Livingston Falls to West Orange on Flores Walk-Off Homerun

WEST ORANGE, NJ—The Great Newark Tournament seeding meeting is this Tuesday, April 27.  Before Saturday's game, both Livingston and West Orange teams knew an in conference win would be a resume booster for a higher seed.  West Orange took advantage of that opportunity on Saturday afternoon as the Mountaineers defeated the Lancers 5-4 in a back-and-forth battle.

Both starting pitchers—Sean Rucker of Livingston and Mike Romano of West Orange—had masterful performances, but unfortunately Rucker did not come out on top.

"Sean pitched a phenomenal game," Livingston head coach Scott Schroeder said.  "We hit the ball but not like we have all season and that hurt us."

Senior West Orange centerfielder A.J. Flores and Mike Romano struck early in the first inning.  Flores walked and then stole second.  Romano then lined an RBI single to left field and the Mountaineers had an early 1-0 lead.

But Livingston struck right back like they have all season. Seton Hall-bound John Beaubien hit a towering 460-foot homerun to tie the game. However, Romano was not rattled and recorded the next three outs.

In the third inning, West Orange scored two runs off three base hits by Robert Trenk, Mike Romano, and Alex Gouin.   Rucker then struck the next three batters out increasing his strike-out total to eight through three innings. 

West Orange led 3-1 through three innings.

Senior Livingston outfielder Jimmy Napolitano led off in the fourth and roped a double into left field.  Napolitano then stole third while St. John's-bound Frank Schwindel was up.  Schwindel then hit a fly ball to center field, which scored Napolitano from third.

Rucker then retired the next six West Orange's batters and his Livingston squad staged a sixth inning rally.

Senior Nick Kozlowsky drew a walk, and with Jimmy Napolitano up, Kozlowsky stole second base.  Napolitano then hit his second double of the game this time plating Kozlowsky, which tied the game at 3-3.

Frank Schwindel came up with Napolitano on second again.  Napolitano stole third base again and Schwindel hit another sacrifice fly giving Livingston a 4-3 lead.

Junior West Orange third baseman Corey Feigenbaum led off the sixth and was hit by Rucker.  Once again, Rucker struck out the side heading to the seventh inning.

Livingston went down in order in the top of the seventh.  Then it was West Orange's turn to bat.

The ninth batter, Alex Bahia, hit a blooper into right field.  Flores then came to bat.  Rucker threw Flores a fastball and Flores hit it to dead center field over the fence to win the game 5-4.

"This was a tough one to lose," Schwindel said.  "Having the lead and then losing like that is tough but that's the game and we will come back on Monday against Seton Hall."

Rucker pitched a complete game and he struck out 11 batters while only allowing eight hits and three earned runs.  Romano outdueled Rucker as he also pitched a complete game while striking out six allowing five hits and two earned runs.

Livingston falls to 7-3 on the season while West Orange improves to 7-3.