Cranford Baseball Team Reaches County Final

Timely hitting and a pair of gritty pitching performances were a key combination for the Cranford varsity baseball team in Saturday's Union County Tournament semifinal game versus defending champion Scotch Plains-Fanwood.

The Cougars, who last won the county crown in 2007, will have another chance at glory after defeating the Raiders 10-7 at Williams Field in Elizabeth.

Trailing 2-0 after the first inning, Cranford rode the arm of ace Pat Gilstrap and the red-hot bat of junior Mark Osofsky to the come-from-behind triumph.

"I thought Pat gave a gutsy performance," said Cranford head coach Dennis McCaffery. "He threw the ball well and our kids were able to have some good at-bats today. We were able to put up ten runs so it certainly gave us a good chance to win the game."

"I knew I had to throw strikes the entire game," said Gilstrap. "They were going to hit me and jump on my fastball. I knew I wasn't going to blow it by them. I just had to hit my spots and throw strikes and I knew my fielders could get the job done. I knew we were going to win the game. You never think you're going to lose."

But if Cranford were to advance, they would have to get their runs off of one of the top pitchers in the state in Gary Binkiewicz, who shut the Cougars down into the third inning after getting a cushion from teammates Marcus Rivera and Joe D'Annunzio, who drove home the two first inning runs.

But it wasn't enough to cool off the bat of the Cougars Mark Osofsky, whose RBI triple brought home junior Greg Matlosz to cut the lead to 2-1, before Osofsky scored on a balk call.

It was more of the same in the fifth, when Osofsky (3-for-4 on the day), belted a two-run homer over the right field fence, which keyed the Cougars four-run outburst and gave them a 6-2 lead. Osofsky knew what he was looking for against Binkiewicz because of past history.

"He kept keeping the ball down low," said Osofsky. "I like to hit the ball down low, and luckily, he kept it there for me three times, that's how I had three hits off of him. On the home run, I just knew I had to produce, there were two out, and coach always talks about getting two-out RBI's because they're the biggest hurt to their team. I just saw the ball down again, beneath my hands and just hit it out."

"Mark had a good day," McCaffery said. "He swung the bat well and was able to bring in some runs which really widened the gap."

"It feels really good," Osofsky said. "We knew they were a very good team and luckily we were able to piece together a good game after being down early. We knew they could swing it and they did swing it, but luckily we had a few more hits than them."

"It felt great," said Gilstrap. "I love when they get hits. It's even better when I get run support and I can go out there and do a better job. I feel we're more confident as a team when we're hitting as a whole, getting those big hits."

Binkiewicz dropped to 3-3 after giving up seven runs on seven hits, while striking out three and walking four in five innings of work.  SP-F head coach Tom Blaylock was at a loss as to what happened to his ace pitcher on this particular afternoon.

"I don't know if he just got tired, or after he walked a couple of guys he lost focus," said Blaylock. "He left a couple of pitches up and they hit him a little bit. Every ball they hit was a gapper. They didn't hit singles. They hit doubles and triples every single hit. The ball would just catch a jet stream and just go. They didn't miss the mistakes. It was one of those things."

The Raiders battled back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth against Gilstrap, but the Cougars bats continued to blaze as they put up a four-spot in the sixth inning for a 10-4 lead, led by Matlosz's RBI double.

Rob Ghiretti also continued his torrid hitting streak with a key RBI triple.

Gilstrap, meanwhile, improved to 4-0, battling into the sixth inning before leaving with runners on second and third. That's when Dennis McCaffery decided it was time for a fresh face, bringing in freshman sensation Ryan Williamson into the toughest spot of his young career.

And the southpaw didn't disappoint, getting the last five outs of the game, which included a pair of strikeouts in the final frame to nail down the save. He was spotting his pitches perfectly, despite the high winds that were playing havoc with the baseball all day.

"The wind was a big factor, so you just gotta to sit behind the ball and throw it for a strike, said the unflappable Williamson. "You just gotta keep throwing strikes and trusting my teammates behind me. "I knew they would make the plays for me. No reason to be nervous. Coach just told me to keep throwing strikes and not to get behind on batters."

"We always said Pat is a gutsy kid," said McCaffery. "We have a lot of confidence in both Pat and Ryan. We wanted to give Pat that last batter and then we went right to Ryan. He throws strikes. He has a fastball that's live. He'll come after you."

As for SP-F, they know how difficult it is to repeat as champions.

"We have to work a lot harder," said Blaylock. "It seems like nothing's coming as easy as it did last year. It's one of the things we talked about at the beginning of the season. This is a crazy game. It's hard to repeat and do things you did the previous year. In a football or basketball setting, if you're the better team, nine times out of ten you're going to win the game, but baseball, the ball bounces one way, the wind is blowing one way, anything can happen. Last year we won on a ball that hits a rock and bounces over a kids head."

Westfield, the top-seed in the tournament, defeated fourth-seeded Johnson on a walk-off home run in the 7^th inning in the first game of the semi-final double dip.

The championship game will be held next Saturday at 1:00 p.m. at Williams Field in Elizabeth.

Westfield has been to the finals 19 times, the most in county history. They've lost the last two finals, one to Elizabeth, and last year to Scotch Plains-Fanwood.

"We know that's as good of a baseball tradition as there is in Union County," added McCaffery. "We're going to have our hands full."

Cranford, meanwhile, bowed out to Linden in last year's semi-finals, and were eager to get back to the title game.

"I'm very excited," Gilstrap said. "But you gotta take one game at a time. We have a few more games this week."

"It feels really good," said Osofsky. "We know Westfield's a really good team, but hopefully we can swing it well again and piece together another win."