Saturday, June 1, 2013

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Kevin Magee was not only unhittable, but just about untouchable as he struck out 14 without issuing a walk as Pompton Lakes won its second straight North 1, Group 1 state sectional title with a 7-0 win over New Milford on Friday.

POMPTON LAKES – Having won the program's first Passaic County baseball championship since 1996, a Group 1 school running the gauntlet through more highly-enrolled opponents ending with a thrilling won over Lakeland on Thursday, it would have been explainable had there been some type of let down as Pompton Lakes got right back on the field on Friday for the North 1, Group 1 state sectional final, a tournament it had won last year. Even if the mindset was right, some physical fatigue might have shown up after playing the county final at Passaic Tech, where the temperatures were in the 90s and shade was nowhere to be found.

Instead, what Pompton Lakes did for an encore was even better than the opening act. The Cardinals could not have been more crisp as they got the bats going early, played error-free defense and got the kind of pitching performance for which the word dominant is not nearly a strong enough adjective. Forget unhittable, junior left-hander Kevin Magee was just about untouchable as he K'd five of the first six hitters he faced and fanned 14 in the game, finishing with a two-hit shutout without issuing a walk or even getting to a three-ball count as Pompton Lakes repeated as state sectional champion with a 7-0 victory over New Milford on Friday at Herschfield Park.

“Everything is planned out and as soon as we got on the bus [after the county championship] we talked about what we wanted to do as far as preparation for today's game. Working with these guys, it is all business. They have their goals and they want to reach them,” said Pompton head coach Paul Tanis, who led the Cardinals all the way to the Group 1 state final last season. “You hate to say that they are used to it because each game you win is an accomplishment at this time of the season, but they are used to playing big games and they go in with the mindset to win them.”

Shortstop Sean Ryan had one of the two hits for New Milford, which finished its season with a 21-8 record.

New Milford is a team that is just working its way back to the upper reaches of small school baseball and made a nice run to the final as the No. 4 seed in the bracket, but Pompton's experience was evident from the start as Magee came out throwing gas mixed with curveballs that fell off the table. New Milford's Sawyer Coughlin led off the game by grounding out to shortstop and then Magee, who improved to 9-0 on the season, got four of the next five hitters to swing at two- strike curveballs that, in fairness, would probably have been called strike threes had the Knights not offered. He also got a swing and miss on a change up on the way to striking out the side in order in the second inning.

The gameplan might have been to take some pitches, make Magee work and get to him later in the game, but with just about every pitch he threw either whistling through the strike zone or touching it and then bending or falling out of it, New Milford just couldn't get ahead in the count and was better off trying to attack the first fastball it saw.

“That kid Magee, man, you have to tip your cap to him. Fourteen strikeouts and zero walks, it is hard to produce offensively when you are up against a pitcher throwing like that,” said New Milford head coach Mark Mongiardo. “He got strike one and then he went to the off-speed and he kept us guessing all day long. I think the first time through the lineup he went first pitch fastball for a strike to every hitter except for one, my No. 6 hitter [Elijah Ortiz]. We tried to chart him to see if we could find any tendencies, but he was just lights out.”

With Magee firmly entrenched from the get-go, Pompton gave him some runs to work with right away as leadoff hitter Dan Foote worked back from an 0-2 count against New Milford starter Kevin Soriano, got it full and then ripped a triple into the right centerfield gap. John Steele, the Cardinals' catcher and No. 2 hitter, followed with an RBI double to almost the same place and Conner Lavin added a two-out RBI single to give Pompton a 2-0 lead after one inning.

Pompton's Mike Coss rounding third after his second home run in as many days, this one a third inning grand slam.

Mike Coss, who was playing first base and batting cleanup one day after throwing 126 pitches and hitting the decisive three-run homer in the Cardinals' county final win, came to bat with the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the third inning and promptly put the section final away. He crushed a grand slam well over the rightfield fence and on to the top of the mesh netting that houses the batting cage behind a storage shed to make it 6-0. Designated hitter Jimmy Huber added an RBI single later in the frame to close out the scoring.

“Usually I am not really a home run hitter, but lately, the last two days especially, I have gotten good pitches to hit and I just put the bat on it. He gave me a hanging curveball and I just tried to drive it into the gap, but it had enough legs to get out,” said Coss, who will likely get the ball on Tuesday in the Group 2 state semifinals against the winner of Saturday's game between Dayton Regional and Roselle Park. “We didn't want to have any letdown after the county final and we didn't let it happen. The defense played great, the bats did their job and I would not want to have to hit against Kevin Magee today. He was throwing hard, his hook was unbelievable and he hit all his spots all game.”

Magee had at least one strike out in every inning, he struck out every New Milford hitter at least once in the game and he struck out the side in the second and fifth innings. The only hits he allowed were lead off singles to Sean Ryan and Victor Barrera in the third and seventh innings, respectively, but did not allow any other New Milford hitter to reach base except for Tim Schreck, who traded places at first base with Ryan after a fielder's choice.

“We really wanted to prove to people that we could play with anyone and after yesterday's win [in the county final] I think we showed that. Today we wanted to come out even stronger and I think we did that also,” said Magee. “I had my sinker working today. We called a lot of those, especially against the righties. It was running low and away and we got them chasing. The change-up, the ones that I threw, were working and I needed it because my curveball was sharp early but as I got a little tired I started leaving it up. I was just trying to do my best to get in and out.”

Robert Bowers threw three innings of no-hit, no-run relief for New Milford.

On that front, it was mission accomplished as Magee ended what was a resurgent season for New Milford, which earned a home game in the Bergen County Tournament and got to a section final while racking up a 21-8 final record. The loss aside, there were plenty of positives for Mongiardo to talk about as his team took a postgame knee in the outfield for the final time.

“We thanked the seniors and talked about them moving on now and taking the next step in their life and we talked about the season as a whole, not just today. I don't want them leaving here looking at the scoreboard and just thinking about this game because it was about the whole journey to get here, the good experiences and the disappointments we went through together,” said Mongiardo. “When they reflect I want them to understand that this was not just one good season, but really a step forward for the whole program. It was special what we were able to accomplish this year and we just ran into a very good baseball team today.”

Pompton Lakes is not just a good Group 1 baseball team, but a good team no matter what the designated classification and the Cardinals have it rolling as many of these same players that have now won back-to-back state sectional baseball titles were also apart of state sectional football championships in each of the last two years. The Cardinals will play on Tuesday at William Paterson College in the state semifinals and then hope for another shot in the state final where they were beaten by an experienced Audobon team a year ago .

Although the Cardinals (24-4) did the obligatory pile up on the mound after winning on Friday, it was not an over the top celebration as they feel there is still more work to do.

“We've had people say that sometimes it looks like we are not happy after we win a game, but I think that attitude kind of helps us because we don't get too amped up. We know when to turn it up and get excited, but at the same time we act like we have been there before because we have,” said Foote, Pompton Lakes' shortstop who made the Hail Mary catch that put the Cardinals in the football championship game. “We were questioning whether or not we should even celebrate today. We did yesterday because the county final felt like a bigger game, but after today we know there are bigger games to come and we want to win two more. We are set up perfectly. We have Mike [Coss] for Tuesday, we have Kevin [Magee] for the group championship and if we get there we will go down to Toms River with a little edge to us where as last year we didn't really know what to expect.”

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