Sunday, April 10, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Matt Lawsky went the distance on a 5-hitter as Glen Rock split its Saturday doubleheader, topping Emerson, 5-2.

EMERSON – The job of a No. 1 pitcher in any rotation is to be the stopper, the guy who takes the ball after his team hits a rough patch and doesn’t give it back until a losing streak or any bit of adversity ends with the handshake after the final out is recorded. That was the task at hand for Glen Rock ace Matt Lawsky, who got the start in the second game of a Saturday double header for the Panthers, who could have had a miserable 24 hours.

Glen Rock started the season with three straight wins before settling for a tie against Garfield on Friday and dropped a 3-1 decision to New Milford on Saturday morning, meaning that the Panthers could have seen all of the room they put between themselves and the .500 mark undone in relatively short order.

“We’ve been struggling with the bats the last two days, we had the tie against Garfield and we lost to New Milford this morning, but we knew that we had to keep fighting. We know we have the ability to beat this kind of team, and we had to split the day,” said Lawsky. “Our goal this morning was 2-0, but you have to take what you can get on a day like today.”

What Glen Rock got was a crisply played 5-2 victory over Emerson and what Lawsky gave the Panthers was a gem, a complete-game five hitter in which he got stronger as the game went on. Lawsky retired 10 of the final 12 hitters he faced, notched five of his nine strikeouts in the final three innings and walked just one batter in the game, a lead off free pass in the final frame that he worked around by striking out Emerson’s final two hitters.

Emerson freshman Joe Fisco made his first ever varsity start and also hit two doubles.

“He [Lawsky] got better as the game went on and he was really able to throw Strike 1 and when you do that it is a different game,” said Glen Rock head coach Joe Sutera, whose team improved to 4-1-1 on the season. “You put the pressure on the hitter to either go after the first pitch or be behind in the count.”

Lawsky, the experienced senior, was matched against the exact opposite, Emerson freshman Joe Fisco, who was making his first ever varsity start after Cavo ace David Palladino, who will play Division 1 baseball next season at the University of Soutch Carolina - Upstate, shutdown Park Ridge in a key league matchup on Friday. Fisco was by no means overmatched, but taking the hill for the first time against a team with a lineup as deep as Glen Rock’s was a tall order and Dillon White stroked a lead-off double to get the Panthers started in a three-run second inning.

Dillon McGowan singled to put runners on the corners with one out and then Chris Ferrari, a transfer back to Glen Rock from Don Bosco Prep, and Ty Patasnik, batting out of the No. 9 hole, came up with back-to-back RBI singles. Ferrari scored on a fielder’s choice by Brett Lederer and Glen Rock played from in front the rest of the way.

Fisco (4+ IP, 5 R, 8 H, 1 K, 4 BB) more than held his own at the plate, however, as he had two of Emerson’s five hits, both of them doubles batting out of the clean up spot. Fisco’s courtesy runner, Shane Reilly, turned both of those hits into Emerson’s only two runs, but Glen Rock did not make it easy.

Glen Rock's Chris Ferrari taking a hit away with a throw from his knees in the second inning.

Emerson crept to within 3-1 in the bottom of the second when Dan Scala’s groundout allowed Reilly to score, but Scala was robbed of a hit by a diving stop from Ferrari at second base.

Lederer’s two-out single in the top of the fourth drove in Dillon McGowan with Glen Rock’s fourth run and Scala answered for Emerson with another RBI groundout that drove in Reilly for the second time in the game to get the Cavos back to within 4-2 before the Panthers got a golden opportunity to break the game open in the top of the fifth.

Tyler Roldan opened the inning with a single and was on third base after two wild pitches and a Tyler Blind walk. Paul Goldman then lofted a sacrifice fly that was dropped in left field. After White drew a walk as the final batter Fisco faced, Glen Rock had a 5-2 lead and the bases loaded with no outs.

But on came Pete Parciani (3 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 3 K, BB) in relief and he kept Emerson in the game by striking out the first two batters he faced with his variety of off-speed stuff and got a groundball to third base to wriggle out of the jam with no other damage done.

That left Emerson still within striking distance, but the rest of the game was all about Lawksy, who allowed just one hit over the final three innings, a one-out double to Palladino in the bottom of the sixth. Palladino, who is now 8 of 11 at the plate this season in addition to having two wins on the mound, including a no-hitter, just missed a home run as his sizzling line drive dipped just before reaching the leftfield fence. But that was the last hoorah for Emerson, which fell to 3-1 on the season.

Dan Scala drove in both of Emerson's runs.

“I was a little disappointed with some of our at bats against their ace, but it was a good high school baseball game. There weren’t any real guffaws for either team, there were some good defensive plays on both sides,” said Emerson head coach Bob Carcich, whose team is the defending North 1, Group 1 state sectional champion. “We ran a freshman out there for his first game and he might have been a little nervous in his first start, but Glen Rock was going to be tough to be today no matter what. [Lawsky] was great. He kept us off balance with his curveball, his fastball was good and he threw strikes and that made him hard to beat.”

Lawsky walked just one while striking out nine in improving to 2-0 on the season, Roldan (3-for-4, R) and Lederer (2-for-4, RBI, SB) each had multi-hit games and McGowan (1-for-3, 2R, SB, BB) scored twice, but the Panthers could have made it a bit easier on themselves with a couple of more clutch hits.

“We left a small village on the bases today and that has been a problem for us the last four games,” said Sutera, whose team left 11 runners on the base paths. “But you have to be happy with a split [of the doubleheader], especially after dropping the first one. Anytime you can walk in here and beat a team like Emerson on their home field, you have to be happy. We are happy with where we are after six games, but we drill it into our kids every day that it doesn’t mean anything. It is just a good foundation to build off of because we know we have to be playing our best ball later in the year or we can kiss the tournaments goodbye.”

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