Punched Out: 15 Strikeouts End Caldwell's Season

RIDGEFIELD PARK—A combination of powerful hitting and and an overpowering pitcher ended the Caldwell Senior American Legion baseball team's season Sunday morning.

Union Catholic and its ace right-hander Rey Lopez shut down Caldwell 9-2 at Overpeck Park in a loser's bracket game to remain alive in the double-elimination District 1 Tournament, while Post 185 finished its season with three straight postseason defeats and a 17-7-1 record.

The Vikings, who improved to 15-4, recorded 13 hits, one of which was a Lopez two-run homer in the fifth inning.

While on the mound, Lopez retired the first 13 batters he faced before Connor Smith's sharp single in the fifth inning. Lopez struck out 12 while giving up three hits and no walks in 6 1/3 innings before he was relieved by shortstop Mike Ridge, who struck out three more Chiefs.

"He really mixed up his pitchers," Caldwell first baseman Tyler Condit said of Lopez. "He had a fastball. He had a changeup and also had a curveball. It was tough to get a read on him."

Union Catholic, on the other hand, had at least one base runner in each of the eight innings it came up to bat. The Chiefs turned a 6-4-3 double play in the first inning, then took another run off the board when Ryan Gerhart was thrown out at second base trying to stretch a single into a double before Kyle Frazier could touch home plate to end the second inning.

"It was a good play for us looking for a secondary out, but it was a bad play by the kid from Union Catholic because he's jogging. If he's sprinting, the run counts," Caldwell coach Tom Lamont said. "But that's what you are looking for—for them to make mistakes and you capitalize. But you can't make the number of errors we made today and expect to win a tournament game."

Union Catholic took the lead for good with three runs in the third inning on a Nick Bonadies two-run double and an outfield error.

Caldwell right-hander Mike Jeffrey, who took the loss, allowed 10 hits, while striking out four and hitting a batter.

"We pitched well, but we made too many errors today, not that we would have won the game," Lamont said. "Instead of it being 9-2, it might have been 4-2. I thought Jeffrey pitched well.

"I thought the ball that was hit in the gap I thought [the outfielder] should have caught that ball. He shied away from the fence and the ball dropped in. You have to make that catch."

The Chiefs also struggled at the plate, striking out a total of 15 times as each batter was called out on strikes at least once. Seven of the strikeouts were looking.

It was an issue the team was unable to correct after striking out nine times against Livingston in last weekend's Essex County Tournament championship.

"That was a problem we really never resolved," Lamont said. "We had to be more aggressive."

Caldwell had a chance to get back in the game in the seventh. Eric Barsanti led off with a single, moved up on a passed ball and scored on an infield overthrow on a Condit groundball. Smith doubled and catcher Matt Vitiello walked to load the bases. But Mike Aliotta popped out to the shortstop and Chris Kinsella grounded into a force play to end the inning.

"If we had the bases loaded , you get a base hit and it's 7-3, and you're two hits away from making it a 7-5 game, but you have to do it," Lamont said.

Barsanti had an RBI double in the sixth to drive in Mike LaTorraca, who had reached on an overthrow.

But it wasn't enough as Caldwell lost both district tournament games after falling to Glen Rock 16-4 in Saturday's opener.

"We weren't really seeing the ball at the beginning of the game, but at the end we started to see it and started putting it into play," Barsanti said. "I was hoping to go farther in the tournament. As a team, we could have swung the bats better."