May 8, 2011
Royal Knights advance
Angel Perez slides in for Marist's third run of the second inning yesterday.
Click Here for more photos from Hudson Catholic at Marist
By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director
BAYONNE – Even after his Marist team lost its first six game of the season, head coach Ron Hayword remained confident that this would not be destined to be a lost year for the Royal Knights.
That confidence continued to be rewarded as Marist held on for a 5-3 victory over Hudson Catholic in the opening round of the Ed Ford Memorial Baseball Tournament yesterday at Veterans Stadium.
“They weren’t going to pack it in, not our kids,” Hayward said. I knew when we started 0-6, I told them its going to come, its baseball. It wasn’t like we weren’t getting blown out every game. We got blown out in only one game, the Union City game. The rest of them were close games. We were struggling, it wasn’t like we were playing bad baseball, and we just weren’t getting the luck. Eventually it changed.”
Like many of the other wins during this recent surge, it was a true group effort for the eighth-seeded Royal Knights (11-10). It wasn’t always pretty, but Marist always seemed to find a way to grind out the runs when they needed them. Of the five run-scoring plays, only two (a single by Angel Perez in the second inning and one from Ben Sierrea in the sixth) came on a hit.
After squandering a 3-0 lead, the Royal Knights once against showed their resilience in the bottom of the fifth inning. John Journett singled and stole second base to start the one-out rally. A Hudson Catholic (9-10) error and an intentional walk to Ruben Rivera load the bases.
It all seemed for naught when Steve Tsugranes hit into what had appeared to be an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play. The junior first baseman would just barely beat the throw to first, allowing Journett to score what would be the game-winning run.
Hayward then turned to his youngest player to finish the job in freshman Matt Littrell. Seemingly unfazed by the pressure of tournament play, Littrell quickly put Hawks off-balanced with a lethal slider.
After cruising through the sixth inning, he ran into some trouble in the seventh allowing a wind-aided single to Steve Price with one out. Littrell would recover by freezing Chris Moczo with a 3-2 slider for the second out. Randy Reyes would single, putting the tying run on base, but Littrell would get Rory Carvajal to hit a grounder back to the mound to end the threat and advance Marist into next Saturday’s quarterfinals against top-seeded Union City.
“I was just a little nervous on the mound,” Littrell said. “But I just fought through it. I’m alright for a freshman.”
“I don’t believe in age,” said Hayward. “I learned it, playing as a freshman and (Matt) demonstrated early that he can play baseball. He’s a great kid and as long as he keeps growing, he could be a dominant kid.”
Littrell struck out three over the final two innings to pick up the save for Marist. Rivera picked up the win, allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits, five walks and six strikeouts.
Marist would jump out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning behind a RBI single from Perez, a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch to Journett and a sacrifice fly by Jose Gonzalez.
The Hawks would scratch out two runs in the third despite the help of just one hit – a RBI single from Moczo to left. Hudson Catholic would tie the game in the fifth when Carvajal plated pinch runner Ariel Rosario with a single. But the Hawks would be unable to get the lead as they stranded two runners on base in the inning and two more in the seventh.
“We just didn’t make the big plays,” Hawks head coach Alberto Vasquez said. “There were a lot of mistakes on our part and you can’t win by making mistakes in a county playoff game.”
Reyes settled down after a rough start to get the complete game in defeat. He allowed four earned runs on seven hits, three hit batsmen and an intentional walk over six innings. Reyes struck out five and at one point retired eight-consecutive batters.
At the plate, Reyes was 2-for-2 with a pair of walks.
Randy Reyes pitched a complete game and reached base four times for Hudson Catholic.
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
R
3
9 |
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| Hudson Catholic Hawks (9-10) | 3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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| Marist Royal Knights (11-10) | 1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
1 |
X |
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| Hits: Hudson Catholic: 6. Marist: 7. | |||||||||||
| HR: None | |||||||||||
| RBI: Hudson Catholic: Rory Carvajal, Chris Moczo,. Marist: Jose Gonzalez, John Journett, Angel Perez, Ben Sierra, Steve Tsugranes. | |||||||||||
| W: Ruben Rivera | |||||||||||
| L: Randy Reyes | |||||||||||
| S: Matt Littrell | |||||||||||