Junior Jack Kovacs settled in after a rocky first inning and went the distance as Hanover Park advanced to the North 2, Group 1 semifinals with a 15-5 win over Wood-Ridge on Thursday.

MADISON – You probably would not have given Hanover Park’s Jack Kovacs a nickel for his chances to pitch deep into Thursday afternoon’s state sectional quarterfinal. The junior left-hander, still battling a lingering hamstring injury, gave up four hits, two walks and four runs in the top of the first inning against Wood-Ridge and needed 37 pitches to find his way out of the early trouble.

But there he was walking off the mound after the top of the sixth inning having retired six of the last seven hitters he faced and he never even had to go back out to finish a conventional complete game.

Kovacs (6 IP, 5 R, 5 ER, 7 H, 2 K, 2 BB) allowed just three hits and did not walk a batter over the final five innings and Hanover Park’s bats wasted no time in filling the early hole. The Hornets made up the early deficit by scoring five times in the bottom of the first inning and rolled from there.

With a 15-5, 6-inning victory on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University – Madison, Hanover Park, the No. 3 seed, advanced to the semifinals where it will visit No. 2 Verona on Tuesday.

“I just tried to keep my courage,” said Kovacs. “We came in [after the top of the first inning] and we kept the energy high. We were talking it up, we got a leadoff single, we got the bats going and the rest is history.”

Caine Skorski drove in two of Wood-Ridge's five first inning runs.

It was the dream start for Wood-Ridge, which batted around in the top of the first inning. The Blue Devils got a leadoff single from Lucas Mendoza and two one-out walks to Jack Caprio and Nick Mabel before Dom Buonomo singled in a run and Caine Skorski drive in two more with a single of his own. With two outs, Chance Iacovino doubled in the fourth run and the Devils were in business,,,at least until the Hornets got their first turn at bat.

Hanover Park sent 11 hitters to the plate in the opening inning, got into the Wood-Ridge bullpen before it was over. Sophomore Vincent Dorey (1-for-4, 4 RBI, 2B, 3B) had the big blow, a three-run double with the bases loaded that tied the game at 4 before Joey Filippone (3-for-3, 3 R, RBI) knocked in the go-ahead run with an infield single.

“We went down in the first inning, but we never give up. It was nothing crazy, just one good at bat at a time,” said Dorey, one of four sophomores in the Hanover Park lineup. “It was a 3-1 [count] and I look fastball every time. He was wild, he was losing it a little bit. I was sitting fastball and I got one right down the middle.”

Dorey also knocked in a run with a two-out triple in the bottom of the second and finished as one of four Hornets to have a multi-hit game. Filippone (3-for-3, RBI), Alex Cheringal (3-for-4, 2 RBI, 3 R) and Ryan Mendez (3-for-5, 6 RBI, R) were the others and every hitter in the HP lineup reached base at least once. Nando Ott (0-for-1, 3 R) did not get a hit, but he reached base three times with two walks and a hit by pitch and scored three runs.

Luke Morgese (1-for-4, 2 RBI, 3 R, BB) and Mendez each drove in a pair of runs in a four-run third, Mendez drove in two more in the fourth and had the walkoff two-run single in the bottom of the sixth that pushed the lead into double digits.

Ryan Mendez drive in six runs for Hanover Park, which will visit Verona in the semifinals on Tuesday.

“It’s a resilient group. They are relaxed, they don’t panic and they are very loose, sometimes too lose. We got off to a 4-0 deficit, but they kept playing like it was 0-0,” said Hanover Park head coach Doug Weir, whose team us now 14-11-1 after a grueling regular season schedule against mostly larger schools in the NJAC. “They knew they could comeback. We have played against some good teams this year and we have had some big innings. The mentality was to chip away. We came back with five [runs] in the first and we went from there.”

Lucas Mendoza (1-for-3, R), Jake Wall (1-for-3, R), Mabel (1-for-2, R, BB), Dom Buonomo (1-for-3, RBI, R), Skorski (1-for-3, 2 RBI), Chance Iacovino (1-for-3, RBI, 2B) and Nick Scalera (1-for-3) had the hits for Wood-Ridge, which finished the season with a 17-12 record that included a fourth straight NJIC-Meadowlands Division title, a Bergen County Tournament bid and a state tournament win. The Blue Devils will graduate just three seniors and two starters, so there is plenty returning for next season.

“We started off the season 1-4, so I give the kids a lot of credit being able to come back and achieve some of our goals. We got into the county tournament, we won a league championship now four times in a row and that is a nice little feather in the cap; something for these seniors to hold on to,” said Wood-Ridge head coach Michael Carcich. “We didn’t really show up today. We had 11 walks, 7 miscues in the field and one good inning at the plate before we shut down. Tip of the hat to Hanover Park. They are a better team than us, not 10 runs better than us, but when things go bad they go really bad. Still a lot to be proud of; 17 wins and the four-peat is something we can live with right now.”

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