On a beautiful Memorial Day Monday, both River Dell and Rutherford were languishing after both were eliminated the previous day from the state tournament. Right from pre-game infield practice you could see both teams were still hung over from their respective defeats; they weren’t crisp. River Dell saw it carry right into the semifinal county tournament game, as they weren’t executing all of the little things.
About 90 minutes into the game, Brandon Martinez delivered a 350-foot wake-up call and the Golden Hawks sprung to life. Those little things started going their way and Ryan Duran made sure that his last start on the mound in a high school game would be a memorable one.
It added up to a 9-8 victory and a trip to the Bergen County championship game for the first time in 40 years. The Hawks’ only other championship game appearance was a 5-0 defeat of Hackensack back in 1973. They’ll try to continue their improbable run on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. when they take on the tournament’s top seed, St. Joseph Regional.
It also marks the third time that a double-digit seed reached the finals. Westwood was an 11 seed when they got there in 2010 and a 13 seed in 2006, but they lost both title games. No double-digit seed has won the tournament since the committee started seeding teams beyond eight in 2002, and no team has won the tournament having to win five games, which is what River Dell will be trying to do.
Their ticket to the championship game was anything but easy, for four innings it looked like Rutherford was going to be the team playing on Wednesday. The Bulldogs were leading 6-2 and seemingly in control, with starter Bob Conrad having cleared the order twice.
The third time wasn’t a charm, though, as the Hawks got a rally started by their nine hitter, Brett Lubben. The diminutive second baseman (Mark Czerwinski said he reminded him of Freddie Patek, and he wears his number; wonder if Lubben even knows who Freddie Patek is; matter of fact, I wonder if most people reading this know who Freddie Patek is) had a solid leadoff at bat in the fifth, fouling off a pair of nasty two-strike breaking pitches before sending one to left for a base hit.
Christian Estevez followed with a single to right on the next pitch, moving Lubben to second. Tim Barnes then came up and laid down a beauty of a bunt up the first base line on the first pitch. Conrad fielded it but Barnes beat the second baseman to the bag for a hit. Conrad tried to throw it to first over Barnes’ head and it went past the bag, sending Lubben home and moving Estevez to third and Barnes to second.
That brought up Martinez, who got a first-pitch fastball and sent it over the left field wall for a game-tying three-run home run. What had been a moribund dugout was suddenly juiced up.
“Coach was telling us to take a pitch but he said if I see one and get mine I could swing,†Martinez recounted. “I saw a pitch right down the middle and I swung away. (After circling the bases) I just came in the dugout and started to get the guys riled up. I knew we were going to come back and win this game.â€
River Dell starter Ryan Duran had struggled through his first three innings, throwing three wild pitches (one allowing a run to score) and hitting a couple of batters. He was up to 78 pitches heading into the fourth inning but he had a couple of quick innings in the fourth and fifth (11 and 9 pitches).
His teammates gave him the lead in the top of the sixth, with Barnes reaching on a one-out error and Martinez doinking one just over first base for his 100th career hit and third of the game. Duran helped himself with an RBI single for the lead, Evan Drummond singled for another run and Chris McCarthy’s bases loaded walk made it 9-6.
Rutherford got two back in its half of the sixth, on an Adam Hernandez single and one on a passed ball. Duran stranded the tying run at second, then after River Dell went 1-2-3, out he came for the seventh. He went into the inning having already thrown 123 pitches, and head coach Brandon Flanagan kept checking to see if he was okay.
“You know me, I take care of my pitchers,†Flanagan said. “We had him with a few less (pitches); I’m going to have to get on my pitch count guys. If I knew it was (123) I wouldn’t have sent him out there. I asked him after the sixth, how are you, and he said, ‘I’m going back out.’ We had Barnes warmed up, but Ryan told me it’s his game. If he didn’t have those couple of easy innings (4th and 5th) he wouldn’t have been out there.â€
“He asked me if I was okay to go,†Duran recalled, “but I wasn’t going to come out anyway. I wasn’t going to let him take the ball out of my hands.â€
He issued a one-out walk and the runner was on second with two out when Duran induced leadoff hitter Pat Landrigan to ground out to second, finishing off a 140-pitch grind.
“I don’t think I’ve ever thrown that many,†Duran said. “I felt really strong coming out in the last inning. I knew I had to get something done so I did my job.â€
So it now comes down to one game for the Hawks, a game that few expect them to win. Flanagan wasn’t sure who would take the mound. He has both Mark Wittkamp (who beat Park Ridge in a complete game effort in the Round of 16) or Corey Martinez ready.
“Hey, we go out for one more and we’ll see what happens,†Flanagan said. “Today was all about getting one more practice (on Tuesday). It took a while to get going, but once we got past the hangover, we got it done.â€