Thursday, May 29, 2008

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Tyler Gallo about to make contact with his first inning home run that tied the game at three for Old Tappan, which went on to a 6-3 win over Ramapo in the North 1, Group 3 semifinal.

OLD TAPPAN – The final score showed that there were a combined nine runs scored in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional semifinal between Old Tappan and Ramapo in Wednesday afternoon. That might imply a slugfest with balls flying all over the ball park and even out of it. But when the scorebook shows that the two teams combined for just eight hits between them, the line score begins to resemble what the game really was; a pitcher’s duel that was decided by just a few key swings of the bat.

There were two swings in particular that made the difference. After Ramapo jumped in front by two runs in the top of the first inning, Old Tappan cleanup hitter Tyler Gallo jumped on the second pitch he saw and, with two runners on, gave his team the lead with a no-doubter over the fence in right-centerfield.

After Ramapo tied the game in the top of the sixth inning, there was Rob Pulsonetti’s time at bat in the bottom of the same inning when, after taking a close pitch in a 1-2 count with the bases loaded and two outs, Pulsonetti got a breaking ball up in the zone and rifled it into the gap in right centerfield.

Kyle Tulner racing down the line to score the tying run for Ramapo in the top of the sixth inning.

“I got up there just wanting to hit the ball. I was aggressive on the first two, but I should not have swung at them because they were balls,” said Pulsonetti, once of six left-handed hitters in the lineup up against Ramapo starter Steve Torrisi. “He came back and threw me two balls to even the count. I was sitting on [a fastball], but I was ready to adjust. He threw me a hanging curveball.”

Pulsonetti’s rip cleared the bases of Paul Scilingo, Tim Fougere and Alex Caravella and gave Old Tappan the winning runs in a 6-3 victory that lands the Golden Knights in the sectional final for the third straight year. The opponent the last two years had been Montville, which Old Tappan beat to win the 2006 title then lost to last year after giving back all of a five-run first inning lead. The rubber match is set for Friday at Old Tappan.

And to get there, Old Tappan head coach Tim Byron had to coax his team through another nail-biter,

“Right from the start, from the beginning of the year we rarely blow a team out and all of the games that we have are low scoring games,” said OT skipper Tim Byron. “The good thing is that in tournament time that is what you are going to get and we have been in a lot of them. It’s nothing that we are not used to.”

Jon Scott pitched out of trouble in the seventh to earn the save for Old Tappan.

Old Tappan had to play from behind as Ramapo grabbed two runs in its first at bat and could have had more. Zack Moore led off the game with a single, went to third on a single by Kyle Tulner and scored on Torrisi’s adventure of a flyball to left field, which was ruled a double in a crazy circumstance.

Torrisi’s shot sent Scilingo, Old Tappan’s leftfielder, racing toward the fence and got to the ball and the collapsible wall at the same time. Scilingo had the ball in his glove at least momentarily before toppling over the fence and disappearing from view.

It was an impossible call for the umpire, who got halfway out in the outfield before being forced to make a call that was impossible to see and he ruled that the ball somehow got free and Torrisi was awarded a double that scored Moore and moved Tulner to third base. The umpire chose the middle ground. Adam Brown followed with a sacrifice fly that gave Ramapo a 2-0 lead.

The Ramapo dugout thought Torrisi should have been credited with a home run. The Old Tappan side was calling for an out. The Green Raiders settled for two runs instead of three and then had to face a renewed Alex Caravella, the Old Tappan starter who proceeded to retire 14 straight hitters starting with the last out of the first.

Ramapo senior Steve Torrisi pitched much better than his final line might have suggested.

Caravella was working with a lead for most of his six innings as Old Tappan got those three first inning runs courtesy of Tim Fougere’s leadoff walk, Caravella’s taking of first base on a hit by pitch and Gallo’s bomb that put his team ahead, 3-2.

“The first pitch was a little outside and I got ahead. I knew that as a No. 4 hitter with one out and runners in scoring position it was up to me to do something,” said Gallo, Old Tappan’s senior catcher. “He just gave me a fastball and I got good piece of it, I just turned on it.”

The score stayed right there as Torrisi and Caravella dominated through the middle innings, but with time running out Ramapo found a way to scrape together the tying run in the top of the sixth. Tulner roped a double with one out and moved to third base on Torrisi’s ground out. With Brown at the plate, Tulner took a chance on a ball in the dirt and scored on the wild pitch that brought the Raiders even at 3.

But Old Tappan rallied for the three runs, all of which were unearned, in the bottom of the sixth and Jon Scott came on to get the final three outs (a groundout, a pop up and a called strike three) after walking the first two batters he faced in the top of the seventh. Scott got the save and preserved the win for Caravella (6 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 H, 7 K, 1 BB), who needed just 79 pitches to get through his six innings of work.

OT's Rob Pulsonetti watching his game-winning double find the gap in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Torrisi was the hard-luck loser for Ramapo (19-10). The senior right-hander allowed just three earned runs and four hits while striking out eight and walking four.

While Old Tappan is still alive in the race for a section title, both teams are still in the running for the Bergen County championship as they are on opposite sides of the bracket in this Saturday’s semifinals. Old Tappan, the No. 3 seed, will take on No. 2 St. Joseph while Ramapo, seeded fourth, will get a shot at the undefeated top seed and two-time defending champion Don Bosco Prep.

“[Caravella] pitched a great game. I thought we had him on the ropes, we got a couple of runs early and I thought we would be OK, but he gutted it up and pitched a great game. We only had two more hits after the first inning,” said Ramapo head coach Mickey Hunt. “But Torrisi pitched a great game for us and we have a lot left on the plate. We have Indian Hills, our district rival, coming up on Friday; we have Bosco on Saturday and maybe even a game to play Sunday. We’ll see.”

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