May
29, 2007
WAYNE -- Dan Alcala was a very uncomfortable pitcher on Monday morning. He could not find his spot on the mound, and he was slipping throughout the first inning. It took a reminder from his manager of previous trip to the Passaic County Tech hill to set him on the right course.
A change of footwear took care of the unsettled footing, and Alcala took care of the rest, quieting the Passaic Tech bats after the second inning and giving his Passaic Valley teammates the chance to break out.
With a six-run fourth inning, the Hornets accomplished the second leg of their desired triple crown, winning their first Passaic County baseball title since 1999 with a 9-3 victory over PCT.
In raising its record to 28-2 and adding the county title to their Northern Hills Confernce-Skyline Division title, Passaic Valley became the first top seed to win the tournament since Lakeland turned the trick in 1997.
Alcala (5-0) was trying to manicure
the mound after almost every first inning pitch, so much so that at one point
manager Joe Mazzo admonished him to just to stop worrying about it and throw.
When he came off after getting the Bulldogs out without a run, Mazzo asked
him about what shoes he was wearing.
“I started out with turf shoes. I was trying not to let it get to me, but every time I threw a bad pitch, I was talking to myself,” Alcala recounted. “Coach asked what shoes I wore the last time I pitched here, and I told him I used Craig (Anderson’s) rubber cleats. I felt good from there on out.”
Anderson’s contribution was not limited to proper footwear. He culminated the six-run uprising with a three-run home run that sent the Hornets to an 8-2 lead, a smash that cemented the Passaic Valley victory.
“I was expecting a curve ball, so I was trying to keep my hands in and try to hit it to right field,” Anderson recalled. “He ended up giving me a chest high fastball and I just drove it over the right-center fence.”
“We gave them a lot of opportunities and they finally took advantage of one,” PCT manager Jim Lentine recapped. “You can’t give a good team those kinds of opportunities, and they’re a good team. They beat us three times, and if you do that, then I guess you’re better than they are.”
“That was the big hit of the game, it really took the wind out of their sails,” Mazzo said.
Prior to that, the teams had traded two-run second inning home runs, with Passaic Tech (17-8) getting the first roundtripper. Juan Padilla walked to open the second on four pitches and Kervin Rivera sent the first offering he saw over the left field fence and into the parking lot for his fifth home run of the year. Edwin Galarza had a one-out double, but Alcala, now more comfortable, closed out the frame with no further damage.
Valley knotted it up quickly its half of the second in the same manner. Jim Camb took a four-pitch walk to lead off and ninth hitter Chris Greco went yard on a 1-2 count to almost the same spot as Rivera.
Greco’s dinger came off Benedy Mejia (0-3), who was making just his fourth start of the season and first in over a month. He had thrown only 13 2/3 innings coming in after some elbow troubles, and he struggled in every inning.
Three times Lentine and the trainer
came to the mound to check on him, with rumors circulating that he was having
lower back and thumb problems, and he was lifted with the bases loaded and
no one out in the fourth after throwing 74 pitches (only 32 of them strikes).
“It was the fact that we were calling for sliders and he couldn’t
break his slider off,” Lentine related. “He wanted to throw his
curve, and the way he was telling us we thought he might be hurt, but he wasn’t.
He just ran out of gas, but he gave us what we expected.”
Onix Ortiz inherited that fourth batter with a 3-1 count, and after getting a swinging strike, he was just off the plate for ball four to Jesse Santo, forcing in a run to put PV up 3-2.
The difficulties continued when a fly to center was dropped, plating Greco, who had singled as the second hitter of the inning. Damian DiIorio singled home a run, but Mejia, who had moved to left field, gunned down Santo at the plate.
Anderson then followed with the turning point of the game bopper, his second of the season, which, combined with his pitching victory in the semifinal win over West Milford, earned him the Bill Vacca Award as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
Each team would score one more run, with PCT’s Anthony Collazo turning on an Alcala pitch for his 12th homer over the left field fence and Valley’s Ray Puluse bringing home Joe Wassel with an RBI single in the fifth.
Alcala threw 122 pitches in his complete game effort, allowing six hits and four walks while striking out six.
The Hornets will have little time to enjoy their championship as they face Old Tappan in a sectional semifinal game on Tuesday.
“We’re not done,” Mazzo said. “We’re focused on the triple crown, and we want to go out and win a state championship now.”
TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.
|
|
|
| About Us | Contact Us | Home |
Questions?
E-mail the editor editor@northjerseysports.com
All contents © copyright 2004-2007 HSSportsWeb.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
