Monday,
May 25, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Josh Shaw launching one of his two home runs and one of the four that Don Bosco Prep hit in a 9-5 win over Bergen Catholic that gave the Ironmen their second straight Bergen County title. |
DEMAREST – Don Bosco Prep has been so dominant this season that it was hard to find a story line that might suggest that the Ironmen could be somehow vulnerable heading into this season’s final, which took place on Sunday against Bergen Catholic at Northern Valley/Demarest High School. That did not stop some in the local media from trying.
Bosco played some close games in this year’s tournament and trailed in two out of the three it played heading into the championship game. Maybe the lack of early offense would come back to bite the Ironmen. Bergen Catholic, despite being swept in the regular season series, was hot and coming off a win over St. Joseph Regional in Saturday’s semifinal round. Maybe the Crusaders could ride the momentum to the upset.
Don Bosco Prep head coach Mike Rooney was aware of those whispers and had a rebuttal.
“You know the sayings. It is tough to be a team three times, they are a better team right now, they are the hot team…but in our defense, we’ve been hot since March,” said Rooney, whose team has yet to lose a game this season. “We are a pretty good club and we are used to teams coming at us. [Bergen Catholic] is a heckuva program and they deserve everything they have accomplished, but we are pretty good, too. We really embraced the challenge of people saying that perhaps this was the game where we were going to falter.”
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Junior first baseman John VanDeMark doubled and scored a run for Bergen Catholic. |
What is the opposite of falter? It would be the performance that the Ironmen put on, especially offensively, in a 9-5 win over Bergen Catholic that gave the program its second straight Bergen County Tournament title, its fourth in the last five years and its seventh since 2006.
Move along, there was no upset to be seen here.
Josh Shaw, who went on to be named Tournament MVP joining Englewood’s Jack Grasing (1962-63) and Demarest’s Alex Hayden (1992-93) as the only players in tournament history to win that award twice, hit the first of Bosco’s four home runs in the game, a two-run shot in the bottom of the first inning that gave the Ironmen the lead for good.
Shaw, Bosco’s shortstop and No. 3 hitter, also launched a two-run blast in the bottom of the sixth inning to put the game away and both of them travelled well over the left field fence.
“It feels great [to be named MVP] not just for me but for the team because we get to share in winning this tournament for the second straight year,” said Shaw, a three-year starter. “It felt great last year, but it is even better this time because I am a senior now, this is my last time playing [in this tournament] and we have accomplished a lot as a close group of friends.”
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Don Bosco Prep's Cullen Dana had two extra base hits, including a home run on this swing in the bottom of the second inning. |
Bosco added an unearned run in the first inning to go up 3-0, but, to Bergen Catholic’s credit, it hung in there. Andrew DeRubertis’ two-out, two-run single got the Crusaders’ back to within 3-2.
Bosco showed off the depth of its lineup in the second. Cullen Dana and Frank Nigro, the No. 8 and No. 9 batters in the order, both crushed no-doubt-about-it home runs and Shaw knocked in another run with a two-out single to make it 6-2. Shaw was the final batter DeRubertis, BC’s sophomore starting pitcher, faced as the Ironmen got into the BC bullpen having scored as many runs as it had made outs.
It was a short outing for Bosco starter Alex Mastando as well as, after walking Nick Esposito and John VanDeMark on eight pitches with one out in the third, Rooney summoned senior Kevin Romero from the bullpen and he limited the damage to just a John Mead RBI single that got BC back to within 6-3.
Alex Santos’ RBI single in the third gave Bosco a 7-3 lead before Bergen Catholic (23-6) made its last stand in the fifth. VanDeMark opened that inning with a double and Sonny Ulliana’s single put runners on the corners for Mead, who singled in the run from third to make it a three-run game.
BC head coach Bob Muggeo then called on Vin Martin to bunt the runners up a base and the plan turned out better than expected as a rare Bosco error loaded the bases with one out. Erickson Nichols represented the go-ahead run as he strode to the plate and when the ball left his bat it looked for a second like the upset story still had a chance to be written.
Instead, Brian Meerholz made the catch in deep left field, BC had to settle for a long sacrifice fly that made it 7-5 and Romero then struck out the next two hitters to end the threat.
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John Mead had two hits and drive in two runs for Bergen Catholic. |
“When Vinny Martin got up with first and second it was 7-4 and I told him we were bunting because I wanted to make it 7-6. I wanted to be close at the end. We got it to 7-5 in that inning and Erickson’s ball…another centimeter on the bat and we were looking at a home run instead of a flyball,” said BC head coach Bob Muggeo. “We knew that we were going to have to play our best game of the season to beat them. They don’t make any errors, that is a good baseball team and Mike [Rooney] runs a class show over there. I tip my hat to them.”
Shaw went deep again in the bottom of the sixth and Vitaly Jangols worked a 1-2-3 seventh to put the cherry on top of Bosco’s second straight title and the Ironmen will even have a couple of hours to enjoy it before getting back to work ahead of their Non-Public A state sectional tournament opener on Tuesday. Bosco is the No. 1 seed and will host No. 9 DePaul.
“It’s just a continuation of what we have faced all year. We’ve had big wins and we’ve had big games right after. I don’t know what these kids would do if they didn’t have a big game in front of them,” said Rooney. “We’ll relax a little on Monday and, I promise you, we will show up at the field ready to go on Tuesday.”
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