Freshman Hurler Leads Baseball Team to Victory

It's never easy for a freshman to make a varsity squad at any level, let alone make an immediate impact.

But that's what Cranford's Ryan Williamson did Tuesday afternoon, earning his first high school victory with a 5-3 decision over visiting Roselle Catholic.

The southpaw delivered three scoreless innings in relief of starter Pat Gilstrap, striking out four while giving up just two hits.

"It's great, we played a good game," said Williamson. "I was feeling pretty good, my arm felt good. It's always been a dream. It was a big win for the team."

"Ryan came in, he threw strikes and got ahead of batters," said Cranford head coach Dennis McCaffery. "He competed. He had command of both pitches, his fastball and his curveball. He threw his changeup as well for a strike. He came in and was able to throw strikes and get us a number of outs."

"We took Ryan right under our wing," said rightfielder Eric Walano. "We love the kid. He's doing a great job. He's just going out there, throwing strikes. He doesn't even seem fazed that he's playing on Cranford varsity baseball right now. He's doing a great job."

With the game tied at 3-3 with two out in the bottom of the fifth inning, juniors Greg Matlosz and Mark Osofsky came through with RBI singles to give Cranford a 5-3 advantage. Osofsky had two hits, helping to raise the Cougars record to 2-1 on the season.

Matlosz went 1-for-3 with a run scored. Sean Trotter, Eric Walano and Rob Ghiretti all chipped in with a base hit for Cranford.

"Everybody did a great job," said Walano, who started in right field. "Pitchers came out throwing strikes. Ryan Williamson did a great job in relief and held them down. And we got some nice, timely hitting from our lineup."

"We were fortunate to get a win today," said McCaffery. "At the beginning of the game we didn't really play fundamentally sound baseball. But credit the kids, they played all seven innings and we were fortunate to get the win."

Gilstrap gave up three runs on seven hits in four innings of work, earning seven strikeouts and giving up just one walk.

One area of this team not to be overlooked is the outfield. The speed and athleticism of Walano in right, Nick Pace in centerfield and Osofsky in left, make a formidable trio roaming the cozy confines of Memorial Field.

"We hve a lot of speed," said Walano. "We can track down fly balls and ground balls very easily. It helps a lot with our fielding. It helps a lot on the basepaths, too. We can steal a lot of bases. We can get runs manufactured very easily that way."

The Cougars will next face St. Peter's Prep in a home game on Wednesday, and McCaffery is expecting more from his team.

"I want to see us play more fundamentally sound baseball," he said. "We gave up too many outs in innings, we're not executing on bunts, hopefully that will come. The kids are working hard. We're hoping to improve each game."