Monday, June 1, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Rich Anastasi allowed two first inning hits and then just one the rest of the way in St. Joseph's 10-0 win over Ramapo that gave the Knights the Bergen County title.

DEMAREST – Before Don Bosco Prep went on its unprecedented run of three straight Bergen County Tournament titles, St. Joseph Regional was the undisputed king of Bergen County baseball. Under head coach Frank Salvano, the Green Knights have played in 61 tournament games, won 42 of them, been to 10 finals and won five championships in the 10 seasons leading up to this one. But then Bosco came along and SJR was knocked from its perch, at least temporarily.

\But in the span of just three days, St. Joseph has taken back all that it has lost and then some. First there was Friday’s state tournament win over Don Bosco Prep that knocked off the latter’s heir of invincibility.

Then came Saturday’s grind-it-out win over Ramsey in the semifinals of the Bergen County Tournament and that was followed by Sunday’s exclamation point, a 10-0 win over Ramapo in the Bergen County championship game that has the Green Knights sitting pretty once again.

Marc Solecitto stroking one of Ramapo's three hits, a fifth inning two-out single.

“Now it is nice. We can say that we are the kings of the county. We are back on our throne. It’s been a few years, so we are happy.” said SJR head coach Frank Salvano, who won his all-time record sixth county championship and his first since 2005. “It’s been the craziest three days I can remember in my career of 22 years. Today was easy. We played well, we hit well, but when you talk about Friday and Saturday…that was stressful.”

If there was any stress for St. Joseph in Sunday’s final it was in the top of the first inning. Ramapo had jumped on Don Bosco Prep in its semifinal upset and rode the momentum all the way home. So when Rob Santaniello singled as the second hitter of the game, Ramapo might have had something brewing, especially when designated hitter Sean Munier poked a two-out line drive down the rightfield line.

Santaniello scampered to third, but Munier was thrown out by Kai Dominguez while trying to stretch the single into a double. The inning and the Green Raiders’ only real threat ended right there and it was all SJR after that.

SJR's Brian Bullard going down to get an RBI double in the fourth inning.

David Wood led off the bottom of the first inning with a single and stole second before Ken Post drew a walk and Brian Bullard got down a bunt designed to move both runners up one base. But it did better than that as Ramapo went for the out at third base only to see the throw sail into rightfield. Wood scored the game’s first run on the error, Post scored on Kevin Ferguson’s sacrifice fly and the 2-0 lead.

That wasn’t the end of the Green Knights’ offensive production, but it was more than enough for SJR starter Rich Anastasi, who gave up those two first inning hits, but only one more the rest of the way. He threw all five innings and struck out eight without walking a batter.

“It was great Friday what we did [against Don Bosco] was great, to come back and win. Yesterday was another big game and Rob Frank [who threw a complete game shutout against Ramsey] basically got us to this game by himself, but we knew that this was a game where we fall then all of that wouldn’t have meant anything,” said Anastasi, a senior left-hander, who was on short rest after throwing three innings of relief against Bosco. “This was our goal. This is what we came to do and we got it done.”

Ramapo's Bob Graber (right) earned the tournament's Most Valuable Pitcher Award for his shutout of Don Bosco Prep in the semifinals.

St. Joseph tacked on a run in the third on a Jamie Wollerman single that knocked in Bullard; extended the lead to 4-0 in the fourth when Bullard doubled home Wood and then stepped on the jugular in the bottom of the fifth when it sent nine men to the plate and plated six of them to end the game two innings early.

Bullard (3-for-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R) had the signature shot of the inning, a solo homer that he yanked over the leftfield fence. Dominguez (2-for-3, SB, R, RBI), Wood (2-for-3, 3 R, RBI, 3 SB) and Ferguson also had RBIs in the inning and it was Ferguson’s single to centerfield that allowed Ryan Levine to score the game-ending run from second base.

St. Joseph put together the complete performance on Sunday and put the cherry on top of a nearly flawless run through the tournament. The Green Knights allowed just one run in four tournament games, did not commit an error in any of the four games and outscored its opponents by a combined score of 23-1. The Knights showed they could win the close games with their 2-1 win over Northern Highlands in the Round of 16 and the 1-0 semifinal win over Ramsey, and also showed they know how to put an opponent away like they did to Ramapo and to St. Mary in a 1-0 six inning win in the quarterfinals.

Was it just a matter of Ramapo running out of gas after its emotional win over Don Bosco 24 hours earlier?

Kevin Ferguson drive in the game-ending run with a 5th inning single.

“I think it was more a matter of seeing a lefty [pitcher]. We’ve had problems with lefties all year and the one we faced today was a good lefty. That combination wasn’t too good for us today,” said Ramapo head coach Mickey Hunt, whose team finished the season with a 22-10 record and its first NBIL-Division 1 title since 2002. “If we could have gotten off to an early lead we might have been able to put a little pressure on them, but it didn’t happen. I just wish that we could have played a better game. It was such a great weekend with the two games that were played here [on Saturday], but that is baseball and today wasn’t our day.”

Nope, Sunday belonged to St. Joseph and the Green Knights could go on to make this season their own. They improved to 27-3 and, with a win on Tuesday over Delbarton in the Non-Public North A section final and another in the state final on Saturday; they would probably grab the overall No. 1 state ranking.

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