SP-F Junior Legion Team Falls Short of Playoffs

After coming back from an early three-run deficit to take a one-run lead, the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Junior American Legion baseball team was four outs away from advancing in its league playoffs.

However, visiting Rutgers Prep wanted to advance just as badly and did so early Wednesday night at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School by rallying for four runs with two outs in the top of the sixth.

The 10th-seeded team from Somerset County came back to claim a 7-4 triumph over seventh-seeded Scotch Plains-Fanwood in a first-round contest.

Rutgers Prep evened its record at 8-8 and moved on to Saturday's quarterfinals at Rahway's Veterans Field, where it will face second-seeded Roselle Park at 11:30 a.m.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood saw its season come to a close, finishing with a winning record of 7-4.

Rutgers Prep's rally consisted of consecutive outfield RBI-bloop singles, a walk and then two more RBI-singles, with a runner thrown out at the plate for the inning's final out.

"We had two outs and then the bloop hit to center and the bloop hit to right," Scotch Plains assistant coach Andrew Mulvey said after the game. "It's tough, but that's baseball."

Lefty starter Steven Alleman turned in a solid five-inning performance for Scotch Plains-Fanwood. After giving up three runs in the top of the first, he pitched four consecutive scoreless innings.

Alleman threw 75 pitches, allowing three runs on five hits, with one of the runs unearned. He struck out one batter and walked two. His one 1-2-3 inning was his last, the fifth, after he picked off a runner at first to end the top of the fourth on a play that went 1-3-6-1.

Right hander Brett Kovacs came in from center field to pitch the sixth with Scotch Plains-Fanwood ahead 4-3.

"All year, Brett has primarily pitched in the closer spot because he has the strongest arm on the team," Mulvey said. "He's been a real good reliever for us."

Kovacs' first batter was a challenge, that being Rutgers Prep's starting pitcher, Malcolm Kelsey, who moved to first base after pitching the first three innings. Kelsey, one of the larger players on the visiting team, grounded out to short in the first and then hit a double off Alleman that reached the center field fence on one bounce in the third.

Although Kovacs ended up walking Kelsey on a 3-1 pitch, he retired the next two batters on a sacrifice bunt and fly out to right. Andy Graziano and Brandon Hameier—the final two batters in the Rutgers Prep lineup— then followed with their RBI-bloop hits, Hameier's single driving in Graziano to give Rutgers Prep the lead back for good at 5-4.

Run-scoring singles by Colby Smith and lefty-batting Ian Glassmen provided key insurance runs.

"You try to keep your starter in as long as you can go," Mulvey said. "You think you want to keep him in longer than you can, but that's it. Sometimes it doesn't work out."

Alleman threw a lot of pitches in the beginning of the game—46 after the first two innings—and with Kelsey leading off the sixth, it made sense to go to Kovacs at that time, especially after Kelsey hit the ball pretty hard and very far against Alleman his second time up against the southpaw.

"Alleman was right on the money, but a little deep in his pitch count," Mulvey said. "I was saying to myself, 'I really want to keep him in that next inning,' but I was also kind of looking a little forward down our schedule and I was hoping to get this locked up. Pitch count and the fact that he's young, I didn't want to burn him out too early."

Alleman finished the season with a better-than-average 5-2 record.

"He pitched a lot this year," Mulvey said. "I tried to keep it the way we've been doing it all year, because it's been working, and it just didn't this time."

Kovacs came back to pitch a 1-2-3 top of the seventh, striking out one batter swinging.

However, Scotch Plains-Fanwood was held to just one baserunner on an infield error the last two innings, with middle relief pitcher Jeff McHale pitching the fourth, fifth and sixth innings and getting the win and Glassmen throwing hard and striking out the side in the bottom of the seventh for the save.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood scored its first run in the bottom of the first on an RBI-ground out to short by Joseph Schmitz. Scoring on the play was leadoff batter James Marvosa, who began the inning with a bloop single on a high pop up in front of home plate that the Rutgers Prep catcher lost in the sun. Alex Suriano followed with a bunt single that just died in the grass not too far ahead of home plate and toward the first base line.

