Caracappa hurls North baseball to first win
By: Justin Feil
Doug Caracappa was the tough-luck loser in his first outing of the baseball season. The West Windsor-Plainsboro High North junior threw a two-hitter, but lost, 1-0, as the Knights did not collect a hit against WW-P South.
By the time Caracappa took the mound for the second time this season, WW-PN had fallen to 0-3 after managing just five total hits in its first three contests. The Knights had four hits and Caracappa limited Princeton Day School to two hits as WW-PN picked up its first win of the season, 4-0, Tuesday.
"That was probably the most important thing of the season," Caracappa said. "Every game, I know we’ve been thinking that we haven’t been getting on base. And for a while it seemed like, ‘Here we go again.’ "
The right-hander got all the run support he would need as the Knights manufactured a run in the third inning, and seemingly never squandered any of their precious four hits against PDS starter Parker Curtis. No. 9 hitter Patrick Hunter singled to left, stole second and third and scored on Brian Suffalko’s slow single up the middle.
The bottom of the order gave Caracappa three insurance runs in the fifth inning. Cody Warner walked, stole second and scored on an error on a ball hit by Hunter. Hunter moved to third on a hit by lead-off man Alex Katz, then scored on a throwing error when Katz stole second. Suffalko’s squeeze bunt brought home Katz. Caracappa and the Knight defense did the rest.
"I just tried to get ahead, and I was able to do that with first-pitch fastballs," Caracappa said. "I couldn’t get my curveball over for a strike, so I had to throw a lot of fastballs. We had really good defense, especially Jono Chirumbolo at first (base)."
North erased the Panthers’ best chance for a run when it turned a 5-4-3 double play to erase Ben Johnson, who had reached on an infield single. Jeremy Johnson’s clean single up the middle with two outs in the seventh was the only other hit that Caracappa allowed.
"He didn’t have his best stuff today," said WW-PN head coach Bob Boyce, whose 1-3 squad hosts Allentown 3:45 p.m. today. "He was better against South. But even when he doesn’t have his best stuff, he keeps us in games.
"He’s a gamer. He’s not afraid. He has the proper attitude of a pitcher in that ‘my job is to make them hit the ball.’ We have to make the plays. He doesn’t get rattled with guys on base. And he’s not walking people."
Caracappa walked just one batter, after he was ahead 0-2 on him, and struck out six Panther hitters.
"He was throwing some breaking balls that we were helping him with," said PDS head coach Bruce Devlin, whose squad fell to 3-2. "We took our hacks, but we didn’t find the holes. I don’t think there’s anyone that’s going to blow the ball by us.
"We’re doing pretty well for a PDS team. We’re teaching them the game right. They’re learning."
The Panthers played their first five games of the season on the road under the first-year head coach, but had not struggled like they did at the plate Tuesday. Thursday, they were scheduled to play their first game at their new home field against Allentown.
"The field’s been ready," Devlin said. "We’ve been practicing on it, and it will be good to play there finally. It will be good to be home."
Just as excited now are the Knight players, who finally saw their solid pitching rewarded.
"We’ve been struggling all year," Boyce said. "We got zero hits against South, only two hits against Ewing. We had five hits in our first three games."
"The hits will come around," Caracappa said. "We were swinging at the wrong pitches. It doesn’t help. In practice, we’ve been doing better. We’re going to need to hit to beat (Allentown)."
Tuesday, the Knights had the right formula, as it made the most of its scattered hits while playing solid defense behind Caracappa. The win came just in time to lift WW-PN from some early season disappointments.
"Winning is important," Boyce said. "If we didn’t win this game, it would have been a major setback. But the kids’ attitude has been good. They know they should win. There’s no way we thought we’d be 0-3."