Thursday, April 7, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Kyle Grimm finished one out short of a complete game and hit two home runs for Bergenfield, which evened its record at 1-1 with a 6-4 win over Mahwah on Wednesday.

BERGENFIELD – Since barely 50 degrees with a steady freezing drizzle is what passes for a nice spring day in these parts nowadays, Mahwah was finally able to take the field for the first time this baseball season. With all of that pent up energy finally finding an outlet, the Thunderbirds got a first inning home run from Brandon Block to take a two-run lead just three batters in the game. By the time the top of the first inning was over, Mahwah had forced Bergenfield starter Kyle Grimm to throw 31 pitches and another hit or two might have pushed the Bears’ right hander off the mound for good.

But Grimm survived the early onslaught and used the rest of the game to make amends. The Bergenfield senior lasted until there was just one out left to get and blasted two home runs of his own, sparking the Bears to a 6-4 win on Wednesday afternoon in less than ideal conditions to pitch or hit.

“When I pitch, the most important thing for me is to get in a groove. Sometimes it takes a couple of innings and it did today because my fastball wasn’t working. I had my curve, but I had to get comfortable with it,” said Grimm. “I am more of an infielder so it didn’t really affect me that I had to wait to get my first start, I don’t really think of myself as a pitcher first, but I was happy that it was against Mahwah. They are always good, we have had a lot of close games against them and I definitely was looking to get a win against them in my senior year.”

It didn’t look promising through the first two-plus innings as Stephen Neer led off the game by drawing a walk and Block crushed a high fly ball that easily cleared the right centerfield fence to give Mahwah the early lead. T-Bird starter Walker Larson (5 IP, 6 R, 3 ER, 6 H, 8 K, 3 BB) was sharp early and even dominant for a stretch as he struck out five straight batters starting with the final out of the bottom of the first inning and lasting until the first out of the third.

Brandon Block rounding third after his first inning home run gave Mahwah a 2-0 lead.

But with two outs and nobody on in the third, Bergenfield shortstop Nick DeNorscia went back through the box for a single that preceded Grimm’s first home run, a tracer the other way that barely changed trajectory as it travelled over the fence down the right field line. With one swing of the bat, Grimm brought his team and himself back even at 2 defense would make the difference from there.

Mahwah had regained the lead briefly in the top of the third, but it could have been worse for the Bears. Cole Fabio led off that frame with a double into the gap in right center, moved to third on a Block ground ball and scored with Brendan Brown laced a single up the middle.

But Mahwah’s defense gave the lead back in the bottom of the fourth. Two straight errors allowed Jovan Rivera and Dylan Hajjar to reach base with no outs and Bergenfield head coach John Farley called for Ariel Peralta to lay down a sacrifice bunt to set the table for Timmy Talosa, his No. 9 hitter. It was unorthodox, but it worked as Talosa slapped one down the rightfield line for a two-run single that put Bergenfield up for good at 4-3. Talosa later scored on the front end of a double steal as the Bears plated their third run of the inning and all of them were unearned.

“No excuses. We had a lead and they came back and won the game. We made some mistakes that cost is some runs and I have to give credit to their kid Grimm. Since he was a freshman I always thought he was one of the best players in Bergen County and he kind of showed it today with the two home runs and the way he threw the ball,” said Mahwah head coach Jeff Remo. “Unearned runs were the difference. We gave up three and we lost by two.”

Jovan Rivera getting a bunt down for Bergenfield in the fifth inning.

Fully settled into his groove, Grimm (6 2/3 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 9 H, 7K, 1 BB) retired the side in order in both the fifth and sixth innings and got the first two in the top of the sixth. He was one strike away from a complete game on two occasions, but Fabio hit a 1-2 pitch over the right field wall for a home run that got Mahwah to within 6-4 and Block followed with a two-out, two-strike double that chased Grimm. Ryan Monaghan walked the first batter he faced in relief to bring the tying run to the plate, but stuck out the next hitter to close out the win and even Bergenfield’s record at 1-1 on the season after an opening day loss to Indian Hills.

“We are a program that is trying to win games this year and what was great about today for us is that in years past we probably would have lost this game. We got down early and we might have put our heads down and let them walk over us. But then Kyle hit the homer and he settled down on the mound and we got rolling,” said Farley, whose team has the potential to be a postseason player this season. “This senior group has been together for three years now and this is a baseball-type class. We are going to try to go for a league championship and if you can contend for the league then everything else falls into place. If you are near the top of your league you are definitely in the state tournament and you are close to being in the county tournament. We’ll start there and work our way up.”

For Mahwah (0-1), the future outlook is a much shorter.

“We are just going to try to win the next game,” said Remo. “That is all we are focused on.”

to this state tournament, so to see it end at home is just not what we planned on.”

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