Saturday,
April 25, 2014
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Dan Reiff was one of three Dwight-Englewood hitters to knock in two runs as the Bulldogs scored 12 times in the fifth inning on the way to a 14-4 win over Leonia on Friday afternoon. |
ENGLEWOOD – Ever since scoring 14 runs in the second game of the season, Dwight-Englewood's baseball team had fallen into a prolonged hitting slump. Averaging just a shade over three runs a game since then and facing Leonia's Division 1-bound senior Andy Fernandez, it did not seem like Friday was going to be the day that scoring malaise would come to an end. That point was nearly driven home when Fernandez mowed his way through the first three innings as Leonia built an early four-run lead. The Bulldogs adjusted their approach at the plate, taking more pitches and shorter swings against the hard-throwing righty. They were hoping just to cut into the lead and stay within striking distance. Instead, all of their frustrations in the batter's box were taken out in one inning.
Dwight-Englewood had a school-record 14 consecutive batters reach base in the bottom of the fifth inning. Five different players had run-scoring singles in a monster 12-run fifth as the Bulldogs not only erased a deficit but invoked the mercy rule with a 14-4 triumph over Leonia at Solomon Field in Englewood.
“The coaches told us we had to have better at-bats and shorten up our swing and it worked perfectly,” said Dwight-Englewood's Dan Reiff. “It was a total team effort and once we got some runs across we got really locked in at the plate. To get this win and get back to .500 is huge for us.”
Leonia (3-6) jumped on the scoreboard first with a four-run inning in the third. The Lions took advantage of a pair of errors as Fernandez lined a two-run double and Dylan Aponte followed with a two-run single to make it 4-0. The damage could have been worse with the bases loaded and one out, but Corey Klein came on in relief and got a force out at the plate and a fielder's choice to end the inning without any further damage.
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Dylan Aponte's two-run single gave Leonia a 4-0 lead in the third. |
It did not look like it would matter with the way Fernandez ripped through the order the first time around. The second time around was a different story. Ryan Levin led off the inning with a double and an error put another runner on base before both were brought home by a single from Joey Saffioti that sliced the Lions' four-run lead in half, 4-2.
That was the confidence builder that the Bulldogs needed before putting together their biggest inning of the season. It started with Ben Zucker and Dallas Devlin drawing consecutive walks before an error loaded the bases. Reiff, the clean-up hitter, then ripped one through the drawn-in infield to score both Zucker and Devlin to tie the game. Then, with the bases loaded again and still nobody out, Al Schwartz was hit by a pitch to put the Bulldogs in front and Max Ballos-Bogard lined an RBI single that eventually knocked Fernandez out of the box.
Without recording a single out, the Bulldogs were able to turn the lineup over with Zucker and Devlin poking back-to-back two-run singles with Chris Anton following with an RBI single of his own before Saffioti brought Anton home on a sacrifice fly to plate Anton with the game-ending run.
“We now see what can happen when we have smart at-bats and to do it against a very good pitcher shows what we're capable of,” said Dwight-Englewood head coach Bruce Devlin, who starts five sophomores and one freshman. “I think getting out of the third inning down just four runs was huge and Corey Klein did a great job to wiggle out of that. I liked the character we showed today. It's baseball and you never what can happen. This game showed why you never give up and you keep playing hard because drawing one walk or getting one key hit could lead to a huge inning that turns the tables in your favor.”
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Ben Zucker had two RBI for Dwight, which got back to .500 at 5-5. |
Saffioti had just one official plate appearance but finished with a career-high four RBIs for Dwight-Englewood (5-5). Zucker, Devlin, Reiff each had two RBIs to help pick up the win for Klein, who allowed just one hit in a solid 2 2/3 innings of relief.
Now that the Bulldogs have gotten back to .500 with an offensive onslaught, the challenge now is to keep that momentum going on Saturday morning against Bogota and get their team on a roll going into the second half of their league schedule.
“This is a big win, but once we walk out of these gates, we have to forget about it and focus on winning the next one,” said Saffioti. “We felt the momentum shifting when we got some runners on and we kept that energy up. We have to keep the same approach we had today for a whole seven innings to be successful. If we keep coming to the field with the same intensity and keep that mental approach at bat and in the field, we'll be fine.”
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