Sunday,
May 24, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
|
Sophomore Zach Dreznin did not allow an earned run in his six innings of work as Bergen Catholic advanced to the Bergen County final with a 7-1 win over St. Joseph Regional. |
DEMAREST – The final outs were rolling by and it started to sink in for St. Joseph Regional head coach Frank Salvano, Bergen County’s all-time leader in career wins. Salvano calls the baseball diamond at Northern Valley/Demarest High School, the traditional site of the Bergen County Tournament’s semifinal and championship rounds his “Home away from home,” and the lease was just about up.
Bergen Catholic, led by one of his former assistant coaches, Bob Muggeo, was blitzing St, Joseph on the way to a 7-1 victory in Saturday’s semifinal and it was clear that this would be the last go-round for Salvano, who has won the tournament a record seven times and will retire at season’s end.
“The last inning I was taking a look around that panoramic view here and that is what I am going to miss. It was 7-1 and I looked around and I saw a lot of my people here. Joe Cervino, Sr. again came to watch us play and I wish we could have done a better job for him,” said Salvano. “But hey, I have absolutely no complaints and now qualms. It’s been a dream 28 years for me, a dream and next week I will wake up and get back to the real world.”
While the Salvano Era was ending, maybe a new one was starting in the opposite dugout. Bergen Catholic looked the hungrier side and was the aggressor throughout on its way to its first Bergen County Tournament final since 1999 where it will play top-seeded and defending champion Don Bosco Prep in Sunday’s final.
“We didn’t take anything for granted. We knew were going to have a tough game, but we were prepared. We knew where we would be able to attack a little bit and we were successful,” said Muggeo, the former SJR pitching coach. “I am here because, as a coach, you take little pieces from everybody you work with. I owe Frank Salvano. As you learn and grow as a coach you take a piece from here, a piece from there and develop and put yourself in a situation where you can be a leader of a program yourself.”
|
Freshman Justyn Henry-Malloy scored SJR's lone run. |
St. Joseph missed an early opportunity to take a lead in the bottom of the first inning when it failed to tag up on a fly ball to right field that was obviously deep enough to score a run. Bergen Catholic, on the other hand, went hard after the game’s first score in the top of the second when John Mead (2-for-3, 2 R, SB) singled with two outs, took second on a delayed steal and then scored on a double by Vin Martin (1-for-3, 2 RBI, R, SB).
That was just about enough for Zach Dreznin, who was snapping off curveball after curveball to great effect. The sophomore right-hander was in control just about the whole way as he allowed just three hits over six innings and none in his final three innings of work.
The game changed for good in the bottom of the third and it was by a matter of an inch, maybe two or three. Dreznin temporarily lost the strike zone, issuing consecutive one-out walks to Devin Ortiz and Joseph Toepert before Justyn Henry-Malloy singled to load the bases. Hitting in a favorable 3-1 count, John Greeley sliced one down the right field line that would have been extra bases. Instead, it landed just to the outside of the right field line, barely foul. In the next pitch, Bergen Catholic turned a 6-4-3 double play with David LaManna hanging in and making a tough turn in the middle.
Instead of leading by at least a run, St. Joseph was held off the board and Bergen Catholic struck for four runs in the top of the fourth to all but put the game away. Martin was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to earn an RBI the hard way, Erickson Nichols (1-for-3, RBI) hit an 0-2 pitch from Ortiz into centerfield for another run and then, with two outs, the Green Knights let a short flyball into right field drop to gift August Samek a two-run single and BC a 5-0 lead.
|
Sonny Ulliana knocked in two runs for Bergen Catholic, which will play Don Bosco Prep in Sunday's final. |
Sonny Ulliana (1-for-2, 2 RBI, 2 BB) doubled in two more runs in the top of the fifth to make it 7-0 and Dreznin knew how to pitch with the lead. He did not allow a hit or a walk over his final three innings of work and the only run scored against him was unearned in the bottom of the sixth.
“Early on in the game I really did not have my best stuff and my team came through for me. I wasn’t able to finish off a lot of hitters, but I was able to get them to put the ball in play. [Shortstop] Erickson Nichols started a great double play [in the third] and then after the fourth inning I felt like I could just roll,” said Dreznin (6 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 H, 5 K, 4 BB, 2 HBP). “In the first inning I wasn’t able to really find my curveball, but as the game went on I got it back and that was the big pitch for me today.”
So now it is off to the county final where the Crusaders will meet Don Bosco Prep, the undefeated behemoth, the state’s top ranked team, the nationally ranked side and the defending champion. If this is really the start of a new era at BC, then the natural progression would be to go through its longtime rival.
“It’s not about individual stuff, it is about team stuff and that is what we have been preaching all year long,” said Muggeo. “Are we as good as Don Bosco? I don’t know, I guess we will find out tomorrow. I am going to go home now to watch Herb Brooks ‘Miracle’ speech and I’ll bring it with me. ‘Ninety-nine times out of 100 they are going to beat us, but today we are taking them!” I’ll probably use that in the pregame [on Sunday].”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME. TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT
OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com. |