Josh Balda of Zoned retreats back to first after a fourth-inning base hit.
By Rich Bevensee
Unlike any other game during its league-best 10-game win streak, Montgomery Superior was forced to grind for seven innings on Thursday night before generating an ounce of offense.
Montgomery’s game against Zoned RedHawks 16U in the Diamond Nation High School Fall League was a huge mismatch on paper. Montgomery was averaging nearly nine runs per game during its winning streak and had shut out its last four opponents. Montgomery beat Zoned in a mercy-rule game in their previous meeting, and had not played from behind since its last loss a month ago.
But all those great statistics went out the window once Zoned scored a run in the first inning and received some terrific pitching to quiet that potent Montgomery lineup for nearly the entire night.
One quality at bat and a little bit of luck in the seventh inning enabled Montgomery to keep its winning streak alive. After a passed ball led to two runs, Henry Maddox put together the at bat of the season to drive in an insurance run and Montgomery escaped with a 4-1 win in Flemington.
“Props to the Zoned team tonight. They threw strikes all night and they were aggressive offensively to put some pressure on us,” said Montgomery’s E.J. Onyschak, who tossed two innings of scoreless relief to close out the game. “Playing from behind isn’t something we’ve done a ton of this year so I was proud of our at bats in the seventh and then just glad to escape with the win.”
Montgomery sits comfortably in fourth place in the league standings at 13-3, behind Whitehouse Post 284 (6-0), Zoned RedHawks 18U (5-0-1) and Out Of The Park Cyclones 18U (6-1). There is one more week of regular season games before the league playoffs begin.
Montgomery entered the top of the seventh trailing, 1-0, thanks to the combined efforts of Zoned righties Parker DiPollina, Colton Jeremiah, Tim Hansen and Zachary Battoglia.
Onyschak reached on an infield error and Chris Loniewski walked to lead off the seventh against Battoglia. Ryan Shimp came on to relieve and Zac Davis attempted a sacrifice bunt and reached safely to load the bases.
With Maddox batting, Onyschak scored on a passed ball which squirted into the third base dugout and out of play, allowing courtesy runner Patrick Fogarty (running for catcher Loniewski) to score from second base for a 2-1 lead.
Maddox faced an 0-2 count before working a 10-pitch at bat and coming away with an opposite-field, sacrifice fly to right to push Davis across with a huge insurance run.
Matthew Ressa added a base hit up the middle to drive in another run for the final score.
Maddox, a senior at Montgomery, was 0-for-2 with a pair of groundouts to short before his biggest at bat of the game. Montgomery coach Zoran Milich called it the team’s best at bat of the season.
Montgomery’s Zac Davis, second from right, is greeted by, from left, Chris Loniewski, Aaron Corcoran and catcher Navio Delgado after completing 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief pitching.
“To be honest I was mad I missed the first two pitches – right down the middle,” Maddox said. “I just got into my two-strike approach and tried to fight off everything until I got a pitch I like to hit. I feel like I’m more locked in and more focused on pitch selection in a situation like that.”
“That was incredible,” said Montgomery’s Zac Davis, who pitched 3⅔ innings of scoreless relief before handing off to Onyschak. “He couldn’t have done a better job, fighting everything off and then going oppo. He’s been driving the ball all fall to right field so he was the perfect guy for that situation.”
Zoned manufactured the first run of the game in the bottom of the first. Zachary Pizzie reached when he laced a one-out grounder back to the box which struck Montgomery starter Carter Olson in the foot. After two straight hit batsmen, Olson got a strikeout before Josh Sternadore worked a bases-loaded walk to push across Pizzie.
Davis relieved Olson with the bases loaded and one out in the second and retired the next two batters to escape the inning.
“Zac is a strike-throwing machine,” Milich said. “Every time we bring him into tough situations he gets out of the jam for us. He’s not overwhelmed by the situation.”
Davis, a senior at North Hunterdon, pitched three more scoreless innings while allowing three hits and no walks with two strikeouts. Davis has a 0.00 ERA this fall. He has not yielded a single run in 14 innings.
“I just trust my defense, fill the zone and get as many balls on the ground as I can,” Davis said. “The guys were locked in on the field and that helps a lot.”
Onyschak, a senior at Union Catholic, endured a bumpy start when he took over in the sixth, allowing a hit batsman and a walk with one out. He got a strikeout and a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
“Going into the game knowing we’re down 1-0 definitely meant I needed to throw a zero on the board,” Onyschak said.
Escaping that jam, Onyschak jogged off the mound and began his team’s comeback in the top of the seventh.
“We all knew it was coming,” Davis said. “We just had to lock in on our approach. I trust all the guys here. We’ve been hitting the ball great. As long as our pitchers do their job getting outs, we’ll score.”
Onyschak closed out the seventh to complete two scoreless innings. He yielded two walks and struck out two,
“I’m most proud that we played a full seven innings. They were really hustling around,” Milich said. “The Zoned pitchers did a nice job of stymieing us and we kept grinding. We hit some decent balls and they were making plays.”
Zoned (1-5) lost its fifth straight but it wasn’t for a lack of pitching. DiPollina threw the first inning and struck out three while walking one. Jeremiah tossed two scoreless innings, struck out two and gave up one hit. Hansen threw another pair of scoreless innings while allowing one hit and striking out two.
Battoglia allowed two runs in one inning on one hit and two walks with one strikeout. Shimp yielded two runs in one inning on two hits and one walk.