Kovacs lined a double to left and was then brought home on an RBI-single to right by Frank Degnan in the second. Degnan was then driven home on an RBI-single to center off the bat of Marvosa, who went 2-for-4, with a run, an RBI and two stolen bases. Marvosa's second hit in as many at-bats tied the game at 3-3.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood was a perfect 7-for-7 in the stolen base department, with one of them the back end of a double steal in which Degnan was safe at the plate in the bottom of the fourth to give his team its 4-3 advantage. Degnan was 1-for-2 with two runs and one RBI.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood banged out eight hits and Rutgers Prep nine. Also hitting safely for the home team in addition to Marvosa, Suriano, Kovacs and Degnan were Ryan Henkels, who was 1-for-4 with an infield single; Schmitz, who was 1-for-3 with a single and his RBI; and lefty-swinging Anthony Krajcsik, who smacked a triple over the center fielder's head in his first at-bat in the bottom of the fifth.

McHale threw 42 pitches in his three-inning stint to earn the mound victory. He allowed one earned run, one hit, struck out four, walked one and hit one batter. He retired the side in order in the sixth, which was his last inning.

Although its season came to an earlier-than-expected conclusion, Scotch Plains-Fanwood achieved much on the diamond the past two months and will take that valuable experience into the 2010 high school campaign. All of the players are sophomores-to-be after they performed on the Scotch Plains-Fanwood freshman team this past spring.

 "We did a lot of building," Mulvey said. "A lot of stuff that we started off sloppy at the beginning of the year we really locked up. We had better baserunning and really a lot better hitting. We struggled with the wood bats early in the year and then toward the end our team batting average really climbed. Defensively, a lot of guys are getting stronger."

"Our big idea here for legion is development for next year," Mulvey continued. "All these guys are freshmen. A lot of teams we played, there were a couple of JV guys and a couple of varsity guys in some cases. For freshmen to really stick around with some of the competition we had, they did a great job. That's what coach (John) Giunta and I really wanted and that's what we got. We got a lot of development that will lead us into next year."

This was Giunta's second season as the team's head coach.

"These guys have done very well," Giunta said. "I coach JV and I've seen these guys and they have definitely improved."

Scotch Plains-Fanwood's JV squad was 16-1 this past spring, with its only loss coming in the county championship game to Westfield, according to Giunta.

Giunta knew before the game that his team had a great chance to advance with Alleman on the mound.

"He throws a lot of fastballs, spotting his fastballs, and he also has a breaking ball," Giunta said. "Down here it's a lot of work and a lot of raw talent."

NOTES: In regular season play also at home, Scotch Plains-Fanwood defeated Rutgers Prep 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh.

Giunta said that Scotch Plains-Fanwood All-Stars included Marvosa, Schmitz and Krajcsik.

"Marvosa had a very good game there," Giunta said.

The Junior Legion Coach of the Year this season is Vikings Baseball's John Becht. Vikings Baseball earned the top playoff seed and will face ninth-seeded Roselle at 9am Saturday in the first of the four quarterfinal games at Rahway's Veterans Field.

The semifinals will continue at Veterans Field Sunday at 10am and 12:30pm and the championship game is scheduled to also take place there Monday at 5pm.

Watchung Hills, which lost as the 13th seed at fourth-seeded Berkeley Heights 4-3 in 11 innings in a first round game Tuesday, captured last year's championship. 

SCOTCH PLAINS-FANWOOD

JUNIOR AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL TEAM

Lineup vs. Rutgers Prep Wednesday, July 15, at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School

First round of league playoffs

21-James Marvosa, second base, sophomore

11-Alex Suriano, left field, sophomore

3-Ryan Henkels, catcher, sophomore

26-Joseph Schmitz, third base, sophomore

42-Luke Minieo, first base, sophomore

18-Paul Benovengo, right field, sophomore

8-Brett Kovacs, center field, sophomore

5-Frank Degnan, shortstop, sophomore

2-Steven Alleman, pitcher, sophomore

Also: 16-Anthony Krajcsik, sophomore. 1-Edward Lopez, sophomore.

13-Matthew Harnett, sophomore. 12-Connor McGuire, sophomore.

31-Anthony Letteri, sophomore. 6-Patrick Manfra.

Extra hitters are not allowed for the league playoffs.

Coaches: John Giunta, Andrew Mulvey