Baseball: South Plainfield defeats Paramus, 3-1
By
on April 12, 2014 6:36 p.m.
Aidan McDermott stood at second base and stared over at coach Anthony Guida, waiting for the call.
With the score tied at one in the bottom of the sixth and Chris Graves digging in at the plate, the South Plainfield center fielder knew it would take just one play to break the tie versus Paramus.
“Coach gave the bunt sign,” McDermott said. “No one was holding me on, so when (Graves) squared up I went.”
Graves laid down a textbook bunt and McDermott took off. After Paramus third baseman Garrett Wiedemann threw to first to retire Graves, McDermott rounded third and headed home.
The senior sneaked in his foot at the plate just before being tagged to score the go-ahead run in South Plainfield’s 3-1 victory yesterday in South Plainfield.
“No feeling like it in the world,” McDermott said. “I know what kind of athlete I am and when I rounded third I knew I had to get it done for my teammates.”
While South Plainfield would add an insurance run in the sixth on a Rob Eggert sacrifice fly, the majority of the contest featured South Plainfield’s Jake Alba and Paramus’ J.R. Chinchar going toe-to-toe in a pitchers' duel.
For nearly every out Alba recorded, Chinchar matched. Through four innings, neither team had scored and Chinchar had not allowed a hit. Alba, a sophomore, pitched 6 2/3 innings, striking out two and walking one while scattering seven hits. Chinchar, a senior, struck out two while allowing just four hits.
“Anytime you go against a good pitcher it’s rough,” Alba said. “It’s tough to get a hit and it’s constantly going back and forth.”
The scoreless tie was finally broken when Wiedemann grounded out to score Kevin Lanigan. South Plainfield answered the very next inning on an RBI single from L.J. Scarpitto that drove in Bryan Gillen.
After South Plainfield’s two-run sixth, it looked as if Paramus was going to answer back in a similar fashion. The Bergen County team loaded the bases with two down in the top of the seventh and, with lead-off hitter Alex Castro coming to the plate, Guida made a pitching change.
“It was the top of the order and the fourth time they were seeing him,” Guida said. “Had it been the bottom we may have stuck with him, but with it being their fourth time up I thought we had to change.
“It was tough to pull him, he was upset. But he turned around and gave all his teammates high fives even though he wanted to stay in.”
Eggert, the senior closer, replaced Alba and retired Castro on three pitches.
“It’s a great overall victory,” Alba said. “This is a big win for us. I felt good pitching the whole day and when Rob came in I had all the confidence in the world.”
It marked South Plainfield's third straight victory in the annual meeting, dubbed the Golden Helmet Classic. The coaches, Guida and Paramus' Jonathan Morrisette, were college roommates at Rowan.
http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news/article/4649726780123321006/paramus-1-at-south-plainfield-3-baseball/
No comments:
Post a Comment