SP-F Baseball Falls in States

In a game that went back and forth – featuring four lead changes – the home team ended up making a valiant comeback to produce a fifth.

Unfortunately for the hosts, that comeback fell just short.

When you get to this stage of the season the winning team advances while the team that doesn’t is left to ponder.

That team on Tuesday was Scotch Plains-Fanwood.

In a North 2, Group 3 baseball semifinal that went right down to the final pitch, third-seeded and visiting Cranford held on for a hard-fought 6-5 victory over second-seeded Scotch Plains.

On the one hand you can say that Cranford had Scotch Plains’ number this season. The Raiders are 17-2 in their last 19 games, with both losses coming to Cranford.

Trailing 6-3 entering the bottom of the seventh, Scotch Plains got the game to 6-5 after a leadoff opposite field home run over the left field fence by senior Gary Binkiewicz and a two-out RBI-single to left by junior Marcus Rivera.

With the tying run on second and the go-ahead run on first, up stepped No. 3 batter John Maxwell, a lefty hitter senior facing Cranford freshman left hander Ryan Williamson.

Maxwell had come through in the clutch plenty of times for the Raiders, which is one reason why he will head south to continuing playing at Johns Hopkins University.

On the first pitch Williamson threw – a fastball in Maxwell’s range – Maxwell fouled it straight back, just missing connecting on what would have been his 100th career hit.

Four pitches later, with the count 2-2, Williamson didn’t come with a fastball. Instead he chose an off speed pitch he had confidence in and was able to get it over the plate to end the game.

“He had a lot of guts throwing him a curveball there,” Scotch Plains head coach Tom Baylock said. “Johnny was looking fastball and it froze him.”

Cranford won its sixth straight to improve to 23-5 and will host fifth-seeded Morristown (22-9) in Friday’s 4 p.m. final at Cranford’s Memorial Field. Morristown won at top-seeded South Plainfield 5-3 in Tuesday’s other N2, G3 semifinal.

South Plainfield entered the game ranked No. 1 in the state by The Star-Ledger.

Cranford will be seeking to capture N2, G3 for the first time since 2007.

Scotch Plains, which had an eight-game winning streak snapped and fell to 24-6, will wrap its season Wednesday at Plainfield to finish its conference schedule. The Raiders already clinched the Union County Conference’s Watchung Division championship with a 10-1 league mark.

“If we beat Plainfield we’ll finish 25-6 and you can’t take that away from the kids,” Baylock said. “That’s probably the most wins by a Scotch Plains team in the last 30 years.”

Cranford took a 1-0 lead on a double steal in the top of the first when Nick Pace, who doubled off Scotch Plains starter Jordan Bayroff, scored from third.

Scotch Plains tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the second when senior Joe D’Annunzio scored from third ahead of the time that a Scotch Plains runner was picked off for the inning’s final out.

Cranford went back ahead 2-1 with two outs in the fifth when courtesy runner Justin VanOstenbridge scored from second as the result of a throwing error after he successfully stole third base.

Scotch Plains answered right back with two runs in the fifth to take its first and only lead at 3-2. Senior catcher Lou Mazzella tied the game at 2-2 with a one-out solo home run over the left field fence and then three batters later leadoff hitter Ricky Shevlin singled to left to drive in Tyler Schon with the third Scotch Plains run. Schon doubled down the left field line right after Mazzella’s home run.

Gary Binkiewicz began his fourth inning on the mound in relief in the sixth after allowing only one unearned run on just one hit in his first three innings.

However, Binkiewicz walked the first two batters he faced in the sixth – Mark Osofsky on a 3-1 count and Nick Cook on a 3-0 pitch  - and they came around to score when the next two batters in the order got hits off Binkiewicz.

Senior Rob Ghiretti delivered an RBI-single to left on a 1-1 pitch to tie the game at 3-3. Then freshman lefty batter Sean Feeney blasted a pitch to the right-center gap that brought home two more runs to give Cranford its third and final lead at 5-3.

Feeney’s game-winning hit, which gave Cranford the lead for good, was followed by a sacrifice fly RBI to right field hit by No. 9 batter, senior Marc Linger.

The bottom three batters in Cranford’s order drove in the last four runs the Cougars scored.

“I don’t know what it was with Gary, we didn’t see anything different from him in the sixth,” Baylock said. “It was a lot like the county game against Cranford when they had better at-bats the second time. This time he got behind and they took advantage.”

