally started when Barnes reached on a one-out error. Martinez (3-for-5, HR, 3 RBI, R) followed with his 100th career hit that pushed Barnes to third and Duran laid down the perfect bunt that squeezed home the go-ahead run. Evan Drummond stroked an RBI single and Jaylin Martinez (2-for-3, 2 RBI) walked with the bases loaded to make it 9-6.

Duran had retired eight straight batters heading into the bottom of the sixth and made it nine when he got the leadoff hitter to groundout, but McMillan drew a one-out walk and Regina (2-for-3, 2 R, RBI) followed with a double. With two outs, Adam Hernandez singled home McMillan and Regina scored on wild pitch to make it 9-8. In the seventh, Duran got three ground balls to negate a one-out walk to Sean Potor to close it out and send River Dell on to the final against top-seeded and undefeated St. Joseph Regional on Wednesday in a 4:30 p.m. start in Demarest.

“After we beat Bergen [Catholic in the quarterfinals] I could just kind of see it in the kids' eyes. It was like they just said, 'What the heck? Let's just go see if we can get there [to the final],” said Flanagan, whose team improved to 24-6 in a season that will last two more days. “And if you can get there, anything can happen.”

FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.