Sunday,
May 23, 2010
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Northern
Highlands head coach Paul Albarella getting a high 10 after
his Highlanders, the No. 16 seed, reached the North 1, Group
3 state sectional final with a 7-4 win over Wayne Valley
on Tuesday. |
WAYNE
– Through its first two huge state tournament upsets over
top-seeded Paramus and eighth-seeded Wayne Hills, the Northern
Highlands players have had the underdog card collectively tucked
in their back pocket and ready to pull whenever they needed inspiration.
But what was to happen Tuesday when the Highlanders ran into Wayne
Valley, a fellow double digit seed that also came into the state
tournament with absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain?
The
end result was a classic showdown that needed extra innings to
decide who the unlikely North 1, Group 3 state sectional finalist
would be.
Steve
DiBella snapped a tie with an RBI single and Tony Gandolfo followed
with a two-out, two-run triple as Northern Highlands moved one
step closer to being the first No. 16 seed to ever win a section
title with a 7-4, nine-inning win over 12th seeded Wayne Valley
at Wayne Valley High School.
“This
was a crazy game because there were times we could have put them
away, and times where they had on the ropes and we could have
folded,” said Northern Highlands head coach Paul Albarella.
“Until you’re in this situation, you don’t know
how you’re going to react. But we never stopped believing
and we never put our heads down when Wayne Valley got some big
hits. We just kept picking each other up until we could string
some hits together.”
Wayne
Valley got on the scoreboard first when Nick Hoy’s RBI single
knocked in Marcus Virgilito in the bottom of the third. But after
retiring nine of the first 10 hitters he faced, the Highlander
bats finally got it going against Wayne Valley starter Donnie
Cusick.
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| Wayne
Valley starter Donnie Cusick retired 9 of the first 10 hitters
he faced. |
Billy
Rose led off the top of the fourth with a double and Alex Sonageri
followed with a single. Joey Gandolfo then took an outside fastball
and roped it over the left field fence for a three-run shot that
gave Northern Highlands the lead. The Highlanders tacked on another
run in the fifth when Glenn Cocks uncorked a mammoth solo shot
to left for a 4-1 lead.
“I
was basically sitting on a fastball over the middle of the plate
and I got one,” said Cocks. “As soon as I hit it I
knew it was gone, it felt great.”
Northern
Highlands starter Dan Rehain wiggled his way out of trouble several
times and got the big outs before the Indians caught a break they
needed badly.
Anthony
Verilli hit a ball in the left-center field gap. The Highlanders
went to field the ball in the high grass at the base of the wall
before trying to get a call for a ground-rule double. The call
was not granted by the umpire and Verilli scored easily on an
inside-the-park homerun. Josh Marks, the No. 9 batter, then doubled
and went to third on an errant pickoff throw. Zach Rosen then
beat out a throw from third on a hard-hit ground ball that brought
home Marks, cut the lead down to 4-3, and forced Northern Highlands
to go to its bullpen.
Enter
Gandolfo, a southpaw, who came on to get out of a jam in the sixth,
but quickly gave up the tying run in the seventh and the Highlanders’
run of upsets appeared to be hitting a wall. Gandolfo hit Mike
Tolerico with a pitch to start the bottom of the seventh and Hoy
laced an RBI double to tie the game at 4. After Pete Savastano
moved him over on a sacrifice bunt, the Indians suddenly had the
winning run just 90 feet away with one out. Gandolfo reared back
to get two big strikeouts to end the inning and keep the Highlanders’
season alive.
“I
got myself in the jam and I had to get myself and our team out
of it,” said Gandolfo. “I had to block out the fans
and all the pressure and just take them one at a time. The only
thing I was focused on was (DiBella’s) glove. We had to
battle and I had to bear down and throw strikes. I knew if I hit
my spots and trusted the defense behind me, which I have all year,
there wasn’t much more I could do.”
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| Glenn
Cocks getting a pat on the helmet after his solo home run
gave Northern Highlands a 4-1 lead. |
The
score was still tied at 4 in the ninth when the Highlanders were
the beneficiary of a bang-bang play. Gandolfo walked and barely
snuck under a perfect throw from Hoy behind the plate to steal
second base. Two pitches later, DiBella roped a long single off
of Wayne Valley reliever Andrew Furber to score Gandolfo for a
5-4 lead.
“(Furber)
was throwing the ball pretty well, I just got a fastball I could
handle and my eyes lit up,” said DiBella. “All I wanted
to do was make contact and get a hit to bring the run home and
give us a lead.”
Tony
Gandolfo is known more as a defensive specialist from the shortstop
position. Despite being the No. 9 batter in the Highlanders’
lineup, he made his presence felt with perhaps the biggest hit
of his career. He hit a line-drive into the gap for a two-run
triple that broke the game open and gave Northern Highlands a
7-4 lead.
The
Indians had no intentions of going down quietly in their final
at-bat, and the Highlanders needed some key pitches and a huge
defensive play to get out of it. With one out, Savastano bent
a hit that landed just inside the right-field line. But it took
a nice carom off the fence and right to Cocks in right field,
who made a perfect throw to cut down Savastano at second base
for the second out of the inning.
“I
knew I could get (Savastano) if I made a perfect throw and I went
for it,” added Cocks, who also made a sliding catch that
saved two runs to end the fifth. “I saw him round first
base and I figured I may have enough time to get him. We saw that
they could come back on us, so we had to get outs any way we could
get them to get the win.”
Joey
Gandolfo then walked two straight batters to bring the tying run
to the plate before notching a strikeout to end the three-hour,
seven-minute affair and keep the magical run of the Highlanders
going for at least one more game.
“I
couldn’t let this game slip away,” added Joey Gandolfo.
“It was such a relief when I was able to get that final
strikeout. There was so much pressure that I had to really concentrate
on every pitch.”
To
show the balance of Northern Highlands (14-12), every player in
their lineup had at least one hit; but DiBella was the only one
with two. Joey Gandolfo picked up the win giving up three hits,
one earned run with 4 walks and 6 Ks in 3 1/3 innings of work.
Rehain scattered nine hits and struck out 2 in his 5 2/3 innings
on the bump.
Hoy
led the way for Wayne Valley (17-10) with two hits and two RBIs.
Virgilito, Marks, and Verilli each added a pair of hits. The Indians
still have something to play for as they face top-seeded West
Milford this Saturday in the Passaic County semifinals.
With
the thrilling victory, 16th seeded Northern Highlands looks to
become the lowest seed and the only sub-.500 team before the tournament
started to ever win a section title. To do that, they will have
to face another unlikely foe in the North 1, Group 3 final in
11th seeded Lakeland, which pulled a huge 3-2 upset over No. 2
Pascack Valley.
What
makes this run even greater and more unbelievable is that as of
two weeks ago, Northern Highlands did not even know if a regular-season
win over Paramus Catholic on the day of the cutoff would be enough
to earn them a spot in the North 1, Group 3 draw. More importantly,
if this was last year, they would have not had the necessary .500
mark to qualify for the tournament. But since the rule is in place
for the time being, the Highlanders plan on making the most of
it and hopefully creating some history along the way.
“Our
confidence is sky high and we know with Danny (Rehain) and Joey
(Gandolfo) on the mound that we have a chance against anyone,”
said DiBella. “This is a game we would not have won in April.
This might not have even been a game we won a few weeks ago, but
we are a different, better team now. To get a chance to be in
a position like this is something that may come along once in
a lifetime. This is why you work hard in the off-season, this
is why you give it your all at practice. This is why you play
high school baseball.”
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