Seldon Kolkebeck went the distance on a 5-hitter as NV/OlD Tappan advanced to the Bergen County Tournament quarterfinals with a 1-0 win over St. Mary.
OLD TAPPAN – Under normal circumstances sending Rocco Pierorazio up to the plate in a clutch situation would have been a no-brainer. The senior is one of Northern Valley/Old Tappan’s best hitters and, a line drive waiting to happen out of the No. 3 spot in the order. This was different.
Pierorazio is nursing an injury, a deep quad contusion that was the result of a collision at first base against Demarest. So it was with a limp that he headed to the plate in the biggest spot of Old Tappan’s season to date. The bases were loaded with one out in a Bergen County Tournament Round of 16 games that was still scoreless in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Had this been a NetFlix special, Pierorazio would have cranked one over the fence and limped around the bases like Kirk Gibson. Had it been a trolling YouTube video, Pierorazio might have been trying to beat a return throw on a double play attempt with one bad wheel, but this was just a Wednesday afternoon in the Northern Valley, so Pierorazio ran the count full then drew the walk that forced home Mateo Skific with the game’s lone run.
The walk-off walk gave Old Tappan, the No. 5 seed, a 1-0 victory over No. 12 St. Mary and a spot in the quarterfinals opposite No. 20 Mahwah, which pulled its second straight tournament upset by eliminating No. 4 Ramsey, 4-1.
Xavier Vargas allowed just one run over 6 1/3 sparkling innings for St. Mary.
“I just tried to stay ready, jog between inning to keep my leg warm and try to stay ready for the occasion. The team does a pretty good job of passing the baton, so they set me up for success for sure.” said Pierorazio, who was the third batter to face the St. Mary bullpen and the third straight hitter to draw a walk. “I wasn’t trying to chase anything. I was just trying to stay disciplined and wait for my pitch. [The walk] was the best situation for my injury.”
Other than that there was not much offense to talk about. Both starting pitchers were brilliant, one well known that the other who just burst onto the scene. Junior right-hander Seldon Kolkebeck has been Old Tappan’s No. 1 since the start of the season and he lived up to that billing by needing just 93 pitches to spin the complete game gem.
Kolkebeck works fast and he pounds the strike zone. Sometimes a starting pitcher’s final line can be deceiving. His (7 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 H, 8 K, 0 BB, W) was right on the money,
“I don’t know how many strikeouts I had, but I know my team behind me made every play. I missed my spot a couple of times and gave up hits, but the defense came up big. Anthony Onnembo, our catcher, picked a guy off and threw a kid out [trying to steal],” said Kolkebeck, who best of his seven sparkling innings was the seventh when he struck out two and got a week pop-up in foul ground. “[Tim] Byron is a great coach. He conditions us very well. I am always running and I feel like my body is able to go all seven innings and stay strong throughout, so I give all the credit to him.”
Old Tappan senior Rocco Pierorazio drew a walk to force home the game-winning run.
For as good as Kolkebeck was, and he was that, he found himself locked in a battle with junior left-hander Xavier Vargas, who pretty much came out of nowhere to join the duel. Vargas, a Clifton resident and mid-year transfer from Don Bosco Prep, showcased a buckling curveball that he could bend in for called strikes and bury for swinging ones.
Vargas (6 1/3 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 H, 3 K, 3 BB) did not get into much trouble through first six innings, but buckled down every time he did. He gave up a one-out single to AJ Aiello (1-for-1, SAC, SB) and followed it was a walk to Cayden Yoon in the second, then got a groundball and a strikeout. Kolkebeck (1-for-3) and Onnembo (1-for-3) led off the home half of the fourth with consecutive single and Aiello moved both up a base with a sacrifice bunt, but Vargas slammed the door with two straight Ks.
He left with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning having allowed an infield single Skific (1-for-3) and having thrown 104 pitches.
“He is a transfer and he had to sit out a little bit, unknown to everybody. I told him yesterday that he was pitching and I just felt like he would go out there and pitch with guts and he did a tremendous job,” said St. Mary head coach Nigel Archibald. “I am just upset as a coach and a coaching staff that we let him down, that we couldn’t pull it out for him. The kid threw 104 pitches with everything he had in him against a tough team. Kudos to Old Tappan, but a great job by my guy X and it shows what he is going to mean to the program for the rest of this year and moving forward.
St. Mary’s Bradley Higgins (2-for-3) was the only hitter on either side to have a multi-hit game. Sebastian Santana (1-for-3), Owen Parillo (1-for-2, HBP) and Blayze Conte (1-for-3) had the other hits for the Gaels, who fell to 12-6 on the season.
Maximo Garcia, Kolkebeck, Onnembo and Skific had one hit apiece and the bullpen was silent for Old Tappan, which improved to 2-4 on the season. Joe Crescitelli and Garcia drew the walks to load the bases preceding Pierorazio’s decisive at bat.
“That kid [Vargas] pitched really good. He was getting that curveball over and he battled. He deserved better than what he got. We had opportunities, but we needed to do better at situational baseball. In a game like this against a kid throwing that well you have to know what your at bat requires. It might not be a hit, but moving a guy 90 feet. You have to do the little things,” said Byron. “The good thing is that we had [Kolkebeck] on the mound. He kept them in check, but this one could have gone either way.”
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