Friday, May 31, 2013

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

After allowing three hits in the first inning, St. Joseph senior Shawn Kanwisher allowed just one more the rest of the way as the Green Knights pounded out a 13-2 victory over River Dell in the Bergen County Tournament final on Thursday.

DEMAREST – St. Joseph was the No. 1 seed and the juggernaut which has a high draft pick at the top of its rotation. The Green Knights, who have lost just once this season, were the overwhelming favorites heading into the Bergen County Tournament final on Thursday against River Dell, but there was that moment, however brief, when it looked like the underdog had more than a puncher's chance.

After a one-out double to the opposite field by Tim Barnes in the top of the first inning, senior Brandon Martinez sliced a high fly ball the other way that just kept carrying and went out over the 301 foot sign in the right field corner. Three batters into the game, River Dell had a two-run lead and there were two outs in the bottom of the first inning, one out away from making St. Joseph play under some real pressure.

With runners at second and third, River Dell starter Corey Martinez got a flyball to right field on which there was no advance as Ryan Duran through a laser back into the cutoff man and a called strike three for the second out of the inning with Matt Kozuch stepping to the plate. Had River Dell gotten back into the dugout with a 2-0 lead, it might have been interesting.

“There was a little bit of nervousness in that first inning, just a little bit, but I think the turning point of the game was in the bottom of the first when we had second and third with no outs and they got our 3 and 4 hitters out,” said St. Joseph head coach Frank Salvano. “If they get Kozuch there, I think it might have been a whole different game. If they get out of a second and third having gotten out 3, 4 and 5 hitters, that would have been big for their confidence. But Matty came up with that big hit.”

That big hit was Kozuch's double off the left field fence that tied the game and Isaias Quiroz and Mike Gallo followed with run scoring-singles to give St. Joe's the lead. Then, by sending 12 hitters to the plate and scoring eight times in the bottom of the third inning, SJR put the hammer down in a 13-2 win shortened to five innings by the mercy rule. It was the ninth Bergen County title for the Green Knights' program and their first since 2009.

Brandon Martinez hitting the first inning home run that gave River Dell an early 2-0 lead.

“This is the ultimate because there is no tournament in New Jersey like the Bergen County Tournament. C'mon, what other county has 54 teams and a .650 winning percentage just to get in?” said Salvano, who has won county titles in each of the last four decades and is Bergen County's all-time leader in career wins. “To win this is huge. I am getting old. I won at least one in the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s and now this, but I never get tired of it.”

River Dell was just the third double-digit seed to make it as far as the county final and had already won four games in the tournament, the number a team usually needs to win the whole thing. But the Hawks won a play-in game then beat No. 2 seed Bergen Catholic and No. 4 Rutherford in the semifinals to get a shot at St. Joseph, which is now 28-1 on the season. The Hawks used ace Ryan Duran to win in the semifinals, which made them the de facto Bergen County public school champion.

“Any time you get to a county final it is an honor, but we just wish that we were a little more representative of our season here today. By far that was the most runs that we have lost by all year, but what are you going to do? St. Joe's is a great team,” said River Dell head coach Brandon Flanagan, who brought the Hawks to the championship game for just the second time in the program's history and for the first time since 1973. “We won four games to get into the final after having to play in [to the Round of 16] and to get here as a 10 seed was an accomplishment, but we weren't satisfied. We didn't want to come in second, but the game got away from us a little bit. They executed and we had a hard time.”

The hard times for River Dell came in the third inning back-to-back walks to Rob Kaminsky and Alex Woinski to open the frame got the carousel turning. They both moved up on a wild pitch and Kaminsky scored on Kozuch's sacrifice fly. Quiroz delivered an RBI single to make it 6-2, Gallo walked and Dom Paiotti singled in a run and moved up to second on the throw home. Mark Fossati then delivered a two-run single, and would later got on to steal home on the front end of a double steal with Ryan Rivera and Woinski's two-out double made it 12-2.

Ryan Rivera had two hits, scored twice and stole a base for SJR, which will get right back at it on the state sectional semifinals on Friday.

Lost in the offensive explosion was the work of SJR starting pitcher Shawn Kanwisher, a senior right-hander, who gave up three hits and a walk against the first five batters he faced and then did not allow another hit until there were two outs in the fifth and final inning. Over his final four innings of work he allowed just a one-out walk to Jaylin Martinez in fourth, an infield single to Brandon Martinez with two outs in the fifth and hit Duran with a pitch before getting a strikeout to end the game and was named the MVP of the county final.

River Dell's season came to a close with a 24-7 record while SJR is more than halfway to its goal of eight straight playoff wins that would give it county, state sectional and group championships. The schedule is compressed as the Green Knights will host St. Peter's Prep on Friday in the Non-Public North A state sectional semifinals and Prep gave SJR a heckuva battle the last time it visited Montvale for a state tournament baseball game.

“The process started with us needing eight wins and now we are down to three. We'll celebrate this win, I told the kids they have until 11 tonight and then it is right back to business tomorrow,” said Salvano. “A lot of the pressure is off because we did win a major championship, but we are not satisfied. This group, at 28-1, we think we are better than even this and this is the ultimate when you are talking about Bergen County baseball.”

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