Sunday,
May 17, 2015
By Jason Bernstein
Special to NJS.com
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St. Joseph's John Greeley gets a hug after his seventh inning single gave the Green Knights a 4-3 win over Ramsey in the Bergen County Tournament quarterfinals. |
EMERSON - John Greeley got another reminder of how unfair baseball can be when he hit a rope into the right-centerfield gap, which instead of being a sure extra-base hit to lead off the sixth inning, turned into a highlight reel catch by Ramsey's Ashton Bardzell.
The blast, as well as well the fourth inning liner he hit that was snagged by first baseman Pat Mullane, were just the latest examples of a spring which has seen Greeley consistently hit the ball hard, only to be rewarded with tough luck outs and the encouragement of "you'll get them next time."
"Every time I go up, I try to look for a right field approach. I try to hit it there in that exact spot, but (Bardzell), I got to give him credit, he made a great play. I've been hitting the ball hard a lot and guys have been making sick catches. I've been unlucky."
His luck was bound to change and it finally did in the bottom of the seventh inning with two runners on base. Once again, Greeley hit the ball hard and finally found a hole, giving the senior captain a hit and his St. Joseph Regional team the victory.
Greeley's hard hit grounder through the drawn in infield and into left field scored Devin Ortiz with the winning run as the second-seeded Green Knights rallied from three runs down to defeat seventh-seeded Ramsey, 4-3.
The victory sends St. Joseph into the semifinals next Saturday at Northern Valley/Demarest where it will face No. 3 Bergen Catholic.
Ortiz led off the seventh with a walk. He then advanced to third when Justyn-Henry Malloy's grounder was misplayed for an error, resulting in runners on second and third with one out for Greeley.
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Ramsey starter Rob Sartori allowed just two earned runs in his five innings of work. |
"I knew that he wasn't getting his off-speed over well and he was going to throw me a fastball," Greeley said. "I just hopped right on it. I got a good pitch to hit."
"I'm so happy for John Greeley," St. Joseph coach Frank Salvano said. "He's been scuffling a lot this year. He's my captain and I love him like my son. I was just so happy for him, that he finally made a big contribution to the team in his senior year.
"John's our captain, John's our leader and I said to him you can be down, but you can't let your teammates see that you're down. You're our leader, you're our guy."
Greeley's hit was the last in a series of moments where the Green Knights had to regroup after experiencing adversity.
Four St. Joseph errors put Ortiz, the starting pitcher, and St. Joseph in a 3-0 hole in the second inning. Ortiz, a University of Virginia commit, simply buckled down, retiring 13 of the next 15 Rams he faced. Even after the miscues, Ortiz said he never lost trust in the defenders behind him, rather than simply try to strike everyone else.
"You just got to let it go. You got to do your job," said Ortiz, who struck out four in 6 1/3 innings and allowed no earned runs, two hits and a walk. "I trust my fielders, I know that when they do get a ground ball, they'll make the next play."
In the bottom of the fifth it was Ortiz's turn to make a play with the bat.
Mound counterpart, Rob Sartori showed great grit, keeping a dangerous Green Knights lineup off the scoreboard for the first four innings. But Nick Cantone had a leadoff single and Austin Bodrato reached on an error, setting the stage for Ortiz, who launched a three-run homer over the right field fence to tie the game.
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SJR's Devin Ortiz rounding third after his three-run homer in the fifth tied the game. |
"I told (teammate) Justin (Ramos) before I up that I had to tie this game up. It was just something to try to pump me up," said Ortiz. "The first two times I swung, I tried to go for the fences on those. My last swing, which was the home run, I was just really trying to protect and get on base in anyway, shoot it into the gap. I just barreled it and hit it over the fence."
"We knew that there was one person that we couldn't let beat us," Ramsey coach Bill Chesney said. "It's all over our scouting reports, don't let (Ortiz) beat us. (Sartori) just hung that breaking ball one too many times. It was just in the wrong spot."
St. Joseph left the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth. Then, in the seventh, the Rams loaded the bases thanks to one-out walks by Kyle Fanning and Jake Gursaly and intentional walk to the scorching hot Bardzell. Green Knights reliever Joe Neglia induced a popup to short for the second out. Matt Butler then hit a long fly ball to right, but after being spun around twice, Cantone was able to recover and make an over-the-shoulder catch, ending the inning and saving three runs.
Cantone, a sophomore, was 1-for-2 with a walk and a run scored. Connor Kolich drew three walks, while Ortiz was 1-for-2 with two walks and two runs.
Sartori allowed two earned runs and five hits over five innings, walking three and striking out two. Bardzell, who has received attention from various MLB scouting departments during what has become one of the finest seasons in Bergen County history, reached base three times and stole a base. Gursaly had the lone hit in the second for Ramsey, an RBI single, which made it 2-0.
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