Cougars host sectional baseball final today
By: Bob Nuse
RED BANK It had all the makings of a classic pitchers’ duel.
Red Bank’s Corey Young entered Tuesday’s North Jersey, Section 2 Group III semifinal game against Montgomery with a 9-0 record and two no-hitters to his credit this season. Montgomery’s Dale Hering entered the game with a 3-3 record, but had proven to be a starter the Cougars could rely on.
In the end, it didn’t matter what sort of credentials Young came into the game with. At this point in time, Montgomery has shown it can hit any pitcher.
Even though Young struck out 11 Cougars in five innings of work, Montgomery got to the Seton Hall-bound senior for eight hits and four runs. The Cougars than added seven more runs over the final two innings on their way to an 11-5 win.
With the win, fifth-seeded Montgomery advanced to the sectional final, where they will host seventh-seeded Millburn today at 4 p.m.
"I knew it was going to be a pitchers’ duel," said Hering, who worked the first six innings, allowing just three hits and striking out 14 to earn the win. "I knew it would be a tough game. But we hit well. I felt like I kept us in the game and we took advantage of some errors. It all worked out.
"I guess I have a good enough fastball where if I hit my spots, people won’t hit it. I just try to hit my spots as much as possible. I didn’t have my curve ball working really well today, so I threw my fastball a lot."
While Hering was getting the job done on the mound, the Cougars were finding ways to scratch out runs against Young. Montgomery scored twice in the second when Matt Conforti reached on an error and Nick Umar followed with a base hit. James Boyer than put down a sacrifice bunt that was thrown into right field, allowing a run to score. Hering then hit into a fielder’s choice, allowing a second run to score.
"We’re hitting the ball well," Montgomery coach Peter Mueller said. "We’re making the plays. We’re getting the timely hitting that we need. You couldn’t script it any better. I’m so proud of these guys. This is our nice high right here. We’ve had some lows."
After Red Bank tied the score with two runs in the third, Montgomery took the lead again with two runs in the fifth inning. Bryan Colombero opened the inning with a double. A walk to Kevin Weingart put two runners on, and a wild pitch moved them into scoring position. Conforti and Umar each followed with singles to make it a 4-2 lead for the Cougars.
Red Bank came right back with two runs in the bottom of the inning to tie the score again. After a Red Bank pitching change, the Cougars took the lead when a Colombero sacrifice fly plated Mike Cahill.
At that point, Hering dug in and wasn’t about to let another lead slip away.
"I wasn’t going to let them tie it up again, there was no way," said Hering, who walked five and hit three batters in the game. "I had done that twice already. I gave them eight free bases, which is way too many."
Added Mueller, "We basically told him to air it out that inning just to get through it. His pitch count was getting up to the point where we would have put him in in the seventh only if it was absolutely necessary. And then it would have been a batter by batter situation. We told him to empty the tank in the sixth. We wanted to get him though the sixth and after that we’re confident with David Blitzer, Mike Cahill, Keith Moran. We have a lot of throwers."
Hering took care of Red Bank in the sixth, then Montgomery added six more runs in the seventh, with Ryan Andrew and David Mohns providing the big blows with two-run doubles. David Blitzer then came on to retire the top-seeded Bucs in the seventh.
"We’ve been hitting the ball well lately and it has been great," Hering said. "Having that kind of support behind you, you can’t beat that. Getting 11 runs in this game and 10 in my last game against New Brunswick, there is nothing you want more as a pitcher."
The win kept the Cougars on a roll, as they improved to 16-12 on the season with their third state tournament win.
"We’ve talked a lot about peaking at the right time," Mueller said. "We said when we get into the post-season we want to be playing our best. I’m not sure how you coach that, but you talk about it and for us it has come true in these state games. Since the fifth inning of the New Brunswick game, we had a turnaround. There is really no explanation for why we did, it just happened.
"This game was a gut check for us and for Dale. This kid (Young) has a huge reputation down here. He’s going to Seton Hall and you don’t go to Seton Hall unless you’re pretty good. I think as a pitcher, that gives you extra motivation that you want to go out and prove yourself. I think Dale proved to all of us that he can compete on any level. He went out and did his job."
And now the Cougars are within one win of a sectional championship, which isn’t bad for a team that entered the state tournament playing just over .500 baseball.
"Our regular season schedule in the conference is real tough," Hering said. "Playing teams like Hillsborough, Watchung Hills and Immaculata gave us a sense of what it was like to play the real good teams. I think that really prepared us for when we started to see these tough teams again.
"Last year we started 16-0 and kind of died off in the middle of the season and fell off at the end. This year we didn’t do so well in the middle, but now we’re playing our best baseball at the end of the season when it counts."
And at this point, Montgomery doesn’t seem to care at all who happens to be on the opposing mound.