SP-F Baseball Beats Millburn in States

Sometimes in life – and in sports – you get a second chance.

The Scotch Plains-Fanwood baseball team falls in that category as the Raiders will get a second chance to beat county rival Cranford.

Botch Scotch Plains and Cranford scored in double digits en route to North 2, Group 3 home quarterfinal victories Friday afternoon.

Second-seeded Scotch Plains had little trouble with seventh-seeded Millburn and its standout senior pitcher Peter Han, winning 10-0 in five innings.

Third-seeded Cranford ousted defending champion and sixth-seeded Iselin Kennedy 12-6.

Cranford knows a thing or two about beating defending champions. The Cougars knocked off defending champion Scotch Plains 10-7 at Elizabeth in the semifinals of the Union County Tournament just 13 days ago.

Cranford went on to beat Westfield 6-5 at Elizabeth in last Saturday's championship game. It was the Cougars holding up the trophy for the first time in three years.

Gary Binkiewicz felt the pain of his team falling to Cranford that day. Now he and his teammates will get the opportunity to avenge that defeat and will be able to give it a try at home this time.

"The next game means a little more now, whether we play Kennedy or Cranford," Binkiewicz said moments after he went 3-for-3, with three doubles and five RBI against Millburn.

At the time he was interviewed, the winner of the Kennedy-Cranford game was not known yet.

Scotch Plains lost at Kennedy 6-3 in last year's sectional final, which was the only pitching loss suffered by Binkiewicz in an outstanding 9-1 junior campaign on the mound.

Binkiewicz and fellow senior right hander Jordan Bayroff will both be ready to pitch against Cranford on Tuesday when the teams meet at Scotch Plains at 4 p.m. in one of the section's two semifinals. The other semifinal pits fifth-seeded Morristown at top-seeded South Plainfield.

Scotch Plains and Cranford are the winningest teams in Union County at the moment. Scotch Plains is now 24-5 and has won eight straight, while Cranford is 22-5 and has won five in a row. Governor Livingston also has 22 wins.

Scotch Plains captured the Union County Conference's Watchung Division title with a 10-1 record and – maybe – one league game to go at Plainfield, while Cranford won the Mountain Division crown with a 12-2 mark. There were seven teams placed in the Watchung this season and eight in the Mountain.

Other Union County teams on a roll who were also victorious in state tournament action Friday include GL and Roselle Catholic. GL is now 22-6 and has won eight in a row, including five of those games by shutout and has outscored the opposition 76-3 in that stretch. RC is now 19-8 and has won nine in a row since falling at Cranford in the UCT quarterfinals on May 6.

Binkiewicz pitched well the first three innings against Cranford two weeks ago, allowing only one baserunner before the Cougars hit him hard the second time they came around to face him.

On Friday, Bayroff allowed just two hits in a 59-pitch, four-inning stint that included four strikeouts, no walks and one hit batter. He is now 8-1 on the season, with his only loss coming to Bloomfield 6-4 at Roselle Park back on April 18. In that game, he had one bad inning, giving up all six runs in the sixth inning, which started with an infield error.

Binkiewicz threw 11 pitches in tossing a scoreless fifth inning vs. Millburn. He allowed just one baserunner on an infield error and struck out two.

"Today it was Jordan for as far as he could go and then when he felt fatigue I came in," Binkiewicz said. "That's been our strategy for the tournament."

"The game-plan for Jordan today was for him to stay away because we didn't think they would hit the ball that hard," Scotch Plains head coach Tom Baylock said. "We now have Jordan and Gary ready to go again on Tuesday."

Han, a crafty right hander who was 3-2 with an impressive 0.44 ERA prior to facing the Raiders, did not get off to a good start in an attempt to slow down a Scotch Plains offense that averaged exactly 12 runs over its previous 17 games.

Han walked leadoff batter Ricky Shevlin in the first and then struck out Marcus Rivera swinging, but Rivera reached first base when the ball he swung at and missed got past the Millburn catcher for a wild pitch.

After John Maxwell popped up, cleanup batter Mike Ridge reached on an infield single, driving in Shevlin and Rivera to give the Raiders a quick 2-0 lead. Ridge's batted ball was fielded by Millburn shortstop Chris Benedict and his throw to first was not in time.

Joe D'Annunzio followed with his first of two infield singles, both balls hit to the Millburn third baseman, with D'Annunzio beating out the throws.

Binkewicz then smashed a 1-0 fastball past the Millburn right fielder for two RBI, giving Scotch Plains a 4-0 lead.

