I had a blog entry I was going to do, but I forget what it was. Instead, I'm just posting my coverage of Ramapo's Baseball game this past Sunday.
In what could best be described as a total team effort, Ramapo’s Baseball team knocked off Montclair State 15-8 in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. The win pushed the team’s record to 10-8 overall with a 3-2 record in the conference.
“It’s exactly what we’re preaching about,” said Head Coach Rich Martin, “a team effort. What’s happened is we’ve been using 12, 15 guys a game. We’ve been using a lot of pinch hitters, a lot of guys defensively in the back of the game. It’s absolutely been a team effort, no question about it.”
Things got off to a rocky start for Ramapo. Starter Matt Jenisch got in trouble early, giving up a leadoff single to Jay Bionde to start the game. After Bionde stole second, Scott Evangelist hit a deep home run to left-center field, giving Montclair an early 2-0 lead. The Red Hawks’ #3 hitter, Kevin Bond, got on base after an error by shortstop Rob Dimperio, and their cleanup hitter, leftfielder Ed Kloepping, walked to put two on with nobody out.
Jenisch settled down, though, striking out Michael Boggi and getting Jason Lopez to ground out. With two outs and runners on second and third, Jenisch sealed the deal by getting Matt Hartwick to strike out looking and end the inning.
The Roadrunners responded quickly in the bottom half of the first. A Gino Gallagher single was followed by a Joey Cacchiola walk. An RBI single by Peter Sita brought the score to 2-1, and an error by Montclair’s Michael Kaminski allowed Cacchiola and Sita to score and give Ramapo the 3-2 lead.
Ramapo struck again in the bottom of the second, after Dave Deredita and Gallagher scored on a two-run triple by Cacchiola. Cacchiola scored two batters later on an RBI groundout by Mike Manges.
Jenisch faltered again in the top of the third. After striking out Kloepping to start the inning, he walked Boggi and gave up singles to Lopez and Hartwick, which brought the Red Hawks to within 6-3. Coach Martin replaced the struggling Jenisch with reliever Tim Hannes. After Hannes gave up an RBI single to make the score 6-4, he got a 1-4-3 double play to end the inning and prevent further damage.
Ramapo scored yet again in the bottom of the third. With Tim Gaven on first, Dimperio tripled him home and then scored on an overthrow, extending Ramapo’s lead to 8-4.
Montclair brought the score to 8-5 after a RBI single by Boggi plated Bionde. Hannes calmed down and finished the inning without further damage. He came back to strike out Hartwick in the fifth and got another double play to end the inning, then followed that up with two more strikeouts in the sixth.
In the bottom of the fifth, Ramapo scored again, this time on yet another miscue out of Montclair’s second base spot. After Gaven and Deredita got on base, Gallagher hit a groundball to second that the second baseman couldn’t handle cleanly. Gaven’s run put Ramapo ahead 9-5.
Hannes walked the first two batters of the seventh, which prompted Martin to replace him with John Guagliardo. Guagliardo absolutely dominated Montclair’s 6-7-8 hitters, getting two strikeouts and a groundout to keep the lead intact.
The eighth wasn’t as easy for Guagliardo. Evangelist came up yet again with a runner on base and gave an encore to his opening-inning act by hitting another home run to nearly the exact same spot in left-center field. The two-run shot, Evangelist’s second of the day and fourth of the year, brought Montclair to within two runs at 9-7.
That was as close as the Red Hawks would come, though. Ramapo broke open the game in the bottom of the eighth with six runs. After a leadoff walk by Gallagher, Cacchiola tried to bunt him over but reached base after a throwing error by Montclair pitcher Scott Shan. Sita picked up another RBI after driving Gallagher in with a single, and Manges loaded the bases after being hit by a pitch. Joseph Della Serra, who had replaced Jimenez earlier in the game, ripped a two-run single to left field. Della Serra’s hit was followed up two batters later as Dimperio drove in Manges to extend the lead to 15-7.
Needing to score eight runs in the ninth to tie, Montclair was only able to muster one; pinch-hitter Adam Bergman doubled home Boggi and chased Guagliardo, who had just gotten a double play, from the game. Martin replaced him with William Schmolze, who stuck out Montclair’s Tim Swift to end the game.
“This was a big win,” said Hannes, who got the win to improve to 2-1. “Our hitters performed, our pitchers performed. It was an all-around good win.”
Despite the win, Hannes didn’t revel in victory. He knew what still lay ahead for the team.
“What’s important, though, is we gotta sweep,” Hannes added. “We gotta take two games today. If we take two games, we’ll be at the top of the NJACs.”
Coach Martin echoed his sentiment.
“The only way to win a doubleheader is to win the first game. We’re happy about that. We’ve struggled winning the second game. We’ve won a couple first games. It’s sort of a situation where you normally split; most teams in the NJAC will normally split. It’s a big deal if we can win a doubleheader. We’re gong to go for it.”
Ramapo could not complete the sweep of the doubleheader, however, falling 8-2 in the second game. The Roadrunners also lost to Stockton on Tuesday, 5-3, which evened their record at 10-10 (3-3 in the NJAC). They will look to rebound Thursday against Rowan at home (3:30). The team will travel to TCNJ on Friday and host Kean on Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment