April 12, 2012

Junior Justin Guthrie pitched 2.1 scoreless innings of relief for Bayonne. (Photo: Jason Bernstein)

Union City at Bayonne Baseball Photo Gallery

BAYONNE – For the second time in three days Bayonne found itself trailing big within the first couple innings. But unlike the Monday's game, which ended in a blowout loss, the Bees bounced back and showed why they are one of the County's top teams this year.

Down by six in the third inning, Bayonne rallied for eight unanswered runs to stun Union City 8-6 yesterday at Veterans Stadium.

"We got our cans kicked on Monday," said Bayonne coach Phil Baccarella about Monday's 13-3 loss to Memorial. "Memorial just embarrassed us, beat us and we came in a little wounded like a wounded animal. And that's when that animal is dangerous, when its wounded and its scratching for its life. Today we were fighting for our lives. We were down 6-0 and we stayed right in it. I'm very, very happy for them."

With the bases loaded and no outs Frank DiPillo put the Bees (5-1) on the scoreboard with a ground-rule double to left to plate two runs and start the comeback. After a RBI groundout from Charles Castellano and a wild pitch which scored DiPillo, Brian Percella made it a one-run game with a double off the wall in right.

"(Frank) smoked it," teammate Justin Guthrie said. "That was the game-breaker right there. That was really clutch."

In the fourth, DiPillo smashed his second ground-rule double in as many innings. This time he took a fast to right field, scoring Guthrie to tie the game at six.

"I saw a fastball outside and I knew I was going to hit it outside," DiPillo said. "Otherwise, I was going to be out."

"Frank's a good hitter. When he swings at good pitches and he locates the ball in the strike zone, he can hit the ball as well as anyone.

With the game now tied, Guthrie took over on the mound. He was brought in from shortstop to face a bases loaded, two out jam in the fifth. The junior seemed completely unfazed by the situation as he used a strong curve ball to strike out Daniel Ima and get out of the inning.

"It's a tough situation to come in to, but my team always has my back," Guthrie said. "I just came in and tried to throw to strikes."

"We trust him. He's a veteran, he played last year," Baccarella said. "The good thing about Justin is that he's a baseball player. He doesn't have to be down in the bullpen warming up, he can come right in from (shortstop) and throw strikes.  That's what you're looking for. You're looking for baseball players and Justin Guthrie's a baseball player."

Bayonne took the lead for good when Castellano led off the bottom half of the inning with a double and pinch runner Dan Brown scored on a balk. A bases-loaded walk to Jared Ensmenger gave the Bees an insurance run.

Such insurance wasn't needed with the way Guthrie was pitching as he retired the next six batters to close out the game.

Guthrie tossed 2.1 perfect innings to pick up the win and struck out three. At the plate he was 1-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored. DiPillo, Castellano and Percella added two hits apiece and Liam Constantine scored two runs.

Starter Chris Kelly went the first 4.2 innings for Bayonne and struck out six.

Union City jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first inning with RBI singles from Robert Hererra, Sergio Delgado and Jose Tavarez. Delgado would make it 6-0 in the second when he hit a homer over the leftfield fence.

Delgado finished 3-for-4 on the day in defeat. Hererra scored twice and Tavarez struck out three batters in 4-plus innings of work.

Sergio Delgado's three-run homer gave Union City a 6-0 lead in the second inning. (Photo: Jason Bernstein)

Union City at Bayonne Baseball Photo Gallery