Chatham Baseball Finishes Season With 5-1 Loss, Looks Forward to Next Year

The Chatham baseball team's season ended with a 5-1 loss to Hanover Park Monday at Chatham High School.

Chatham (5-16) starting pitcher Gio Casale cruised through the first ten Hanover Park hitters before hitting Hanover Park's Joe DiMeo and walking Tim Byron.  Max Litvak drove in DiMeo in for the games' first run.  

"I kinda lost my groove," said Casale. "They kind of got in my head a little bit."

The Hornets weren't finished. Their offense produced additional multi-run innings in the fifth and sixth innings. 

Casale hit the inning's first batter and walked the second. After a sacrifice moved two runs into scoring position, Sam Paladino drove in Frank Tassiulli with a sacrifice fly. Rob Lapinto drove in Giovanni Martino with a single before the inning ended, making the score 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth.             

"Walks and hit batsmen to start innings—that's every pitcher's downfall," said Chatham Head Coach Doug Chambers.

The Hornets continued to pile on runs in the sixth. Hanover Park's Tim Byron stroked a leadoff double off the wall in right, and an infield hit from Max Litvak put runners at the corners for Vinnie Satriano, who grounded out to drive in the Hornets' fourth run.

Giovanni Martino then doubled to the left field gap to drive in the Hornets final run in the sixth.                

Hornets starting pitcher Phil Bermel used offspeed pitches to force lackluster swings from Chatham batters.

"He's an enigma," said junior Matt Reader. "He throws a nice little two seam fastball, so he gets a lot of us righties with that."

Reader was one of four batters to get a hit off of Bermel, and he scored the Cougars' lone run in the game.

Bermel pitched six innings, struck out six batters and allowed one run on four hits and two walks.

"We don't see many lefties—he had a little tail to his ball," said Chambers.                

Chambers said he is looking forward to next season. He will return with a team that has more experience playing at the varsity level and more experience in a new conference. The team switched to the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference this year after having played in the Iron Hills Conference.

"I think we found out what it's like to play in a tougher conference," he said. "Day in, day out, you have to be on your game."