10-run mercy rule in effect in five-inning loss
By: Sean Moylan
Opponents of the 10-run mercy rule could have used West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s 16-5, five-inning win over Northern Burlington’s baseball team as a prime example of why games should go all seven frames.
The Greyhounds are such a good hitting team it would not have been inconceivable for them to have come back and at least made a close game out of Monday’s NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III playoff contest played at NBC. At the very least they treated their fans to a five-run fifth which, temporarily, made a blowout a very exciting game.
For four innings the Knights’ Dan Margiotti had managed to keep the Greyhounds’ powerful lineup at bay by making big pitches in key spots. So when West Windsor-Plainsboro North brought in Brian Siele to pitch the bottom of the fifth, the Greyhound batters seemed very pleased just to see another face on the hill.
Jeff Valli started the inning off by reaching on an error. Then he was pushed to second on Dustin Ghaul’s walk. Jeff Vanguilder reached on a wind-blown single to load the bases. And up stepped Northern’s big hitter, Andy Hoyer. In his previous two at-bats versus Margiotti, Hoyer had hit a couple of fly balls to center on pitches he just missed clubbing. But against Siele, Hoyer was ready and he crushed a fastball for a two-run double to center to keep hope alive.
"I was really happy (after Hoyer’s hit)," said NBC Coach Rick Doppler. "I believe in these kids and they’ve been coming back all year. Our offense has been the strong part of our season. We’ve been winning games 13-12 and 11-10. So I thought we were going to come back. We needed just one more base hit to go another inning.
Matt Vereb followed Hoyer’s big knock with a two-run double of his own and after a Chuck Krichling’s subsequent single, NBC was suddenly back in business.
"We’ve had a good offense all year so we’re never out of a game," noted Vereb. "I thought it (the double) was out (of the park)."
Following an out, the Knights tried to make a force play at second on a Will Ethington grounder. When the ball was misplayed, everyone was safe and Ethington had a RBI for NBC’s fifth run.
Bryan Henry hit a ground ball to Short, but the Knight’s first baseman juggled the subsequent throw to first. The umpire hesitated for a split second then called Henry out, and Valli, who had started the rally, popped out to end the game.
Dan Agos started for NBC and while he threw strikes, he did struggle with his location, which led to the Knights scoring four runs in the first.
"Danny Agos had won his last three starts, but this was the first time he’s pitched under this much pressure in a playoff game," said Doppler.
Still when Ghaul led off the bottom of the first with a long double, it seemed certain this would be a good old-fashioned slugfest. But it was not to be. Margiotti got out of the first unscathed and he hurled a perfect second. Over the next two frames, Valli (a double) and Ethington, two talented veterans, would have the Greyhounds only two hits versus Margiotti.
"He (Margiotti) was on today (Monday), but we’ve hit guys of his quality this year. Our bats have been cold the last three days. We’ve gotten rained out three times," said Doppler. "But he made pitches and he shut us down pretty good."
More importantly, WW-P North hitters hit the ball very hard. They not only hit Agos (two homers allowed), they also hit Jon Lathers and Zach Traino to collect 17 hits in all.
NBC went into the playoffs without its either its number one (Hoyer) or its number two hurler (Rob Van Sciver) available to pitch because of injury.
Yet Hoyer is such a gamer he warmed up and offered the team his services on the mound.
"I felt fine. But they don’t want me to hurt my arm any further," noted Hoyer, who suffered an arm injury a few weeks back.
Despite the loss, Agos showed his toughness once again as he never once refused to take the ball this year. NBC played great defense behind him as Vereb, a first baseman, made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch to record the first out of the third.
"I planned it all out," joked Vereb of his great grab. "I saw the ball and I went back on the ball and made a catch on it."
In a way, NBC (seeded 7th) was unlucky because most people believed WW-P North (15-8) deserved a better seed than 10th. Even so, NBC can be very proud of the year its had.
