Sunday,
May 24, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Vitaly Jangols came out of the bullpen to retire all seven hitters he faced to pick up the win for defending champion Don Bosco Prep, which beat Mahwah, 4-3, in the Bergen County Tournament semifinals. |
DEMAREST – The marker on the fence in left centerfield at Northern Valley/Demarest High School reads 342 feet. The marker on the fence in straight away centerfield reads 410. Split the difference between the two because that was roughly where the ball landed and it was probably 376 feet that Don Bosco Prep’s Tristan Dacey hit what turned into the game-winning run in Saturday’s Bergen County Tournament semifinal.
If 376 feel was indeed the correct distance, then that is exactly how far Dacey hit it as the left-handed designated hitter took an outside pitch the other way. The ball landed directly on tip of the yellow piping on top of the fence and hopped over in the bottom of the fifth inning to make the difference in Don Bosco’s 4-3 victory on Saturday afternoon.
The win puts the top-seeded, undefeated and defending champion Ironmen into Sunday’s final against No. 3 Bergen Catholic.
Dacey, who gets fed a steady stream of pitches on the outside part of the plate, has learned how to go the other way through necessity and his experience showed as he muscled the ball out to one of the deepest parts of the park.
“Really since the end of the counties last year and really at all this year, nobody has really pitched me inside,” said Dacey. “It’s one of those things where I really had to adapt as a hitter this year and really work on driving left-center.”
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Mahwah catcher Alex DiMartino had two hits and two RBI. |
Dacey’s homer broke a 3-3 tie, but before that the Ironmen found themselves playing from behind as they have in two of their three county tournament games. Bosco fell behind Fair Lawn 2-0 in the Round of 16 before rallying, it was locked in a scoreless tie for four innings against Northern Highlands in the quarterfinals and was two runs in arrears before even coming to the plate for the first time against Mahwah.
An infield single and an errant throw put James Ciliento, Mahwah’s leadoff hitter, on second base and another error on Alec Hill’s sacrifice bunt attempt put him in scoring position as Ciliento came around to score. An RBI double by Alex DiMartino (2-for-4, 2 RBI) then gave the Thunderbirds a 2-0 lead just three hitters into the game and before Don Bosco Prep had even recorded an out.
The Ironmen made up that deficit with one swing in the bottom of the second when Nick Berger (2-for-3, HR, R, 2 RBI) crushed a two-run homer well over the leftfield fence and grabbed the lead in the bottom of the third with an unearned run. Josh Shaw reached on an error leading off, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a Sean Buckhout (2-for-3, R, RBI) one-out single that made it 3-2.
Bosco does not usually get caught from behind once it takes a lead, especially with Seton Hall University-bound ace Cullen Dana on the bump, but Mahwah, which actually out-hit the Ironmen 8-6, kept coming.
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Bosco's Tristan Dacey bounced a solo home run off the top of the fence in the fifth inning to provide the winning margin. |
The Thunderbirds got back-to-back two-out singles by Matt DiPoto and Jack Hope, but left them both stranded in the third. Matt Himpele led off the fourth with a hit and was on second after a Mike Yorio sacrifice, but that threat went by the boards on a double play off a ringing line drive hit by Rob Giannantonio. Josh Shaw took it out of the air and won the race to second to complete the second out.
Mahwah finally got back even in the fifth as Ciliento (2-for-4, 2 R) hit a lead-off triple off the right field fence and scored two batters later on a single by DiMartino (2-for-4, 2 RBI). With two outs and two on, Bosco skipper Mike Rooney went to the bullpen for Vitaly Jangols, who put to rest any thoughts of an advantage that Mahwah may have thought it gained by knocking Dana (4 1/3 IP, 3 R, 1 ER, 8 H, 5 K, 1 BB) out of the box.
Jangols got the third out of the fifth with the second pitch he threw, Dacey gave the Ironmen the lead back with his homer in the bottom of the fifth and Jangols then retired the side in order in each of the sixth and seventh innings.
“I get loose pretty easily. I started throwing in the [fourth] and that turned out to be a long inning. I got all of my pitches down in the bullpen and I was ready to go,” said Jangols, a junior right-hander. “I knew that [Mahwah] was a fastball-hunting team so I tried to use my off speed [pitches] a lot.”
Jangols retired all seven hitters he faced and sent Bosco in the Bergen County championship game where it will go after its fourth title in the last five years. The Ironmen swept the regular season series against Bergen Catholic, but the stakes are raised for Round 3.
“We’ve played them a couple of times, but they are a better team now. I think they are playing their best baseball of the year and we are looking forward to it,” said Rooney. “We are looking forward to it and I think whoever wins tomorrow deserves to be called the Bergen County champion. There is no doubt about that.”
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