Alex Bender of the OOTP Cyclones 17U Prospects singles to center in the second inning.
By Rich Bevensee
It’s a good thing Fields 3 and 4 are adjacent to each other at Diamond Nation in Flemington, because it allowed Nick Donofrio to keep an eye on little brother Vincent while they were both pitching in the High School Fall League semifinals.
For anyone who might guess that the elder Donofrio may have been distracted from the task at hand, perhaps peeking through the fence at his brother and then back at his catcher, guess again.
All Donofrio did was twirl a four-hitter for the fourth-seeded Out Of The Park Cyclones 17U Prospects and shut down the top-seeded Hillsborough Raiders, 3-1, in a league semifinal on Wednesday evening at ‘The Nation.’
“This is very important for the program, all the boys coming together to win this game and go to the chip,” Donofrio said.
Donofrio’s little brother was not as fortunate. His second-seeded OOTP Cyclones 15U Prospects club bowed to sixth-seeded Whitehouse Post 284, 5-2, in eight innings in the other semifinal.
The Cyclones program, based in Green Brook, boasted three of the top four tournament seeds. The third-seeded 18U Cyclones lost to Whitehouse Post, 6-1, in the quarterfinals.
So it’s the 17U Cyclones (8-1-1) vs. Whitehouse Post 284 (8-2) for the championship, which is slated for Thursday at 6 p.m.
“For these guys, it’s huge,” said Cyclones coach Rob Snyder, whose 17U team is 13-2-1 overall this fall after going 15-5 this summer. “They’re learning how to play fundamental baseball, learning how to be a team, and how to be a family.”
Donofrio, a 5-9, 200-pound senior righty at Johnson High in Clark, pitched six innings and allowed one run on four hits and three walks and he struck out six on 85 pitches.
Earlier Wednesday, he threw the final inning in a 6-2 victory over 12 seed Hustle Baseball 2 in the quarterfinals.
“I deal with every game the same way,” Donofrio said. “Stay calm up there, don’t let the other team get in my head. Tunnel vision all the way through.”
Using his two-seam and four-seam fastball, slider and changeup, Donofrio permitted a single run against a team which had scored 52 runs in its previous nine Fall League games.
“Today, believe it or not, I was throwing a lot more balls than I normally do,” Donofrio said. “I’m normally a 60, 70 percent strike guy. Today I was falling behind, walking guys more than I normally do. Throwing that slider got me back on track.”
Nick Collison of the Hillsborough Raiders darts back to first with Cyclones first baseman Anthony Mustacciuolo taking the throw.
“Nick’s pitched for me a ton over the last few seasons,” Snyder said, “and today he did what he’s always done. Pounds the zone, mixes it up. If you’re playing defense for him and he’s missing bats, he’s tough to beat.”
The winning run scored on a freak accident behind second base in the top of the seventh inning. With Cyclones runners on first and second and one out, Anthony Mustacciuolo lofted a fly ball to center and Logan Erath tagged up from second.
Raiders second baseman Aiden McKenna lost the throw from center field in the lights and it hit him in the face, just below his left eye, and Erath alertly darted home.
The Cyclones added an insurance run when the next batter, Aiden DuHaime, stroked a two-out, RBI single.
The Cyclones led 1-0 thanks to a fifth inning, RBI groundout by Alex Tabales before the Raiders finally got to Donofrio.
Gavin Glazewski led off the bottom of the sixth with a walk, he stole second and scored on a double by leadoff hitter Brandon Bender.
Glazewski, a Hillsborough junior, pitched very well for four innings before allowing a walk to start the fifth and being relieved by David Kandell. Glazewski allowed one run on one hit and two walks and he struck out five.
“It’s an unfortunate situation the way we gave up that run in the seventh, but I’m so proud of these guys,” Hillsborough coach Eric Eden said. “We had a first baseman in center field and a PO (pitcher only) in left. We were out of arms and guys were stepping up who threw yesterday.
“We were limited in our roster with a lot of guys playing other sports, and the guys that were here, they all stepped up and played well.”