Sunday, April 27, 2008

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Nick Hageman drove in a run with a sacrifice fly on this swing for Pascack Hills, which won its sixth straight game, 7-0, over Cresskill on Saturday.

CRESSKILL -- It's not that Pascack Hills got off to a bad start to the season in terms of its play on the field, but it had little to show for its efforts. The Cowboys had early one-run losses to Old Tappan and Ramsey, the respective leaders in Division 1 and Division 2 in the NBIL, and through seven games of the season Pascack Hills was 3-4, squarely in the middle of the pack as to where it fit in its league and with plenty of work to do to qualify for the state and county tournaments.

The Cowboys never panicked and instead their patience and consistency has paid off. The defense has been steady, the bats have come around and the pitching could not have been better, especially in the last two games.

Coming off of a complete game gem thrown by Eric Rosenthal in a shutout of Northern Highlands on Friday, Drew Herzon took his turn on the hill on Saturday in an independent matchup at Cresskill and was just as impressive. Herzon faced just one batter over the minimum through the first five innings and finished with a complete game three-hitter in a 7-0 blanking of Cresskill. It was the sixth straight win for Pascack Hills, which is now 9-4 on the season,

Cresskill's Mike Furrer came on in relief in the top of the second and turned in 4 2/3 innings.

“I was getting ahead of the batters and my fastball was working today and so was my curveball, so I was able to mix up my pitches,” said Herzon. “First pitch strikes. When I get ahead of batters I usually do well. When I fall behind and walk guys I get in a lot of trouble.”

Herzon, a senior who saw only token varsity action last season and was really the No. 1 starter on the JV level, has stepped up to be a front line starter for the Cowboys, who lost last year’s ace, Josh Feit, to graduation. With Saturday’s masterpiece in which he struck out seven and walked just two, Herzon improved to 3-1 on the season.

Herzon established himself as a viable option in summer league play and has managed to carry that momentum and confidence into the high school season nearly seven months later.

“He pitched all summer and we got to the finals of the Valley Central Scholastic League and a bunch of teams in our league play in it,” said PH head coach Mike O’Brien, who saw Herzon throw a no-hitter during the 2007 VCSL summer season. “That’s where his confidence and everything really started to blossom. That was when he started to believe that he could get varsity batters out.”

PH's Drew Herzon threw a three-hit, complete game shutout to pick up his third win of the season.

Herzon did not have to wait very long to get some run support as Pascack Hills’s leadoff batter, Matt Marini, scored in the top of the first inning and the Cowboys never trailed against Cresskill. Marini singled leading off the game, went to second base on a balk and was in scoring position when Tim Noe, the second hitter of the game, delivered an RBI single and a 1-0 lead.

Noe added an RBI double that scored Marini in the top of the second inning and the Cowboys had base runners galore over the first three innings. They left the bases loaded in the first inning, left two runners in scoring position in the second and again left the sacks full in the third inning.

In the third inning and facing Cresskill’s Mike Furrer, who came on in relief with one out in the second inning, Pascack Hills loaded the bases with no outs on two walks and an infield single by Derrick Palumbo. But Furrer, who entered the game with two on and one out in the second only to retire the first two hitters he faced, wriggled out of trouble without allowing a run in the third when he got a 5-2-3 (Tom Hasenstab to catcher Brett Petillo to Brian Henderson) double play and a ground ball to keep his team close, still trailing by just 2-0.

Cresskill's Brian Henderson about to make contact on a sixth inning groundball.

Nick Hageman (1-for-2, 2 RBI, R) drove in a fourth inning run and Nick Evans (2-for-3, 2 2B, RBI) did the same to give Pascack Hills a 4-0 lead and the Cowboys added three more in the top of the sixth when they scored three unearned runs to put away any chances Cresskill may have had of making a comeback. Rob Sobel (1-for-4, 2 RBI, R) hit a two-run triple and Hageman (1-for-2, 2 RBI, R) followed with a sacrifice fly as Pascack Hills put up three unearned runs to put the game away.

It was the second straight loss for Cresskill, which was coming off a disappointing 5-4 loss to New Milford in a BCSL-Olympic Division matchup on Friday. The Cougars are now 7-5 on the season and 5-2 in league play, two games behind front running Park Ridge, which was undefeated in the BCSL-Olympic heading into the weekend including a win over the Cougars earlier this week.

“For some reason we just weren’t ready to play today. They energy just wasn’t there from the get-go and that is the disappointing thing. We are a better team than what we showed today, much better,” said Cresskill head coach Al McLaughlin. “We talked about how important this game was to us when it comes to possibly getting into the counties and bouncing back [from Friday’s loss]. We can’t let that one loss or any loss in a long baseball season bother us that much that we can’t come back and be competitive the next day. We’ll turn it around; we have a good team here, but today was definitely disappointing.”

Pascack Hills shortstop Rob Sobel making the relay throw in the middle of a sixth inning double play.

Rob Mier, Furrer and John Malmut had the hits for Cresskill and Furrer pitched well in tough circumstances. He pitched 4 2/3 innings and just two of the five runs charged to him were earned. Furrer walked four, but struck out six and Malmut struck out two in a 1-2-3 seventh inning, the first he had ever thrown on the varsity level.

The top of the lineup did most of the damage for Pascack Hills, which drew to within just a single game in the loss column behind Ramsey in the NBIL-Division 2 standings. The top five hitters in the Cowboys’ lineup combined for eight of their nine hits and scored all seven of their runs. Noe (2-for-3, 2 RBI, 2B, R) reached base in all four of his plate appearances and so did Marini, Pascack Hills’ senior third baseman.

“I just got moved into the leadoff spot recently and it is my job to get on base any way I can and put pressure on the other team,” said Marini, who had two hits, an RBI, a stolen base and four runs scored. “These last six games our whole team has been on a good run. Our bats are going, our defense is good and we are getting good pitching as you can see with two straight shutouts. It’s all coming together right now.”

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