Tuesday,
May 27, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Senior Steven Spatucci took the ball on short notice and gave Don Bosco Prep 4 2/3 innings of two-hit baseball as the Ironmen won the Bergen County title with a 7-1 win over St. Joseph. |
DEMAREST – When he woke up on Monday morning Steven Spattuci was just hoping he could help out somewhere. An inning of relief, a batter in relief or just trying to help his team's hitters recognize opposing pitches...heck, anything that would help Don Bosco Prep in the Bergen County Baseball Tournament, Spattuci was all in.
And then, shortly before first pitch, he realized he would be throwing it as the Bosco senior was pressed into service when scheduled starter Cullen Dana reported shoulder stiffness while warming up.
“It was about 30 minutes before the game that I was notified that I was getting the ball. Waking up this morning I thought I was going to have a chance to come out of the [bull]pen, but it turned out a little bit different,” said Spattuci, a right-hander. “When I was warming up and I saw all the people here I was a little bit shocked, but I loved everything about it. I love to compete and I wanted to make the most of the chance I got here.”
Spattuci did just that as he gave his team just what it needed. Working into the fifth inning Spattuci allowed just one run and two hits and left with a two-run lead. It was not long after that the pressure that the Ironmen had applied offensively simply by putting the ball in play finally cracked defending champion St. Joseph Regional. Bosco sent 10 hitters to the plate in the top of the sixth, scored four times and went on to a 7-1 win to grab the program's seventh Bergen County title at Northern Valley/Demarest.
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Joseph Toepert had the only St. Joseph hit that left the infield, a clean single in the fifth. |
Bosco got all of the offense it really needed with a pair of unearned runs in the second and third innings. Sean Buckhout led off the second with a single, Brennan Cotter walked and Tyler Panno then made it a bases loaded, no-out situation when his sacrifice bunt was thrown away. The Ironmen had to settle for just the one run on Adam Ayala's bases loaded walk two outs later, but the tone was already set. St. Joseph went on to make an unprecedented seven errors in the game, including one in the third when Josh Shaw scored on a double play grounder to make it 2-0.
A pair of back-to-back two out doubles by by Tristan Dacey and Buckhout in the top of the fifth gave Bosco a 3-0 lead and, even though his team got one of those runs back in the bottom of the frame on a sacrifice fly by Mark Fossati, SJR head coach Frank Salvano knew that there was still a big hill to climb.
“We are not a team that can play from behind because we don't hit enough and we don't score enough. I told my coaches when we were down 3-1 that it felt like 10-0,” said SJR head coach Frank Salvano. “We played so well to get here, but I told my kids that they picked the worst day possible to play their worst game. I feel bad for everyone that was here today because they didn't really see St. Joe's. Seven errors, that is not us and I apologize for that.”
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Bosco's Josh Shaw connecting on one of the two doubles that helped him earn the Tournament MVP Award. |
For a rough as SJR made it on itself, it was still a two-run ballgame heading into the top of the sixth before the wheels completely fell off. An error on a ground ball hit by Tyler Panno, a bunt by Brian Meerholz that came to a halt right on the third base line and a wild pitch put two runners in scoring position and pinch hitter Dylan Maher lifted a sac fly to make it 4-1. Adam Ayala then reached on an error and made it all the way to third base as Meerholz scored to make it 5-1.
While everything Bosco tried worked, it was the opposite for the Green Knights, who guessed right and pitched out to foil a suicide squeeze. Ayala was hung out to dry, but scored anyway when a soft toss to third base ended up in left field.
“The idea is to get on the bases and create some havoc,” said Ayala, Bosco's leadoff hitter who was 1-for-3 in the final and a combined 5-for-11 in the the final three rounds of the tournament. “ Today it was fun. Everybody did their part and we just kept putting the ball in play and keeping the pressure on them.”
Brendan Bisset and Shaw then traded places with back-to-back doubles to make it 7-1. Shaw was 2-for-4 with two doubles on Monday and was 4-for-8 over the weekend to earn tournament MVP honors.
“This feels awesome. We have come together as a team and nobody could have beat us today,” said Shaw. “Little things like Sean Buckhout getting a bunt down [in the third inning] and getting me home and executing plays for the good of the team was what this was all about and it feels great to be county champs.
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SJR scored its lone run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth inning. |
Joe Siciliano pitched the final 2 2/3 innings to pick up his second save in as many days. He did not allow a hit, walked two, struck out three and worked a 1-2-3 seventh to set off the customary dog pile celebration at the pitcher's mound.
The hard part for the Ironmen now is refocusing. Because the county tournament was delayed by weather for a day, there is a short turnaround to Tuesday's Non-Public A state tournament quarterfinal on the road at Seton Hall Prep. Bosco, the No. 5 seed, as a question mark next to its starting pitcher for that game as Dana is likely unavailable, Alex Mastando pitched six innings in the semifinals and Siciliano threw a total of 3 1/3 innings over the past two days.
But that is a question that Bosco head coach Mike Rooney will answer on Tuesday morning.
“They are going to be on the cloud for a while and they are probably not going to come back to earth until tomorrow morning and I will let them have that because they deserve it,” said Rooney. “But if there is a game to be played, no matter who it is against, we'll show up and we will show up early.”
Salvano is hoping that a better St. Joe's team shows up on Tuesday. The Green Knights are the No. 3 seed in Non-Public North A and will host Union Catholic.
“I told our kids that they could either bury their heads and feel sorry for themselves and forget about the state tournament, or they can wake up and get ready to go for another tournament. We have a chance to wash it clean,” said Salvano. “We have won 21 ballgames this year, we are 21-5, and this is not a bad team. There are 51 other teams in Bergen County that would have loved to be in the position we were in today and that is a positive. I just wish that we would have made a little bit more of a representative showing.”
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