"We lost our first three. Then to win nine out of next 10 with the difficulty of our schedule was unbelievable," Doppler said.
NBC went from 5-15 last year to 10-8 and hosting a playoff game this season. And it had a slew of injuries to boot. The hard-hitting seniors (Krichling, Valli, Vanguilder and Ethington) combined beautifully with the younger players to make this a special team.
FLORENCE
The Florence High School baseball didn’t allow last Wednesday’s 8-2 home loss to New Egypt to fester and become something bigger than it was. Instead, the Flashes came out the next day (last Thursday) and pounded Palmyra, 21-1, in one of the team’s best hitting exhibitions of the season.
Stevie "The Wonder" Giambrone added to his ever growing legend as he went 5-for-5, including two homers and a double, and knocked in eight of Florence’s 21 runs versus the Panthers. And there’s no telling how good his offensive numbers would have been had the Flashes had to play a full seven-inning game.
Meanwhile, Joe Spahn collected three hits and drove in four while Anthony Cardone went 3-for-3 with a RBI. Jeff Perro had a three RBI day. Jimmy Martinson, Chris Foehr, Anthony Krause, Cory Haluska and Chuck Taylor each knocked in a run for the victors.
Jimmy Martinson made it a fairly pressure-free afternoon for the Flashes by holding the Panthers to just three hits in five innings to pick up his fifth win (he’s 5-2) of the year. Amazingly, Florence had 17 hits in 31 at-bats in the contest.
"It was a great win. We needed that after (the loss to New Egypt)," said Florence Coach Ryan Pandolfini.
Against New Egypt, Florence had to take on a pitcher who hadn’t lost a game all season in Tom Partyka (7-0). Partyka held the hard-hitting Flashes to just six hits. One of those hits was a RBI single by Cardone in the fifth. Haluska drove in Florence’s other run. Giambrone suffered the loss.
Nevertheless, Florence (15-6) earned the second seed in the NJSIAA Group 1 Central Jersey playoffs. It is scheduled to host Bordentown (a 7th seed) on Friday. Florence was scheduled to have hosted Maple Shade yesterday (Wednesday).
BRHS
It didn’t matter that Pemberton edged Bordentown, 5-4, at Pemberton on Tuesday afternoon. Joe Sprague, the head coach of the Scotties’ baseball team still got what he wanted a competitive game before Friday’s NJSIAA Group 1 Central Jersey playoff match-up at Florence (seeded 2nd)
"It (the Pemberton game) was good because we haven’t played anyone since the kids went to Florida," said Sprague, whose kids have suffered through one postponement after another in the past two weeks. Against Pemberton, Sprague pitched Pete Pulhac, and the talented freshman hurled a whale of a game.
"He (Pulhac) pitched awesome. He’s got a bright future. He pitched all seven innings and struck out eight," said Sprague.
The Scotties had eight hits in the contest, including a pair of doubles by Sean Malloy. It was a 6-6 tie going into the bottom of the seventh when Pemberton squeezed in the winning run.
LCA
While the LCA baseball team had its worse season in years at 4-9, it made the Penn-Jersey playoffs by posting a 4-3 -1 league record. But last Thursday the Warriors’ season was cut short by an 11-10 semi-final playoff loss at Mercy.
"With such a bad record, we still had a shot to win it," said LCA Coach Art Steffen. "We had them beat but a couple of errors cost us a couple of runs."
The Warriors fell behind early but scored six in the third to take a 7-6 lead. They added two more runs to that lead in the fourth, but that’s when their fortunes took a turn for the worse and they surrendered the lead. Ace Rivera, the team’s slick-fielding second baseman, missed the contest because he had to play in another baseball game.
"If I would have had him (Rivera) we would have definitely won the game because of his great defense," said Steffen. "But Jacob Foerter pitched for us and he did a great job."
Meanwhile David Cotton went 4-for-5 with 4 RBI in a losing cause. He also was picked to play in this week’s Penn-Jersey All-Star game along with Foerter and John Hinson.

