Saturday, May 9, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Adam Okimatsu lifted a sacrifice fly to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth inning and Pascack Hills went on to a 3-2 win over rival Pascack Valley in a game both teams needed to qualify for the state playoffs.

MONTVALE -- On Wednesday nobody would have given the Pascack Hills baseball team a nickel for its chances to make the state playoffs. The Cowboys were two games under the .500 record needed for qualification, they were trailing Mahwah by six runs in a game that could have eliminated them outright and the weather forecast for the remainder of the week was sketchy at best. But since then things have gotten a whole lot brighter for Pascack Hills and the sixth inning on Friday afternoon against rival Pascack Valley was certainly a shining moment.

Having been shutout out and one-hit through the first five innings by Pascack Valley starter Lou Pimpanella, Dan Solomon changed the momentum with one swing of the bat. He slugged a leadoff home run leading off the bottom of the sixth inning that kicked off a three-run rally, just enough to overcome a two-run deficit in Pascack Hills’ 3-2 win that put the Cowboys in the state tournament right on the number as they improved to 8-8 on the season.

Brian Perlmutter had two hits and drove in Pascack Valley's first run.

“I was that thinking that I was going to do everything I could to make sure that our season moves on into the state tournament,” said Solomon, who also pitched the first 4 2/3 innings and kept his team within striking distance. “I think it was a 2-1 pitch, I am not entirely sure, and their pitcher [Pimpanella] was great all day in hitting his spots. I think that was the one pitch that he missed on, he left it right over the middle. I didn’t think it was going to be gone, I was expecting to make it to second or third but it went over [the fence].”

With the ice broken, David Calianese followed with a single and Hunter Trubatch’s sacrifice bunt turned into a little more luck for the Cowboys when he reached safely on an error. James Keenan then drew a walk to load the bases and set the table for two seniors, Adam Okimatsu and Eric Pensky, who bat in the No. 8 and No. 9 spots in the order. Both came through with sacrifice flys to right field that knocked in Calianese and Trubatch with the two runs that Pascack Hills needed to take the lead for the first time in the game.

“The two seniors in the eight and nine spots both battled and they both got the ball in the air for the sacrifice flys,” said Pascack Hills head coach Mike O’Brien. “In Oki[matsu]’s at bat he had two strikes on him and he was still able to come through. I feel good for those guys that they were the ones to get the job done.”

Tim Mino retired 7 of the 8 batters he faced and picked up the win in relief for Pascack Hills.

But it was a real team effort and it followed a familiar script that was written earlier this week. Like he did against Mahwah when he came on to hold the opposing bats in check long enough for his team to come from behind for a victory in a must-win situation, senior Ryan Mino and his funky delivery did it again for Pascack Hills. He entered the game in relief of in the top of the fifth inning with two outs and the bases loaded and struck out the first batter he faced to end the threat. He worked around an infield single to throw a scoreless top of the sixth and kept PH within two runs.

Pascack Valley had gotten single runs in the third and fifth innings to move in front by the 2-0 score. Ryan Hourigan singled leading off the top of the third and stole second before scoring on Brian Perlmutter’s RBI single up the middle. In the fifth, Tommy Corra came through with a two-out RBI single that knocked in Hourigan, but in both of the innings in which Pascack Valley scored, Soloman induced double play ground balls that limited the damage.

The two outs he got on one pitch in the top of the fifth left Mino just one out to get when he came on.

Pascack Valley starter Lou Pimpanella allowed just one hit through the first five innings.

“Dan [Solomon] pitched a great game and I just wanted to make sure that I could keep it close and keep us in it to give us a shot to win,” said Mino, who retired seven of the eight batters he faced, including one on a great catch by Okimatsu, who twisted and turned his way under a deep fly ball to left field hit by Ryan Hourigan with a runner on second base in the top of the sixth. “I knew I had to get my curveball in for strikes and when I was able to do that I had confidence in all of my pitches and in my defense. I knew that if they hit it, my teammates would back me up.”

Pascack Hills had only four hits in the game, but was able to hang in there until its one big inning could put it over the top. Pascack Valley (7-8-1) had eight hits, drew five walks and had at least one baserunner in every inning but the seventh, but missed few chances to tack onto its lead. The Indians stranded nine runners, but that, according to PV head coach Will Lynch, was more of a testament to Pascack Hills and it defense, rather than an indictment of his own team.

“We left a couple of people at third, a couple of people at second and we left the bases loaded in the fifth, but we just didn’t capitalize and you have to give them the credit for that. They made good pitches and played good defense,” said Lynch. “Last year we beat them at our place to get into the tournament, so maybe this was a little payback. This was a good baseball game between two baseball team and that is all that really happened today. If anybody was watching this game and walked out disappointed, they don’t really understand what high school baseball is all about.”

Dan Soloman threw 4 2/3 solid innings and then hit the leadoff homer in the top of the sixth that started Pascack Hills' comeback.

For Pascack Hills, Friday was about validating its season with a trip to the state playoffs in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year. The Cowboys were gutted by graduation and even lost Nick Hageman, who started at first base and batted cleanup as a sophomore last year, to a season ending shoulder injury before the season even began.

“We got pretty much wiped out by graduation, we had mostly seniors last year. Really the only guy we have back that played all the time last year is [Tim] Noe. Mino and Pensky played a lot but not every inning every day,” said O’Brien. “This team battled. We had to beat Mahwah after being behind 6-0 on Wednesday and we had to beat these guys today after being behind 2-0. The Mahwah game was really the key for us because we came back to win, it got us to 7-8 and then we could really see the state tournament as a possibility.”

It is no longer a possibility, now it is reality.

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