Luke Barry dives home with the winning run in the bottom of the sixth to give Zoned a 7-6 win.

By Rich Bevensee

After watching his team trade leads for 5½ innings, Zoned RedHawks 18U coach Anthony Feltre felt it was time to bring some chaos to the Diamond Nation High School Fall League playoffs.

With no time left on the game clock, Luke Barry led off the RedHawks’ bottom half of the sixth with a triple. Feltre called for a safety squeeze from his next batter, Colton Lyerly, who couldn’t remember the last time he had bunted in a game.

Chaos requested, chaos created. After taking a pitch, Lyerly pushed a bunt down the first base line, Barry slid home safely on his belly, and second-seeded Zoned claimed a wild, 7-6, semifinal walkoff win over the third-seeded Out Of The Park Cyclones 18U Prospects on Wednesday evening at ‘The Nation’ in Flemington.

“As soon as Luke tripled, I knew we needed a safety squeeze there,” Feltre said. “It’s about causing chaos. It’s just who we are.”

After a great battle featuring two teams which had not been beaten on the field, Zoned improved to 8-0-1, while the Cyclones finished at 8-2, a record which includes a 7-0 forfeit loss to Whitehouse Post 284.

It was the second straight one-run playoff game for both teams.

In Tuesday’s quarterfinal action, Zoned scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth to slip past seventh-seeded Allentown Legion, 5-4. The Cyclones won in their final at bat of the sixth inning to knock off sixth-seeded Bucks County Phillies Scout, 2-1.

Partly because Lyerly couldn’t remember the last time he bunted in a game, Feltre had not seen him bunt and had to ask him if he even knew how before the game’s final at bat.

“He (Feltre) called me over and asked me, ‘Can you bunt?’” Lyerly recalled. “I said, ‘Yeah I can get it down. Where?’ and he said first base and I said, ‘I got you Coach.’ I wasn’t going to tell him I couldn’t remember the last time I bunted. It’s been a while. But I always knew I could get a bunt down.”

Lyerly, a senior at Piscataway Magnet, may not have been in that situation were it not for Barry, who bombed a huge leadoff triple into the right-center field gap off hard-throwing Cyclones reliever Anthony Mustacciuolo.

Barry, a junior at Hillsborough, is not an imposing figure at 5-5, 135 pounds, but neither he nor Feltre were surprised at his ability to deliver an extra-base hit to one of the deepest parts of the field. A hard-hit ball for sure, Barry’s speed turned a no-doubt double into a game-changing triple.

“This is really just what I do,” Barry said. “I work out most every day. I’m not small and skinny. I actually have some mass on me.”

“He’s got some juice in there,” Feltre said. “He can run but he does have gap power and he can bunt so he does a little bit of everything. That was a huge at bat there.”

Once Barry reached third, Feltre said he had no doubt that the situation called for a safety squeeze. Lyerly said he was so caught up in the excitement of Barry’s triple that it was difficult to focus on his own assignment.

“I was so happy for Luke that I wasn’t even thinking about my at bat,” Lyerly said. “When I stepped in the box, I was thinking, ‘Just get it down, get it down.’ It was a lot of pressure but I had to calm myself. I had to clear out all the outside noise.”

Will Oldham lays down an RBI bunt single in the second inning for Zoned.

After pulling back on the first pitch which was low and outside, Lyerly caught a curveball moving back over the plate and pushed a hard bunt up the first base line. The throw home was too late to catch the speedy Barry. Game over.

“I hustled down first and heard the cheers, so I asked safe or out because I didn’t know what was going on,” Lyerly said. “Some people were bum-rushing me and I didn’t see Luke because they were all on top of him. Everyone was going crazy. There’s nothing like it. So much excitement.”

The Diamond Nation semifinal featured three lead changes before the Cyclones tied the game at 6-6 in the top of the fifth.

Andrew Schmeider led off the inning with a high fly to left which fell in for a wind-blown double. After advancing to third on a groundout, Schmeider scored the tying run on Mustacciuolo’s sacrifice fly to left.

Zoned scored twice in the bottom of the third to take a 6-5 lead. Barry led off by reaching on an error and stealing second. Upon stealing third, the ensuing throw skipped into the outfield, allowing him to tie the game. Two batters later Daniel Jentsch walked, advanced to second on a passed ball, stole third and scored the go-ahead run on Kyle Malchiodi’s sac fly.

The Cyclones enjoyed their biggest rally of the game when they scored three runs in the top of the third for a 5-4 lead.

Schmeider (2-for-2, three runs) led off the third with a walk and two batters later Ronnie Germinder doubled down the left field line to drive him in. Lucas Bolton followed with an RBI triple to dead center and later scored on a wild pitch from Zoned starter Jack Edwards.

Edwards, the right-handed ace for Zoned all season, had thrown 76 pitches before uncorking that wild pitch. He immediately grabbed his right arm and was removed from the game as a precaution. Edwards, a junior at Hunterdon Central, surrendered five runs in 2⅔ innings on five hits and three walks with five strikeouts.

Tim Hansen came on to relieve Edwards and allowed one run over the final 3⅓ innings on one hit and one walk with six strikeouts.

Zoned built a 4-2 lead through the first two innings.

In the bottom of the first with Zoned trailing 2-0, Barr reached on an error, stole second and third and scored on Lyerly’s RBI groundout. Jentsch was hit by a pitch, Malchiodi singled, and both scored on an infield error on Justin Gregov’s grounder for a 3-2 lead.

In the bottom of the second, Anthony Russo cracked an opposite-field double to left, advanced to third on a single by Tyler Fiorentino, and scored on Will Oldham’s bunt single for a 4-2 lead.

Cyclones began this slugfest with their first at bat, as Schmeider singled and reached third on a two-base outfield error. Davis Murphy singled him home, advanced to second on a balk and scored on Bolton’s single to center for a 2-0 lead.

Cyclones starter Lucas Sheehan, a junior at Watchung Hills, lasted five innings and yielded six runs (four earned) on four hits and three walks with five strikeouts. In relief, Mustacciuolo struck out the side in the fifth and the first batter of the sixth before yielding a triple to Barry.