Friday,
April 18, 2014
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
|
|
Sandro Martinez kept his team in the game until hit could snap a tie with a four-run sixth inning as Union City topped Kearny, 5-1, on Friday. |
UNION CITY – If someone told Union City head coach Chipper Benway that his team would have just one hit through the first five innings and none since the second batter of the game against a quality team like Kearny, the natural conclusion would be that his Soaring Eagles would be in serious trouble. But when a team plays error-free ball and pitches its way out of a few jams, it can bide some time to keep them in the game until the bats get going. That was a recipe for success on Friday morning as Union City finally busted out at just the right time.
Sophomore right-hander Sandro Martinez kept the team afloat until Jose Tavarez snapped a tie game with a two-run single as Union City scored four times in the bottom of the sixth and that was the difference in a 5-1 victory over Kearny played on the roof of Union City High School.
“I think I was more antsy and nervous than they were late in the game,” said Benway. “We struggled to get the bats going but Sandro made enough good pitches to keep us in the game until we got on track with some big hits and some small ball, too. I thought we stayed calm under a pressure situation and that's an encouraging sign to see.”
Union City grabbed an early lead when Manny Cruz drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the first and Luis Solorzano followed with a double to bring him home for a 1-0 lead.
Kearny responded quickly in the top of the second. The Kardinals drew a trio of second-inning walks to score T.J. Witt and tie the game at 1. From that point until the sixth inning, Kearny held all the momentum behind the stellar pitching from Bryan Rowe. They were unable to capitalize though as they had runners in scoring position in the third, fourth, and fifth innings but could not push across the go-ahead run. Martinez made the necessary pitches and got a lucky break in the third inning. With runners in first and second with no outs, Witt hit a hard ground ball off the glove of Martinez. But it ricocheted right to Union City shortstop Dany Perez for a rare, 1-6-4-3 double play.
|
Jose Tavarez had the big hit, a two-run single in the bottom of the sixth that gave Union City the lead for good. |
“You can't waste one opportunity after another when you get runners in scoring position like we did today,” said Kearny head coach Frank Bifulco. “Even if we get just one run across, the entire tone of the game changes. (Rowe) did a great job all game against a good lineup, but our lack of driving runners home in scoring position eventually caught up to us. Our pitchers are keeping us in games and we've consistently had runners on base all season. We just have to do a better job of getting those runs across and setting the tone early instead of it being close where one rough inning kills us.”
The Soaring Eagles took good advice from their coaching staff and made an adjustment to their approach at the plate for the bottom half of the sixth inning. They did not hit a single ball to the right side of the field over the first five innings and hit only one ball up the middle. So they let the ball get deeper and worked on hitting up the middle or to the right side.
It paid immediate dividends as a leadoff single by Bryan Dominguez got things started. Kevin Perez followed with a walk and Dany Perez's attempt at a sac bunt was laid down perfectly along the third-base line for a base hit that loaded the bases. With the Kearny infield drawn in, Tavarez laced a groundball just underneath the glove of the Kardinals' second baseman and into right-center to plate two runs for a 3-1 lead.
“With the bases loaded and nobody out, I knew I would get something over the middle that I could hit,” said Tavarez. “The coaches told us before the inning to wait on the ball just a little bit longer and drive it to the right side. I got a pitch right over the plate and that's what I did.”
Armando Qualles then executed a suicide squeeze to bring home another run before Addelyn Vazquez's single to right-center brought home another run. He got thrown out trying to stretch it into a double to end the inning, but the damage had been done as the Soaring Eagles got four runs across before Martinez tossed a 1-2-3 seventh to slam the door on his first complete game victory.
|
Kearny starter Bryan Rowe took a hard-luck loss. |
Martinez walked six and struckout six but only gave up two hits for Union City (7-3).
Rowe gave up five hits, walked four, and had 4 K's for Kearny (6-4). He along with John O'Neill had the Kardinals two hits.
The win is big one going into an incredibly rough week coming up with Paramus Catholic, Bayonne, St. Peter's Prep, and one of New Jersey's best teams in Millburn over the next week.
“With a big week ahead of us, it's big to get a 'W' to keep our confidence up,” said Benway. “We started six or seven guys who played varsity baseball as freshman and sophomores last year and we put them into the fire. We did that hoping that it would pay off down the road for the stability of the program. Well now it's down the road and we're going to see what we're made of. We stayed the course today even then we didn't have a whole lot going offensively. There is always room for us to improve but I like where we are right now and we'll know a lot more about where we are over the next few days.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME.
TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT
OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com. |