Demetriou beats Montgomery in home game
By: Rudy Brandl
The Hillsborough American Legion baseball team completed the 2003 summer campaign with a home-and-away split against Montgomery last week. While the Raiders would have loved to sweep the season-ending series, winning one of two against the Somerset County high school season champs wasn’t a bad way to finish.
Hillsborough right-hander Mark Demetriou fired a complete game in the team’s 5-3 victory at home. Montgomery returned the favor the following night with a 6-1 triumph on its home field.
The July 14 victory was sweet revenge for Demetriou, who had lost a tough pitcher’s duel to Montgomery High star David Andrew in the Somerset County Tournament. Demetriou pitched beautifully on that mid-May afternoon but the Raiders couldn’t get the bats going and lost by a 2-0 margin.
Demetriou made the most of his early run support in last week’s Legion game. Hillsborough scored five runs in the bottom of the first and Demetriou held Montgomery to single runs in the first, fifth and sixth frames. The Raiders didn’t hit the ball much after the first inning, but Demetriou made the early lead hold up. Demetriou scattered eight hits but didn’t walk a batter while striking out five.
"Mark got the job done," Hillsborough manager Doug Eden said. "He had his control and he got a lot of fly balls. We got the lead and he kept them out of the game."
After Montgomery took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, the Raiders answered with a big five-spot. John Newman walked, Demetriou singled and Will Miska reached on a fielder’s choice that scored Newman. Chris Sasso made it 2-0 with an RBI hit and Kyle Derkacz walked to load the bases with one out. John Pogorzelski smacked a two-run single to left-center and Eric Mathisen plated the fifth run with a groundout.
"I thought it was going to be a real big game for us, but we didn’t really do much after that," Eden said. "Our bats weren’t really alive after that first inning."
Mathisen singled in the sixth for the team’s only hit after the first inning. Montgomery finished with an 8-4 advantage in hits, but the Raiders won by two on the scoreboard.
Demetriou received some help from his defense in the fifth inning. The Cougars had already clawed back to within 5-2 when Sasso, playing center field for the injured Brandon Shamy, made a superb diving catch that saved at least one run. Sasso, who plays the corner outfield spots and first base, looked like his speedy teammate tracking the ball in the gap.
The Raiders traveled south on Route 206 in hopes of finishing the summer on a two-game win streak but Montgomery held serve on its home field. Chris Szalay and Ryan King combined on a five-hitter for the winners.
Hillsborough, like Montgomery did the previous day, took the lead with a run in the first inning. However, the Raiders failed to score after the opening frame for the second straight game.
Joe Marangella reached on an error and scored when Demetriou tripled for a 1-0 lead. The Raiders scattered singles by Newman, Mathisen and Marangella and a double by Chris Bombard throughout the rest of the game but couldn’t score again.
Montgomery scored two in each of the second and third innings against Hillsborough starter Derkacz, who pitched the first four frames and absorbed the loss. Derkacz allowed five hits and three walks and fanned five batters. Rob Kumbatovic gave up a run on two hits with two strikeouts in two innings of relief.
"We played a pretty good game and we were a hit away from getting back into it." Eden said. "We left too many guys on base. We only had four strikeouts so we were making a lot of contact, but they have a very good infield. We made a couple mistakes and we gave them four walks. Then we came up a little bit short with our bats."
The season-ending split left the Raiders with a final record of 7-11-1. The postponed game vs. league champ North Planfield (16-3) will not be made up.