"We knew he had a good breaking ball," Binkiewicz said. "We're a fastball-hitting team and we know that a fastball won't beat us. He threw me a fastball inside and I hit it."

"Han has a real good curve and slider," Baylock said. "In the first inning we got the bat on the ball."

The lefty-batting Binkiewicz went the other way for opposite field RBI-doubles in the third and fifth. His hit in the third drove in two more runs and his hit in the fifth brought home D'Annunzio, who had doubled before him to also go 3-for-3.

Scotch Plains senior catcher Lou Mazzella ended the game in the bottom of the fifth when he produced a bloop RBI-single to right field that scored Binkiewicz standing up.

Ridge and Binkiewicz scored two runs and D'Annunzio three.

Scotch Plains also ran on Millburn and was a perfect 8-for-8 in stolen base attempts, with three in the first inning, one in the second, three in the third and one in the fifth.

"We used our speed a lot, looking to make plays," Binkiewicz said.

"We thought we could make it tough by running on them," Baylock said.  

NOTES: Since the setback to Bloomfield a little over a month ago, Scotch Plains is now 17-1 in its last 18 games.

The Raiders have scored at least 10 runs in 16 of those 18 games – that doesn't mean they won those games by the 10-run mercy rule, it means that they scored at least 10 runs in 16 of those 18 games – and have totaled 214 runs in the stretch for an average of 11.88 runs per game.

The only two games in that stretch where Scotch Plains did not score at least 10 runs was the 10-7 UCT semifinal loss to Cranford and an 8-3 conference win at Linden on May 10.

When Scotch Plains faced Cranford in the UCT, the Raiders were on a nine-game winning streak that included 118 runs for a 13.11 average. Cranford pitchers Pat Gilstrap, a senior right hander, and Ryan Williamson, a freshman lefty, did well to hold Scotch Plains to half of its average run production that day.

Since that defeat, Scotch Plains picked itself up and kept on swinging away.

"It's hard to believe some of the numbers we've put up," Baylock said. "It's been 1 through 9 contributing. Every day it's somebody different. Today it was Gary (Binkiewicz). The next game it could be somebody else." 

NORTH 2, GROUP 3 QUARTERFINAL AT SCOTCH PLAINS

7-MILLBURN (13-15)                             0   0   0     0  0 –   0    2   2

10-SCOTCH PLAINS (24-5)                   4   0   4     0   2 – 10  10   3 

PITCHERS OF RECORD:

Millburn – Peter Han, senior right hander, (3-3).

Scotch Plains – Jordan Bayroff, senior right hander, (8-1).

DOUBLES: Millburn – Lex Blum. Scotch Plains: Gary Binkiewicz 3, Joe D'Annunzio.

TRIPLES: Millburn – None. Scotch Plains: None.

HOME RUNS: Millburn – None. Scotch Plains: None. 
 

NORTH 2, GROUP 3 BASEBALL

SEEDS: 1-South Plainfield. 2-Scotch Plains-Fanwood. 3-Cranford.

4-Nutley. 5-Morristown. 6-Iselin Kennedy. 7-Millburn. 8-West Morris.

9-Ferris. 10-Belleville. 11-Somervlle. 12-Colonia.

13-Carteret. 14-Voorhees. 15-Warren Hills. 16-Mendham.

FIRST ROUND:

Monday, May 17

Morristown 6, Colonia 4

Nutley 11, Carteret 7

West Morris 8, Ferris 0

South Plainfield 8, Mendham 2

Millburn 10, Belleville 0

Scotch Plains 12, Warren Hills 2

Iselin Kennedy 9, Somerville 5

Cranford 6, Voorhees 0

QUARTERFINALS:

Friday, May 21

Morristown 9, Nutley 0

South Plainfield 11, West Morris 2

Cranford 12, Iselin Kennedy 6

Scotch Plains 10, Millburn 0 (5 inn.)

SEMIFINALS:

Tuesday, May 25, 4 p.m.

TOP SIDE OF THE BRACKET:

5-Morristown at 1-South Plainfield

BOTTOM SIDE OF THE BRACKET:

3-Cranford at 2-Scotch Plains

FINAL:

Friday, May 28, 4 p.m.

At the field of the higher seed.

2009: Twelve teams qualified last year - teams needed to be .500 or better - with second-seeded Scotch Plains reaching the final. The Raiders first defeated seventh-seeded South Plainfield 8-6 at home in the quarterfinals and then eliminated sixth-seeded Somerville 11-10 at home in the semis. Scotch Plains then lost at top-seeded Iselin Kennedy 6-3 in the final.

Defending champion: Iselin Kennedy.