Monday,
May 19, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Brennan Cotter hit the fence with two doubles in two different parts of the park inside the first three innings to set the tone in Don Bosco Prep's 6-3 win over Bergen Catholic in the Bergen County Tournament quarterfinals on Sunday in Emerson. |
EMERSON – The atmosphere is just different. The crowds are bigger, the banter is a little bit more personal and the stakes are always higher when Don Bosco Prep and Bergen Catholic get together in any sport no matter what the stakes really are. In this case the two parochial powerhouses were playing for a spot in the semifinals of the Bergen County Baseball Tournament and the fact that Bergen Catholic was the top seed and had beaten its rival twice during the regular season would have little bearing on the proceedings as neither program scares easily.
This would be a one-off; seven innings to decide which team moved on and which team would have to leave the tournament to begin plotting its revenge in a possible state playoff rematch 11 days down the road.
“We knew the importance of coming into this game and throwing the first punch. You don't want to come into this game and basically figure it out in the fifth inning,” said Don Bosco Prep head coach Mike Rooney. “It's Bosco/Bergen and you want to come in here ready to go from from pitch one.”
The warning shot that Bosco was in the game came in the top of the second inning when first baseman Brennan Cotter hit a seed that crashed into the right field fence on the fly and with a crash. He was stranded in scoring position, but the Cotter loudly broke the ice and the runs would follow as the eighth seeded Ironmen eliminated top-seeded Bergen Catholic, 6-3, on Sunday at Emerson High School.
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Bergen Catholic's Sonny Ulliana lining up his sixth inning home run. |
Alex Alaya's single with one out in the third plated Dylan Maher, who just beat a play at first base to open the inning, to give Don Bosco Prep the lead and Cotter's second ringing double of the game, a shot that hit the left centerfield fence on a fly, set up a fourth inning run. Cotter missed a pair of home runs in the first three innings by a grand total of about a foot, but Maher singled him with a two-out single that made it 2-0.
“We needed to come out hot because Bergen is a very good team and when you come out hot against a team like that it could be a little demoralizing for them,” said Cotter, who will play at Catholic University next season. “The offense just had to keep hitting the ball forward and we knew we would be all right.”
Bergen Catholic got back in the game with two unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth. John VanDeMark reached on an error leading off the frame, Sonny Ulliana followed with a single two hitters later and Justin Salem's single plated two runs, the second scoring when the throw back in from the outfield flew over the back stop.
Of the 62 combined hitters that went to the plate in the game, only five of them struck out and with the ball being put in play so often and the field's outfield's dimension being tested repeatedly, it was only a matter of time before the 2-2 tie was broken and Bosco did it in the top of the fifth with some small ball. Ayala beat out a bunt leading off, stole second, tagged and moved to third when BC leftfielder Pat Doherty robbed Josh Shaw off an extra base hit at the wall and then scored on a wild pitch to give the Ironmen the lead for good.
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Bosco's Alex Alaya had two hits, an RBI, a run scored and a stolen base. |
An then Ray Diaz made one of the most successful cameo appearances in the history of the county tournament. He was called on to pinch hit with two outs in the top of the sixth inning with Tyler Panno standing on third base. Diaz put on a helmet, walked to the plate and, on the first pitch he saw, crushed a Mike Martinez pitch into the trees beyond the left centerfield fence to give Bosco a 6-2 lead.
“Coach has been putting me in in the big spots for a couple of games now and I was always taught to prepare for the moment and excel when you get the chance,” said Diaz, a senior. “I just got up there, saw a fastball and hit the ball on the nose. That was my job and I did my job.”
Ulliana gave Bergen Catholic a consolation prize with a laser-like line drive home run in the bottom sixth, but that was the lone run the Crusaders could muster against Alex Mastando (3 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 H, 1 K, BB, W), the Bosco reliever who pitched three innings of quality relief behind Cullen Dana (4 IP, 2 R, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 K, 1 BB, ND) to pick up the win. Mastando retired 9 of the 11 hitters he faced and set down the side in order in the seventh to close it out.
“I started five games this year and the first time I came on in relief was last week against Ramsey and that experience helped me today,” said Mastando, junior right hander. “The whole key of pitching out of the bullpen is to come right in and execute your pitches. I had to come out and throw strikes and get nine outs and that is what I did.”
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This picture has nothing to do with the story...it just looks good on the page. |
While the seeds suggest that the No. 8 seed knocking out the No. 1 in the quarterfinals was an upset, it is hard to call the Bosco win a surprise, especially in this year's county tournament where the field is a open as it has ever been. The Ironmen move on to face fifth-seeded Old Tappan in next weekend's semifinal round and, as crazy as it is to suggest, the face the challenge of trying to get as pumped up for that game as they were on Sunday in front of a crowd and in an atmosphere fit for a championship game.
“I am glad we have a week. If the game was tomorrow I could really understand your point, but we have time. We have two games this week and we might find ourselves down in the seventh inning needing a run and that kind of situation would get us recharged,” said Rooney, whose program does not have the luxury of calling this tournament a success despite the fact that it has outplayed its seed. “When you sign up to coach here and when you sign up to play here you know the expectation level and the people that come here embrace that. We are not here to participate, we are here to achieve victory.
“While I do agree with you that sometimes you want the prospective that they are 16 and 17-year old kids playing a high school sport, sometimes you lose sight of that pretty quickly,” added Rooney. “You want to have that perspective, but you want to have it after you have won a championship or a big game.”
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