Saturday, April 19, 2008

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

John Hulme was the catalyst for the Hawthorne offense, which took advantage of a bunch of Lodi errors to to post a 14-5 win on Friday.

HAWTHORNE – Getting a break and making the most of it is something that the Lodi baseball team has excelled at as well as any team in North Jersey. The Rams have turned heads this spring with an 8-1 start, including back-to-back wins in their last at-bat in a 24-hour span.

Corey Paladino’s walk-off three-run shot in the bottom of the seventh lifted Lodi to a win over Pompton Lakes on Wednesday and they followed that up with a four-run, seventh-inning rally to beat Cliffside Park on Thursday. But the Rams’ good fortune came to a screeching halt on Friday against a team that was in a desperate search for a positive result.

The Rams gave away extra outs all game long and Hawthorne took full advantage of them. Lodi had eight of its 12 errors over the first three innings when Hawthorne, the defending B-PSL King Division champion, built a double-digit lead on its way to a much-needed 14-5 victory.

Lodi starter Mike Lortz got little help from his defense in falling to 3-1 on the season.

“We needed this game and it felt good to win the way that we did,” said Hawthorne shortstop John Hulme. “To beat a team that is (8-1) by nine runs shows that we’re a pretty good team. I think we did all the little things at the plate, bunting and moving runners over. You need to do that to beat the top teams.”

Lodi made its first two errors before even recording an out in the top of the first inning. Mike Lortz pitched out of the jam and got through the frame unscathed. However, he would not be as lucky over the next two innings as his defense struggled to make plays behind him.

An RBI double by Angelo Guarneri in the second gave Hawthorne a 2-0 lead. The Bears played small ball in the third and kick-started their biggest inning of the season to date.

After a three-base error to start the third inning, John Hulme drove in a run with a single. John Savoie drew a walk before Spencer Smith’s bunt single loaded the bases. Jim Geraghty knocked home two runs with a single to center to make it 5-0. Hulme finished with he started when his RBI triple drove in Jim Zenock, pushing the Bears lead to 10-0.

Jim Zenock scored in the third inning to give Hawthorne a 10- lead.

“I don’t remember a game I’ve ever coached in where a team had so many errors,” said Lodi head coach Bill Schroen. “Hawthorne is always a strong team and they are the defending league champs. If you don’t make routine plays, they will make you pay. The sign of a good team is in how you respond when you’re not playing well. We dug ourselves too deep of a hole today, but we kept fighting and had the chance to make a game of it. I think that we’re mature enough to put this game out of our mind and focus on what is ahead.”

Evidenced by the comebacks it has already pulled off, Lodi has not given up in any game this season. Adam Mella roped a two-run triple in the fourth and Robbie Colon hit one of his own in the fifth. The latter knocked Savoie, Hawthorne’s starter, out of the box as Lodi trimmed the lead to 10-5.

With No. 2 starter Matt Goitz still recovering from a broken leg suffered before the regular season, the Bears had to dig deep to quell any notions of another Lodi (8-2) comeback. They turned to junior Joe Schiavo and the right-hander delivered.

Lodi, which got a close as 10-5 after falling behind by 10 runs, fell to 8-2.

Schiavo got out of the inning without any further damage being done. His teammates backed him up by scoring four more runs in the bottom half of the fifth. Hulme was again the offensive catalyst with a two-run double as the Bears put the game away.

Hulme finished a homer shy of the cycle for Hawthorne (4-4), going 3-for-5 with four RBI and two runs scored. Savoie had control problems, but harnessed them enough to pick up the win. He allowed just two hits, but walked eight, and had six Ks. Schiavo came on and allowed just one hit with three strikeouts in three innings of work. Guarneri and Cruz each finished with two RBI’s.

The Bears will look to climb above the .500 today when they face Wayne Valley in the consolation game of the Greater Wayne Tournament at Passaic County Tech.

“Beating a tough league opponent like Lodi is always a good win to have under your belt,” said Hawthorne head coach John Passero. “We had to play more small ball than usual today and we executed. We have Wayne Valley and then Waldwick on Monday, which are both big games for us if we want to make it back to the states. Today was a good building block for our team. But we have to keep working hard and keep building if we are going to make some noise later on.”

FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.