Baseball Team Advances to State Sectional Final With Win Over SP

Kurt Rutmayer is a sophomore. Ryan Williamson a freshman. Both are talented pitchers, and while the next few years look bright for the Cranford High School baseball team, Cougar fans are more than happy that the future is now.

The pair held off one of the most feared lineups in Union County, as Cranford defeated Scotch Plains-Fanwood 6-5 yesterday in the North Jersey, Group 3, Section 2 semifinal round in Scotch Plains.

Cranford, who also defeated the Raiders 10-7 in the Union County Tournament semifinals, had to come from behind again to keep their season alive.

"The best game I ever played in my life," said senior Nick Pace, who will continue his baseball career at Brookdale College in the fall. "It's just a great atmosphere. We gave it all we had."

"It feels great, because we knew they'd be out to get us from the first time," said junior leftfielder Mark Osofsky. "It was definitely a really good game, better than I expected it to be. We just came out on top."

"It was a hard-fought game, both sides played a good game," said head coach Dennis McCaffery. "We were fortunate to get the one run on top."

Trailing 3-2, the Cougars posted four runs in the top of the sixth inning to take a 6-3 lead.

The inning began when a pair of Cranford batters drew walks to put runners on first and second with no one out. McCaffery then had a decision to make. Either have Rob Ghiretti bunt the runners into scoring position, which would leave second and third with one out, or let him swing away. It wasn't an easy choice.

"There was a lot of thought," said McCaffery. "Then, when we saw what they were doing as far as moving around quite a bit, we thought there might be a lot of open holes in the defense, so we tried to put the ball on the ground, and fortunately we did. I thought we did a nice job situational hitting. Instead of bunting, we hit and ran. I thought Rob putting the ball on the ground and doing that was outstanding."

Ghiretti's base hit tied the game when Mark Osofsky scored. Soon after, freshman Sean Feeney smacked a triple to right center field, bringing home two more runs to make it 5-3. Catcher Mark Linger then hit a fly ball just deep enough to allow Feeney to score from third to push the lead to 6-3. As it turned out, that sacrifice fly would be the winning run.

Williamson, who had shut down the Raiders in the county game, gave up a leadoff opposite field home run in the bottom of the seventh which cut the lead to 6-4. SP-F would score again to make it 6-5 with the tying run on second, and the potential game-winning run standing on first base.

But the lanky southpaw delivered the strikeout that ended the game, throwing a perfect curve ball for a called strike three. It was a gutsy pitch on a 2-2 count.

"My curveball wasn't really going for a strike a lot of the innings," said Williamson. "I just felt I had to throw that one for a strike because that was a big pitch. I just felt I couldn't go behind on batters. I had to throw strikes and keep pounding, never give up. They're a really good hitting team. They hit it where it's pitched."

The righthanded Rutmayer, meanwhile, gave the Cougars a strong 4 1/3 innings, relinquishing three runs on three hits, striking out one while walking three.

"Kurt did an outstanding job, said McCaffery. "It was a solid performance, really threw the ball well. He threw two pitches for strikes, both sides of the plate, he had command of his fastball and I thought he did an outstanding job today. But then Ryan came in and really did an outstanding job. That's what Ryan does. He comes in and gives you a gutsy performance. He throws his three pitches for strikes. He was facing the No. 3 hitter for Scotch Plains and threw a very good curve ball to get him out."

There were four top-20 teams playing in yesterday's semifinals. No. 1 South Plainfield lost to Morristown 5-3, giving the Cougars home field advantage for Friday's state sectional championship game.

"Every game's big," said Williamson. "We have to keep hitting the ball and working hard at practice every day."

Pace made a number of nice plays yesterday and came up a few feet short of a home run early in the game when his long ball hit near the top of the high fence. He earned a double and later scored. But now the focus is on another championship game.

"Morristown has a good pitcher I know," said Pace. "He's been pitching well recently. If we keep doing what we're doing, we'll be all right."

"We'd obviously rather play at home instead of taking a ride out," said Osofsky. "It should play to our advantage. It should be a good game."

"Morristown is one of the best teams in the state," McCaffery said. "They have three outstanding pitchers, they hit from one to nine. We're going to have our hands full. It will be a very difficult test for us."