Saturday, April 24, 2010

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

JERSEY CITY – After going through a season’s worth of disappointment in just the past two weeks, the Bayonne baseball team was in desperate need of some good news. In four consecutive games, the Bees held a one-run lead going into the seventh inning; and all four times, they were unable to hold it and suffered devastating losses. The Bayonne players got together and decided that they could not let that stretch affect what they wanted to do this season. They knew they were a better team than what they had showed so far and it was time to show it on the field for all seven innings, not six.

After breaking the unfortunate streak on Wednesday against Hudson Catholic, the Bees kept it going on Friday, led by senior Steve Pilanski. He went 3-for-4 with four RBI as Bayonne started a more positive streak, a two-game winning streak in fact, as it cruised to a 9-1 win over Dickinson at Pershing Field in Jersey City.

Dickinson got on the board first when Leo Lozada led off with a double and then came around to score on an RBI single from Anthony Dinnendez that gave the Rams ahead, 1-0. But then Dickinson started throwing the ball around and giving away extra outs, which Bayonne took advantage of. Pilanski delivered the big blow with a two-run single to cap the four-run inning and put Bayonne ahead to stay.

“I just try to hit the ball hard up the middle every time I get up,” said Pilanski. “This streak has been tough on us. Losing in the seventh inning is worse than getting crushed. We felt like we let games slip away that we should have won and they were all heartbreakers. But we have bounced back and now we are headed in the right direction again.”

Two innings later, Josh Ortiz slugged a two-run double to make it 6-1. Pilanski capped the scoring in the sixth with an RBI single, his third run-scoring hit of the day, for the final margin of victory. Aaron Classen picked up the win for Bayonne (7-5). He allowed one run on six hits with six K’s. Charles Castellano had two hits, drove in a run, and scored one. Southpaw Zach Zieniuk pitched well in relief allowing just one hit and walking two while striking out four in three innings of work.

Lozada led the way with a pair of doubles for Dickinson, which is still looking for its first win of the season.
With St. Peter’s of Staten Island, Kearny, and Linden on deck for this week, the Bees have finally put those four losses behind them and they are ready to look ahead to another successful season under longtime head coach Phil Baccarella.

“We are struggling right now, but we are slowly getting some momentum back,” said Baccarella. “We made way too many mistakes on the bases today that we can’t make again. This team has one of two ways to go and we’ve decided to just play better baseball. We’ve seemed to have straightened things out and get back towards the level we’re capable of playing at. Baseball is a game that is meant to be played every day because after a tough loss, you can bounce back quickly. We have four games in the next five days so we better be ready to go.”

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