Tuesday, April 19, 2011

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Sayvon Williams struck out six and walked just one en route to picking up the victory in Union Hill's 13-3 win over Kearny over Monday.

UNION CITY - Union City's Jose Matias remembers just how well Kearny had the Soaring Eagles' number last season. Kearny beat them twice last season with its ace, Jeff Caputo establishing a rhythm early and silencing the Union City bats in both of those starts. So when they saw Caputo on the mound again yesterday morning, Matias and his teammates had one thing on their collective minds, revenge. The Soaring Eagles not only got revenge, they made a statement and put themselves in the conversation as a contender for a Hudson County title.

Matias picked a good day to have the best day of his varsity career. The senior third baseman went 3-3 with five RBI and finished a homer shy of the cycle as Union City scored three runs in the first and pulled away with a seven-run fourth en route to a surprising 13-3, five-inning win over Kearny yesterday at Roosevelt Stadium in Union City.

"(Caputo) beat us twice last year and if you don't get him early, you're not going to get him at all," said Union City head coach Chipper Benway. "We hit the ball in the gap a couple of times and we got alot of offensive production today. That happened because we had good at-bats and we showed some patience at the plate. When we do that and play defense the way we're capable of, we become a very dangerous team."

Kearny looked to get off to another quick start by loading the bases with nobody out in the top of the first. But Union City starter Sayvon Williams got some help from his defense with a double-play and then got a strikeout to get out of the jam allowing just one run. Matias started his torrid day at the plate with a two-out, two-strike RBI single to tie the game. Robert Herrera followed with a double to right-center to bring home two more runs to make it 3-1.

The Kardinals tied the game in the top of the third when Nick Beauchene's single to right brought home Victor Calerdon and Jon Mercado to knot the score at 3. The Soaring Eagles answered right back in the bottom half of the frame with Matias once again being the offensive catalyst. His long double brought home Willy Taveras and Yeudy Ventura to put Union City ahead to stay, 5-3.

"I was just trying to attack good pitches early in the count," said Union City's Jose Matias. "We saw last year what happened when he got into a groove. We know we can play good defense, and when hit the ball hard in-play that anything can happen."

Union City was already ahead by three runs before pouring it on in the bottom of the fourth. Guess who got things started? You guessed it, it was the hot bat of Matias. He wore out the right-center field gap all game, this time going all the way to the wall to drive Taveras and Ventura again with a two-run triple. Jose Taveras capped the seven-run inning with a two-run triple of his own for a whopping ten-run lead, 13-3.

"There is no other way to put it, we just got beat by a better team today," said Kearny head coach Joe Sickinger. "They showed up ready to play and we clearly didn't. We see them again in two weeks and I hope we learned something from this."

Matias accounted for seven runs, driving in five and scoring two for Union City (8-3). Herrera knocked in three runs, while Ray Cassens and Daniel Lopez each drove in one. Willy Taveras and Ventura each scored three times in support of Williams, who retired seven of the final eight batters he faced, including a 1-2-3 fifth. He allowed five hits, walked one, and had six strikeouts.

Along with Beauchene's two-run single, John Kelly, Kevin DeMauro, Calderon, and Mercado had the other hits for Kearny, who fell to 6-2 on the season.

Yesterday's win over Kearny was an eye-opener for the rest of their Hudson County opponents. But the Soaring Eagles also know that it is just one game and any momentum built up from yesterday's win can be gone tomorrow. So their goal is to remain consistent and take another step closer to potentially being county champions.

"We want to be county champs real bad, but we still have a long way to go and alot of time to improve," added Matias. "We have to step it up every single game from here on out. Today was a big, positive step for us and it will give us alot of motivation for the games coming up. Now we know what we can do when we do everything well and we're playing our best. I think we can improve in situations like hitting with men on third and stuff like that, but as a team you can always do something to get better. To beat a pitcher who beat us twice last season shows how far we've come."

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