Senior Chris Matesic struck out a career-high 14 for Paramus, which advanced to the North 1, Group 3 quarterfinals with an 8-3 win at Fort Lee.
FORT LEE – In baseball more than any other sport, no team is safe in the opening round of state sectional tournament play no matter the seed. Perceived underdogs might have had up-and-down seasons, but they have also had the luxury of time to line up their ace on full rest for the start of the postseason.
Chris Matesic, anyone?
The Paramus right-hander was dominant on Tuesday as the 12th-seeded Spartans took to the road to face No. 5 Fort Lee in the first round of the North 1, Group 3 state sectional tournament. With a slider and curveball that look the same out of the hand but dart at different trajectories at the end of their respective flights, Matesic baffled Fort Lee’s solid lineup.
Matesic struck out a career high 14 batters, including eight in a row from the final out of the first inning through the first out of the fourth, in an 8-3 win that might have been an upset on paper, but certainly not in practice.
“I think my curveball and my slider really makes my fastball a lot better because they see that off-speed and they are always thinking about it,” said Matesic, a senior who will play at Montclair State University next year. “With my curveball/slider combination one goes one way, one goes the other way and [hitters] are like, ‘What is going on?”
There was a lot of that on both sides early on as Fort Lee starter Jacob Greenberg (5+ IP, 5 R, 3 ER, 6 H, 7 K, BB) was also shoving it early. He struck out four through three scoreless innings and only got dinged in the fourth by an unearned run. Paramus shortstop Evan Gonzalez (1-for-3, RBI, R, 2B, SAC) led off with a double and scored when Ishon Basnet (1-for-4, R, 2B) got one through an infielder. Greenberg reset and retired the next three hitters in order, two via strikeout.
Fort Lee's Stephen Kim celebrating his first inning double..
Matesic rolled into the bottom of the fourth with his eighth straight strikeout being the first out, but Chris Kim (2-for-3, RBI, R) broke up that streak with a single and Greenberg (1-for-3, R, 2B) followed with a double off the short porch in rightfield. Kim scored on an error and Greenberg came home on Jack Dorkhom’s sacrifice fly as the Bridgemen took a 2-1 lead.
Sophomore Alex Cirillo (2-for-2, R, 2B, 2 BB) ripped a leadoff double in the top of the fifth, went to third on a Aidan Brundage (1-for-3, RBI, R, SAC) sacrifice bunt and scored on an Evan Borelli (2-for-4, RBI) groundout as Paramus manufactured the run that tied the game at 2.
“I have been slumping lately, so it felt really good to barrel the ball up twice today. I felt like my approaches were good at the plate and I just executed them,” said Cirillo, who reached safely in all four of his plate appearances. “It’s definitely different [playing in the state tournament]. You are going to a place you never played at, you are playing on a different surface, but at the end of the day you are playing baseball. It’s a simple game. You make the routine plays, you win. We had Chris [Matesic] on the mound, our No. 1, he pitched [well], we made the routine plays and we won the game.”
The routine plays made all the difference in the decisive sixth inning when Paramus sent 10 hitters to the plate and scored five times to break the game open. Back to back doubles to start the frame by Basnet and Cormac O’Hara (1-for-4, RBI, R, 2B) got the rally started and then a throwing error and two straight walks opened the floodgates. Brundage added an RBI single and Gonzalez drove in a run with a groundout as the Spartans opened a 7-2 advantage.
Sophomore Alex Cirillo reached base in all four of his plate appearances for Paramus, which will visit Wayne Hills in the quarterfinals..
The Bridgemen got one back in the sixth on Chris Kim’s double that scored Luke Senatore, but that was the final run in what very well might have been the best season in program history. Fort Lee (17-9) won its first outright league championship since the 1950s, qualified for the Bergen County Tournament for the second straight year and for just the second time ever, won a county tournament game for the first time ever and had a 1-0 lead on eventual champion Don Bosco Prep in the seventh inning before falling in extra innings.
“[Matesic] is a great pitcher, but I think we scored enough runs to win the game. Errors killed us, I think we had five and they had three or four unearned runs. Kudos to [Paramus]. They did what they had to do to win the game, but we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit. We have a lot of young guys and hopefully we can use this as some fuel going into next season,” said Fort Lee head coach Pete Kraljic. “We had a great season, but I think we could have done better and I think the kids know it, too. We were in pretty much every single game this season. I feel bad for our seniors going out this way, but it’s baseball, man. Anybody can win on any given day.”
Paramus (10-14) lives to fight another day and that will be on Thursday (weather permitting) at No. 4 Wayne Hills, which dispatched No. 13 Randolph, 6-4, in the opening round.
“I am excited. I like the matchups we got,” said Matesic, who will not be available for the quarterfinals on the mound, but will be as the Spartans’ leadoff hitter. “The season is still going. That is the good thing and we’ll see how far we can take it.”
FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS EVENT PLEASE CLICK HERE. TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY PLEASE VISIT 4-FeetGrafix.com.
