Saturday,
April 25, 2015
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Chris Camilo has feasted on opposing pitchers since his return to Lyndhurst. He crushed a 3-run homer in the Bears's 13-3, six-inning victory over Leonia on Friday afternoon. |
LEONIA - For the first 12 games of the regular season, all senior Chris Camilo could do was wait. Having transferred back to his home team of Lyndhurst from Paramus Catholic, Camilo had to sit either 30 days or the first 12 games of the regular-season, whichever came first.
After sitting out those 12 games, Camilo made quite a debut by pitching a no-hitter against Garfield last week in his first time playing in a Lyndhurst uniform. He has added quite an encore by wielding a torrid bat in the middle of the lineup, sparking the Golden Bears from also-rans to contenders for a Bergen County tournament berth.
Camilo kept the hot hand going at the plate as his crushing three-run homer highlighted a 10-run fourth inning as Lyndhurst reversed an early mercy-rule loss to Leonia two weeks ago by beating the Lions in the same fashion, with a 13-3 victory in six innings for its sixth straight win on Friday at Leonia High School.
"I wasn't on the field the last time we played them and I was really excited for this game," said Camilo. "We're starting to play well and we're gaining confidence with each win."
Leonia struck early by plating two runs in the bottom of the first. Kyle Marshall stroked a leadoff double and scored on a single by Andy Marquardt. Marquardt then scored himself on a sac fly by Dylan Aponte for a quick 2-0 lead.
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Dylan Aponte's first inning sacrifice fly gave Leonia an early 2-0 lead. |
Marshall was cruising on the mound through three innings before the Lions unraveled in the top of the fourth. After a walk and a single to leadoff the frame, Nick Carnevale's single skipped under the glove of an outfielder, allowing both runs to score and tie the game. Two batters later, No. 8 batter Eddie Rivera doubled in the gap to put Lyndhurst ahead.
Errors on pickoff throws and an attempted steal put runners into scoring position. Brandon Karlok brought home one of those runs with a single before Camilo provided the knockout blow two batters later. He turned on an inside fastball and roped it over the fence in left-center for a three-run homer that gave the Golden Bears a 9-2 lead.
"(Marshall) got a little wild that inning and I felt like he was going to give me something to hit," said Camilo. "I got a good pitch and just went for it. It was really hard to watch us struggle early in the season and not b e able to do anything about it. It feels good that I'm back playing and being able to contribute for my teammates."
Leonia had a chance to get back in the game in the bottom half of the inning. Marquardt had another run-scoring single and the Lions loaded the bases with one out. Lyndhurst senior right-hander Nolan Kelly got out of the jam with a strikeout and a fly ball. Matt DeMarco came on in relief and allowed just one hit over two innings of work to close it out.
"We had one bad inning and it cost us the game," said Leonia head coach Walt Gonzales. "We got off to a good start and we looked pretty good through the first three innings. But once you start walking guys and throwing the ball all over the place to give the other team extra outs, it's tough to bounce back from that. This team still wants to make a run at the county and state tournaments. If we're going to do that, we'll have to use this experience to become a better team."
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Matt DeMarco went four innings to pick up the win for Lyndhurst. |
Camilo paced the offense for Lyndhurst (9-6) by going 2-for-3 with the homer and 4 RBI. DeMarco had three hits, two runs scored, and an RBI. Evan Kelly and Nick Carnevale each added two hits. Kelly was all about the number four as he picked up the win. He pitched four innings, allowed four hits, walked four, and had four Ks.
Marquardt led the way for Leonia (5-5) by going 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored.
Camilo will likely be on the hill on Saturday when Lyndhurst takes a short trip down the road to face Rutherford, an 18-14 winner on Friday over Hawthorne. Two weeks ago at 3-6, it was a question if Lyndhurst would even qualify for the state tournament. Now with Camilo back and the team clicking on all cylinders, the expectations have been significantly raised.
"We want to be in the county tournament and we think we can make a run at a section title," said Lyndhurst head coach Pat Auteri. "When we were 3-6, we got the seniors together and talked about what kind of season did they want to have. Losing to Leonia the first time was really a turnaround moment for our season. We have come in every day much more focused since then and you can see the difference in the way we play. I hope we can keep that going over the next few weeks."
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