Bishop Ahr beats South Plainfield
May 13, 2010 • 9:09 pm
By GREG TUFARO
STAFF WRITER
NORTH BRUNSWICK — As the Bishop Ahr High School baseball team was getting ready to step off the bus for its Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament quarterfinal showdown with South Plainfield, ace Dario Santangelo made a deal with his teammates.
The senior right-hander, headed to East Carolina University on a partial baseball scholarship, told the 10th-seeded Trojans to get him three runs. In return, he promised to make the lead stand.
Junior second baseman Rob Pepe fulfilled the request with one swing of the bat in the third inning.
His first career homer, a three-run blast, proved more than enough for Santangelo, who tied a school record with his 19th career victory, a 9-1 upset of second-seeded South Plainfield.
Bishop Ahr will face sixth-seeded South Brunswick, a 13-3 mercy-rule winner over 14th-seeded Edison, in Saturday’s semifinals at East Brunswick Tech.
The Tigers (20-2), who entered the contest batting a conference-high .398 and who had scored 10 or more runs in each of their last eight games, had a state-best 18-game winning streak snapped.
South Plainfield lost two of its best players … right fielder Carlos Ruiz (.424) and starting pitcher Matt Cesare (.404), who combined for 51 hits and 41 RBIs this season … before the third inning to freak injuries.
Ruiz had two front teeth knocked loose and both of his lips split open on a bad-hop during infield-outfield practice. Mark McCullen replaced him in the starting lineup. Cesare, the team’s cleanup hitter, pinched a nerve in his neck during his first at-bat and was unable to continue on the mound after throwing two scoreless innings.
“”I have to say that did hurt us a bit, but I think we have 13 guys we could put in the lineup who could hit the baseball,” South Plainfield coach Anthony Guida said. “”I was pretty confident that we were going to be able to score some runs.”
It was Bishop Ahr that got production from its order, as six players combined for nine hits. No.‚9 batter Tim Hagerty went 2-for-2 with a walk and three runs scored. Shortstop Joe Post, who doubled twice, and Pepe scored two runs apiece off reliever Dylan Papa.
McCullen’s run-scoring groundout in the fourth inning closed the deficit to 3-1. Bishop Ahr got the run back in the fourth on Post’s RBI double.
Bishop Ahr (13-4) rallied for five runs in the seventh to put the game out of reach. The Trojans parlayed three walks … one intentional … an error and two hits, including an infield single, into a 9-1 lead. Post belted his second double, Kyle Harsh had a two-run single and Santangelo added a sacrifice fly during the outburst.
“”It was huge,” Bishop Ahr coach Scott Runkel said of the rally. “”Against a team like South Plainfield … one of the best offensive teams in the state … to be quite honest, I wasn’t completely comfortable eight runs up.”
Santangelo (6-0, 1.12 ERA) appeared to get stronger as the game progressed. After walking the bases loaded with two away in the second, Santangelo did not issue a free pass until Rob Pasternak walked on four pitches in the seventh.
“”I think he pitched like a bulldog and did a fabulous job,” Guida said. “”He put himself in a good position. He got ahead early. He didn’t get rattled anytime we did get a few (runners).”
Santangelo, who tied 1996 graduate Kevin Lawrence’s school record for wins, yielded one hit over the final 3 2/3 innings. Ten of the last 12 outs came via strikeout or groundout.
“”I know they can all hit,” Santangelo said of South Plainfield’s lineup. “”I had to pitch carefully to every single guy. I told them on the bus right before we got off, “Hey. I need three runs, and I’ll do the job.’
“”When (Pepe) got that three-run shot, I said thank you and I’m going to take the rest from here.”
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Bishop Ahr 9, South Plainfield 1 (High school Baseball scores and results)
The Star Ledger, May 13, 2010 10:27 p.m.
By Josh Rosenfeld
Thursday the 13th proved to be an unlucky day for South Plainfield.
Before it even took the field for the first time as the No. 1 team in The Star-Ledger Top 20 it lost one of its better hitters, Carlos Ruiz, who was struck in the face with a ground ball during infield practice and had to be scratched from the lineup.
Its starting pitcher, Matt Cesare (6-0), was forced out of the game due to twinges in his neck while he was warming up to start the third inning.
And worst of all, it ran into Dario Santangelo, who strengthened his claim as Middlesex County’s best pitcher in silencing one of the state’s most potent lineups as 10th-seeded Bishop Ahr rolled to a 9-1 victory in the quarterfinal round of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament yesterday at North Brunswick Community Park.
The victory sent Bishop Ahr (13-4) into tomorrow’s semifinal round against sixth-seeded South Brunswick, a 13-3 winner over Edison.
It also snapped second-seeded South Plainfield’s 18-game winning streak along with its run of 10 consecutive games scoring 10 or more runs. The outcome also insured that none of the tournament’s top four seeds will reach the semifinals, after six of the top eight seeds, including three of the top four, fell in the first round Monday.
Santangelo (7-0) limited South Plainfield (20-2) to four hits, striking out five and walking four, while keeping his earned run average hovering around the 1.00 mark.
“The challenge is that they hit one through nine,” Santangelo said. “You have to pitch to the last guy like you pitch the first guy.”
Bishop Ahr greeted Dylan Papa (3-1), Cesare’s replacement, with three runs in the top of the third and never relinquished the lead. The runs came from an unlikely source as junior Rob Pepe drilled a three-run homer to left center, the first home run of his varsity career.
“We really needed to score runs early and help Dario out,” Pepe said. “Their defense is really good, but Dario really shut them down. That’s all that matters.”
As far as Santangelo was concerned, that was all the support he needed.
“I said that all I need is three runs, get me three runs,” Santangelo said. “I knew it was going to happen because he (Pepe) has been getting close the past two games.”
The East Carolina-bound senior walked three batters in the second but got himself out of that jam with a strikeout. He yielded back-to-back singles to Dan Hansen and Kyle Hughes in the fourth and, after a wild pitch, Hansen scored on a grounder by Mark McCullen for what proved to be its only run.
“He just built confidence every inning,” South Plainfield coach Anthony Guida said of Santangelo. “He threw his off-speed pitches for strikes. We tried to be very patient with him, but if he was getting his off-speed stuff over for strikes we knew that we were in for a tough game.”
Bishop Ahr added a run in the fifth on a double by Joe Post and tacked on five more in the seventh, keyed by a two-run single by Kyle Harsh for a 9-1 cushion.
An eight-run deficit, with Santangelo on the hill, proved to be the worst fate of all for South Plainfield.
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