Sunday, May 20, 2012

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Paramus' Mark Diaz making contact with the hit that drove in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh as the Spartans reached the county semifinals for the first time since 1989 with a 3-2 win over Ridgefield Park on Saturday afternoon.

EMERSON – With a runner on first base with one out in a tie game in the bottom of the seventh inning of the Bergen County Tournament quarterfinals, it was decision time for first-year Paramus head coach Jonathan Morrisette. With his No. 9 hitter coming to the plate, Morrisette could have called for the bunt to move the runner into scoring position and give his lead-off hitter, Tyler Garguilo, a do-or-die chance to drive in the run with two outs. The other option was to leave the bat in the hands of Mark Diaz and see what happened.

“We didn’t have a lot of outs left and we did not want to give up outs that late in the game,” said Morrisette. “We wanted to continue to be aggressive in what we were doing and we have a lot of confidence in Mark’s ability to get the job done.”

The way the at bat turned out could not have been more perfect for Paramus. A passed ball did the job of what a Diaz bunt might have done as Ronny Weiss got a free trip into scoring position and Diaz’s bat ended the game two pitches later. Ahead in the count, Diaz, a junior shortstop, ripped a fastball into right field and Weiss just beat the throw home as Paramus pulled out a 3-2 victory that landed the Spartans in the Bergen County Tournament semifinals for the first time since 1989.

Derek Hyland allowed just one earned run as he threw another gem for Ridgefield Park.

“Not giving me the bunt sign and just letting me hit gave me a lot of confidence to go and try to prove him right,” said Diaz (2-for-3, RBI), who was the only player for either team to have more than one hit in the game. “I was looking for a fastball and I got one right there on the outside corner and I took it to right field with it.”

Diaz’s walkoff single brought an end to Ridgefield Park’s historic playoff run and 13 1/3 innings of brilliant pitching by Derek Hyland. Last week the RP senior right-hander threw a no-hitter to beat second-seeded St. Joseph and its ace Rob Kaminsky, who threw a one-hitter only to come up on the short side of one of the biggest upsets in tournament history. And this week Hyland had a two-run lead after the top of the second inning and allowed just one hit through the first four.

Ridgefield Park’s Richie Espinal laced a lead-off single in the top of the second inning, took third on an outfield error and scored the first run of the game two batters when Julius Johnson lifted a flyball to centerfield. Espinal tagged up on the play and broke up the play at home as he, the throw from Garguilo and catcher Rob Bonatia's glove all arrived at about the same time. With two outs in the inning and with runners on the corners, Sean Borkowski hit a high fly ball to left field that fell out of a defender’s glove just short of the wall and allowed courtesy runner Andrew Rizo to make it 2-0.

Paramus senior Frankie Colasante threw a complete game one-hitter.

With two runs already in and with two runners in scoring position with just one out, he Scarlets were just one hit away from a big inning. But it never came, not in the rest of the second inning and not the rest of the way either. Espinal’s double was the lone hit allowed in the game by Paramus starter Frankie Colasante, who struck out the final two hitters of the second inning and then set down 15 of the final 17 hitters he faced. Garguilo helped the cause by running down a flyball off the bat of Hyland in the leftfield gap with two outs and a runner on third in the top of the fourth.

Colasante struck out 12 in the game and kept hanging up zeroes to give his team time to mount a comeback.

“I have to tip my hat to [Derek Hyland]. He has a lot of pitches and he kept our hitters off balance and I just felt like it was my job to keep us close we could get to him the second or third time around the order,” said Colasante. “I’ve been up on varsity all four years and we have never made it past this round, so to finally get through it and move on to the next stage really means so much, especially this being my senior year. I just wanted to keep pounding the zone and keep us right there until we could find a way to win it.”

Paramus’ comeback was not pretty, but it did the trick. After leaving a runner in scoring position in each of the first four innings, the Spartans finally got a break when, with Garguilo on third with two outs, a throwing error allowed Garguilo to score an unearned run, the first of any kind allowed by Heyland in 11 2/3 innings pitched in the county tournament.

Rp's Richie Espinal sliding in with the game's first run in the second inning.

Paramus got even in the bottom of the sixth and again it had to scratch out the run. Giancarlo Rozon led off the frame with a single back through the box and went to second on a passed ball. That extra base was important because it allowed Josh Rollins to bunt Rozon to third base with one out and he scored from there on Matt Krum’s sacrifice fly to center.

Meanwhile, Ridgefield Park could not muster an answer as it managed just one baserunner over the final four innings and left itself at the mercy of Paramus’ seventh inning rally, which Weiss started with an opposite field single leading up to Diaz’s clutch base hit.

“Just like I told our kids before the St. Joe’s game, the first team that blinks in a big situation is going to lose and we blinked. Groundball with two outs and we throw it away to give them a run.

Without that we might win this game 2-0, but it didn’t happen and they came back to tie the game,” said Ridgefield Park head coach Pete Kraljic. “We had our chances to score four runs in the second inning and we only scored two. You get to this level and you have to do the little things and we didn’t do all of them today. We did some of them, but not enough.”

Ronny Weiss got Paramus' winning rally started with an opposite field single leading off the seventh inning.

Heyland was out there until the end for Ridgefield Park (16-9). He went 6 1/3 innings and only one of the three runs scored against him was earned, meaning he allowed just one earned run in 13 1/3 innings pitched in the county tournament. He allowed five hits, walked two and struck out three.

Colasante said he “definitely would have gone out there for the eighth” but seven turned out to be just enough for the Spartans, who are heading for the semifinals for the first time in 23 years. Seventh-seeded Paramus will play No. 3 Ramapo in the Final 4 next Saturday at Northern Valley/Demarest High School. After winning a state sectional title last year and making it all the way to the Group 3 state final, the Spartans are looking to make their mark in the coveted county tournament.

“It’s crazy that this is the first time we are going to the semifinals for the first time since 1989,” said Morrisette, who took over for long time head coach Joe Cervino, who was first out onto the field to offer congratulations. “Paramus is a baseball town and we have had a lot of success for many years, so to do something we haven’t done in a long time is a good tribute to these kids and how hard they have worked.

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