Williamson, who entered with one out in the fifth, pitched a 1-2-3 sixth inning, retiring D’Annunzio on a fly ball to center for the last out.

Rivera relieved Binkiewicz with no outs in the sixth and pitched scoreless sixth and seventh innings.

Behind 6-3 and down to their final three outs in the bottom of the seventh, Binkiewicz hit a 2-1 fastball from Williamson the other way to make it 6-4. Then Mazzella hit a shot to deep center that fell in the glove of Cranford center fielder Pace.

With one out, Schon went down on strikes swinging. Then No. 9 batter – senior designated hitter Mike Lauricella – hit a hard chopper to third that Feeney scooped up cleanly. With plenty of time to throw out Lauricella, Feeney threw wildly past first baseman Nick Cook, with Scotch Plains still alive and Lauricella on first base.

Shevlin, on a 1-1 pitch, followed with a single to left and then Rivera – also on a 1-1 pitch - produced his hit to left to make it 6-5.

It took a moment, but Cranford head coach Dennis McCaffery slowly walked to the mound to have a meeting with Williamson before he faced Maxwell.

While this is an incredibly tough loss for Scotch Plains, which was denied getting back to the UCT final and the North 2, Group 3 final – both times by Cranford – there’s no shame in falling to a team like Cranford.

Since McCaffery took over as head coach in 1999 after serving as an assistant under James Shriner for three seasons, Cranford has won the most games of any team in Union County in the past 12 years. The Cougars have also won the UCT the most times in that span as well with their first six championships.

The only other schools to have won the UCT more than once since 1999 other than Cranford are Scotch Plains and Westfield, with two championships each.

“I told the kids that it’s hard to repeat and hard to get back to where you were once before,” Baylock said. “This senior class has done so many things and won so many games. I think they averaged about 22 wins and they reached the UCT semifinals three times and this section’s semifinals three times. That’s not bad. We were on the cusp before them, but they put Scotch Plains baseball on the map and up there with the Cranfords, Westfields and GLs.”

NOTES: D’Annunzio, who will continue at Rutgers, enters his last high school game with 159 runs and 156 hits for his career. He is near 50 hits for his senior season.

Bayroff started the game on the mound for Scotch Plains, but had already thrown 50 pitches after a two-inning stint that saw him give up one earned run on one hit, while striking out one, walking one and hitting one batter. He threw 28 pitches in the first inning and 22 more in the second, with Baylock electing to bring in Binkiewicz from second base to start the third inning.

"He looked tired,” Baylock said of Bayroff. “With three days rest for the third time I thought there was a little wear and tear. When we have the ball in Gary’s hands with a lead we’re usually in good shape.”

Although Binkiewicz took the loss on the mound, he had an outstanding game at the plate. He hit a hard single to right off Cranford starter Kurt Rutmeyer in the second inning and when he faced Rutmeyer again to lead off the fifth, he smoked a fastball right at Cranford first baseman Nick Cook, who made a nice play to hang on to the line drive.

Binkiewicz was 2-for-3, with a single, a home run, one run, one RBI and his out was probably the hardest hit ball all afternoon.

Osofsky and fellow junior Eric Walano reached base three times each for Cranford. Osofsky was 1-for-2, with a single, two walks and a run. Walano was 1-for-2, with a double, a walk, a stolen base and he reached base for the last time when he was hit by a pitch.

Rivera will be the only underclassmen from Scotch Plains playing in the first Union County vs. Essex County Underclassmen All-Star Game, scheduled for June 12 at Kean University

NORTH 2, GROUP 3 BASEBALL SEMIFINAL AT SCOTCH PLAINS

3-CRANFORD (23-5)                                   1   0   0     0   1   4    0 – 6  5  1

2-SCOTCH PLAINS (24-6)                          0   1   0     0   2   0    2 – 5  8  2

PITCHERS OF RECORD:

Cranford – Ryan Williamson, freshman left hander, (4-2).

Scotch Plains – Gary Binkiewicz, senior right hander, (4-4).

DOUBLES: Cranford – Nick Pace, Eric Walano. Scotch Plains – Tyler Schon.

TRIPLES: Cranford – Sean Feeney. Scotch Plains – None.

HOME RUNS: Cranford – None. Scotch Plains – Lou Mazzella, Gary Binkiewicz.