Stephen Whooley pitch 4 1/3 innings and picked up the win, the first for Ramapo in the 3-year history of the Charlie Landers Own The Mound Games. The Raiders topped Columbia, 9-5, in Franklin Lakes.
FRANKLIN LAKES – One of the best trends in high school sports over the past decade is the rise of the benefit event. One off games or a weekend slate scheduled to bring both awareness and fundraising to any given cause that is near and dear to a team or town. All of them are great, but approaches vary.
Some hosts like to bring in an opponent that presents the best chance to cap the occasion with a win, while others see it as a chance to ramp up the independent schedule. For all three annual editions of the Charlie Landers Own The Mound Games, Ramapo has chosen the latter.
“Year one we faced [former Ramsey ace and current University of Virginia pitcher] Will Kirk and Year 2 we lost to Bridgewater-Raritan, who went 30-3 last year, won a state title and might have been the best team in the state,” said Garrison Ward, Ramapo’s co-head coach. “This year it is a good Columbia team. They were 5-1 coming into this week before losing to Livingston and Seton Hall Prep. We just want to keep playing good teams because that is kind of the spirit of what Charlie Landers would want.”
Landers, who would have graduated with the Ramapo Class of 2024, fought the good fight against ewing’s sarcoma, a rare bone cancer. It is in his memory and in support of his the CL7 Foundation, that Ramapo runs this event and it was in his spirit that they got their first win in three tries.
The Raiders sent 10 hitters to the plate in the fourth inning, scored six times and then held off Columbia, 9-5, on the first real spring like day of the baseball season. There were two more competitive games that pitted Pascack Valley against DePaul and Midland Park against Hanover Park and it was a day full of high-level baseball.
Landers would have loved it.
Jason Sansone had a hit and drive in a run for Ramapo, which improved to 9-2 on the season.
“When he was sick he would go do treatments and then he would show up to practice and work at it like nothing else was going on in his life,” said Ward. “We want to do what we can to put the best teams out on the field. We had [Old Tappan’s Alex] Kranzler against [Millburn’s Steven] Echavarria two years ago. We want to get as many people in here as possible to spread awareness of ewing’s sarcoma and spread Charlie Landers’ name and foundation. The more we get it out there; maybe we raise a little money and help somebody out.”
So for the record, the first winning pitcher for the home side in the now three-year event is Stephen Whooley, the third of the three baseball-playin’ Whooley brothers to come through Ramapo. Whooley went 4 1/3 to pick up the victory as Ramapo improved to 9-2 on the season.
“The past two years in the event we lost. We were aware of that and we had to come out and get the win today. This is our event,” said Whooley, who struck out six. “Fastball, first pitch. I just kept throwing it until they made contact and my cutter was nice as well. The defense had my back today and we got the win. That is all that matters.”
The offense was not too shabby either after falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first inning and going down 1-2-3 in front of Columbia starter Oliver Ellis in the bottom of the frame, Ramapo got even Brandon Haji’s RBI groundout that was set up by Brody Barber’s leadoff single back through the box. The Raiders went ahead on Charlie Wingfield’s one-out double in the third that scored Alex Dominguez and Wingfield was right in the middle of the decisive fourth inning rally as well.
Ramapo's Jake Scoropanos struck out 5 of the 9 hitters he faced to pick up the save.
Ty Barber (2-for-3, R), the first batter faced by Columbia’s side-winding reliever Oliver Ellis, leadoff with knock, the first in a seven-hit inning in which the Raiders’ kept the carousel turning by putting the ball in play. Four straight hits by Jason Sansone (1-for-3, RBI, R), Dominguez (2-for-3, 2 R), Liam Hayward (1-for-4, 2 RBI, R) and then Wingfield’s second double of the game, led to five runs and Alex Bellovich (1-for-3, 2 RBI) finished it off with a sacrifice fly.
“From 1 to 9 in the lineup, everyone on this team hits and it is fun to be a part of,” said Ty Barber, the junior shortstop who was one of four Raiders to have a multi-hit game. “I never got to meet [Charlie Landers] but I know a lot about him from hearing people talk and the saying ‘Own The Mound’ we got from him and it’s something we use as motivation in years past and in years to come. I am happy to be a part of this.”
Columbia poked its nose back in the game with a four-run fifth to sneak within 8-5, but Jake Scoropanos shut the door in relief. Scoropanos, who fanned five of the nine hitters he faced, pitched around a two-out walk in the sixth by striking out the side and got a K to end it with the tying run in the on-deck circle in the seventh.
Through 11 games, Ramapo is right up there with the county elites and is bucking for a high seed in the Bergen County Baseball Tournament, which is right around the corner.
It’s always championship or bust in every sport in Franklin Lakes and this year’s Raiders, with a deep pitching staff headed by Wingfield, a Division 1 football recruit who could be that same if he had chosen baseball, Cody Herman, Whooley and Brayden Resch, with Scoropanos and others in the pen, look up for the challenge.
“This is fun. This is a really good group of kids and we are still pretty young. We have 17 juniors,” said Ward. “We are excited to be building a team and confidence with a senior leader like Charlie and go from there.”
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