Joey Betz drove in a run for Hawthorne Christian, which topped Clifton, 7-3, in the opening round of the Passaic County Tournament on Tuesday afternoon.
CLIFTON – Part of what makes a county tournament so enticing to the common baseball fan is the potential for two teams that would normally not meet under any other circumstances to get paired against one another when the seeds are announced. Clifton has the second-highest enrollment of any high school in New Jersey with over 3,000 students. On the opposite end of that spectrum is Hawthorne Christian Academy, one of the smallest high schools in the state with just over 150 students. In fact, Clifton has more players in its baseball program than Hawthorne Christian Academy does in this year’s senior class (42 students).
But they were equals when the game started on Tuesday. Although they were seeded directly next to one another in the first round of the Passaic County Tournament, the feeling was one of a true David vs. Goliath-type matchup. Despite the enrollment disparity, the Defenders had one huge advantage. They had Andrew Nelson, and the Mustangs did not.
Nelson pitched well enough to keep his team in the game until the bats got hot in the fifth inning. He helped his own cause by capping the inning with a bases-clearing double as No. 13 seed Hawthorne Christian pulled the upset over 12th-seeded Clifton to advance to the Round of 16 with a 7-3 triumph on Tuesday at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Clifton.
“Even when we were down, I focused on throwing strikes and get ahead,” said Nelson. “I had to abandon my breaking ball, just didn’t have it today. With the hitters we have, I knew if I could do my job and keep us in the game that we would keep battling until we scored some runs.”
Tony Morales sliding in with one of Clifton's three runs.
Clifton got on the scoreboard first with Tony Morales single-handedly manufacturing a run. He went the other way with a line-drive that dropped directly onto the right-field line and into the corner for a triple. Three pitches later, the ball skipped slightly away from the Defenders’ catcher and Morales broke for the plate. The speedster beat the toss to the plate to put the Mustangs in front, 1-0.
After being held hitless through three innings by Clifton starter Seth Porcelli, the Defenders got it going in the top of the fourth inning. Matt Altomare lined a leadoff single and came in to score on a sacrifice fly from Joey Betz to make it 1-1.
In the bottom half of the frame, Clifton regained the lead on an RBI single by Aaron Tapia De La Cruz. After struggling the first time through the order, the Defenders’ at-bats improved before finally busting out in the fifth inning.
Jaden Rodriguez and Chase Hinton got the ball rolling with back-to-back base hits to start the rally. Mason Hinton then dropped down a bunt, but the Mustangs elected to try and get the force out at third base. It proved costly as Rodriguez beat the throw to load the bases with nobody out. No. 9 batter David Wiegers came up big with a run-scoring single. Altomare followed with a RBI groundout to put Hawthorne Christian ahead, 3-2.
Then the Defenders were gifted a run when a throw back to the mound following a pitch went over Porcelli’s head, which allowed a run to score. Then with the bases loaded again and two outs, Nelson delivered the knockout blow. He rocked a fastball into the left-center field gap to clear the bases and give HCA a 7-2 lead.
Andrew Nelson did it on the mound and at the place for HCA, which will play No. 5 West Milford in the Round of 16.
“I knew with the bases loaded that I’d get something to hit,” said Nelson on his 3-run double. “After the first two innings I thought we started to time their pitcher better. He threw a bunch of pitches in the inning and that at-bat. I was waiting for the fastball and got it in the zone.”
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Nelson was facing his final batter due to pitch-count restrictions. He had given everything had but saved up his best stuff for one more batter. The sophomore right-hander quickly got the count to 0-2, then fielded a comebacker and flipped to first for the final out to polish off one of the biggest wins in the history of the Defenders’ baseball program.
Nelson scattered seven hits and allowed three earned runs to pick up the win for Hawthorne Christian (5-7). He walked two and struck out eight. Nelson has now gone at least 5 2/3 innings in each of his four starts this season. Eli Higby paced the lineup offensively, going 3-4 with two runs scored.
Morales scored twice and stole a base for Clifton (5-10). Justin Cabrera and Tapia De La Cruz each had two hits for the Mustangs.
Hawthorne Christian moved into the Round of 16 to face fifth-seeded West Milford. The Defenders are seeking their first-ever quarterfinal berth in the Passaic County Tournament. While pulling a second upset is a huge task for a young HCA squad, the blueprint that fueled this win is what they hope to have against the Highlanders.
“In any game if we walk just one or two guys and we play clean on the infield, we feel confident that we’ll in a position to win,” said Hawthorne Christian head coach Aaron Van Dyk. “Nellie pitched well enough to win and we got the big hits we needed. Today we hung in there and then found a way to get things going. We’ll hope to that again when we play West Milford.”
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