Tracy's 5 RBIs Lead Madison Baseball Over Parsippany

Patience at the plate isn't usually a bad thing, but Madison first baseman Tom Tracy thought he had been a little bit too patient lately.

"I was letting too many strikes go by," Tracy said. "Today, I just let loose."

Tracy saw nine pitches in four at-bats Friday, but he went 4-for-4 and drove in five runs - including a walk-off double in the fifth that scored the hustling Jamie Hunter - to lead Madison to a 12-2 victory over Parsippany at Madison High School.

The suddenly-streaking Dodgers, who have won four out of five to creep back within a game of the .500 mar, scored in every inning, pounding out 15 hits off of Redhawks pitching. Madison's first four hitters - Alex Brownlee, Dilan Kluge, Hunter and Tracy - went a combined 11-for-15, scoring eight runs and driving in 10.

Madison coach Mickey Ennis called it the Dodgers' "best game of the year." Fifteen games into the season, Ennis sees a young squad growing into a talented baseball team before his eyes.

"We started three sophomores, six juniors and one senior today," Ennis said. "And we didn't have a lot of varsity experience. It's just a matter of playing at the higher level. We're improving every day, and that's all I can ask for as a coach. We're much better now as a team than the last time we played Parsippany."

The Dodgers certainly played better than they did on April 5, when Jordan Hakimi held them to four hits in a 6-1 Parsippany victory. This time, Madison - led by the top half of the lineup - got off to a hot start, and kept the bats working until activating the 10-run mercy rule in the fifth inning.

They did it, at first, by swinging early in the count against Parsippany starter Matt Zolla. In the first four innings, Zolla threw 68 pitches - or 17 pitches per, a decent amount. But he faced 26 batters in those four innings, for a meager average of 2.5 pitches per batter.

None of the eight Dodger hitters saw more than four pitches in the second inning, when Madison chalked up four runs on five hits. The same was true in the fourth, when the Dodgers produced two runs on three hits. For the game, Madison picked up five hits in six at-bats in which the hitter put the first pitch in play.

"We were impatient very early in the season, and I made it a rule to take the 0-0 pitch," Ennis said. "I've pulled that (rule) away over the last three-to-four games. We had some very good approaches at the plate. The kids are showing that they can swing the bats as well as I thought they could."

Tracy drove in Brownlee with a single to left in the first to open the scoring. In the second, starting pitcher Connor Allen escaped a two-on, no-out jam with a strikeout, a pickoff at first, and a line drive caught by a leaping Brownlee, and the Dodgers responded with four runs to take command.

Kluge blooped an RBI single to right field to make it 2-0; Hunter hit a hard single to left field, and Brownlee just slid underneath the throw of Parsippany's Matt Lejeune. Tracy lined a 1-1 pitch to the right field wall, scoring Kluge and, after missing the plate and coming back to touch it, Hunter.

"We could kind of see that their pitcher was tipping his fastball and curveball," Tracy said. "It made things a little easier to read. We lost to them last time, so a win against a decent team was something we really needed."

Allen helped himself with a two-RBI single in the fourth, and the top of the order put it away with four in the fifth inning, all coming with two out.

The Dodgers were extremely patient in the fifth. Cameron Dias grounded out, but saw eight pitches. Mike Wallace worked a six-pitch walk, and Mike Haughey singled on the eighth pitch of his at-bat. Two batters later, Kluge hit a high fly ball which two-hopped to the wall in left field, scoring pinch-runner Connor Higgins and chasing Zolla.

The next batter, Hunter, hit a hard grounder which took a tough hop and bounced into left field, scoring Haughey to make it 11-2. On the next pitch, Tracy hit a tailing liner down the right field line, which rolled to the wall and scored Hunter to put Madison ahead by 10.

With the bats giving him plenty of support, Allen battled on the mound, wriggling out of several jams. He struck out Lejeune looking with runners on second and third to end the third. In the fourth, he induced an inning-ending double-play, but not after Brian Reilly knocked in Parsippany's only runs with a two-RBI single.

All but one of the 15 outs Allen recorded came via groundout or strikeout; a fifth-inning flyout by Lejeune was the only exception. Parsippany left eight men on base, and left the bases loaded in the fifth. Ennis credited Allen with being able to deal with the pressure of baserunners.

"Connor made it hard on himself at times," Ennis said. "But it's one of those things where you look for how a kid responds when he's in trouble. He has the quality to work out of jams like that ... not every pitcher has that quality."

Allen won his second straight decision and lowered his season ERA to 3.92.

Wallace, who has seen increased playing time as a utility player in recent games, was 2-for-2 with a run scored. He has batted .500 over the last five games, driving in five runs.


NEXT UP
Madison will be off Saturday; previously-scheduled opponent Newark Academy advanced to the a Saturday first-round game in the Greater Newark Tournament. As a result, Madison's game with the Minutemen will be made up Tuesday.

Instead, the Dodgers' next action will be Monday afternoon at Madison High School, when Madison hosts Pequannock (11-1, 6-0), in the first of four games in four consecutive days for the Dodgers.

The two teams met in the MSG Varsity Game of the Week April 9, with Madison putting up a tremendous effort against all-state pitcher Jordan Tabakman, but coming up short. The Golden Panthers won that game on a walk-off error in the seventh, 5-4.

That game kickstarted Pequannock's current 10-game win streak, which catapulted the Golden Panthers to the No. 4 seed in the Morris County Tournament. The MCT first round and quarterfinals are Saturday and Sunday, respectively, meaning Madison is likely to avoid facing Tabakman again on Monday.


BOX SCORE
Parsippany    0  0  0  2  0  x  x  -   2    7   2
Madison           1  4  1  2  4  x  x  -  12  15  1
W: Connor Allen (3-1)
L: Matt Zolla

PARSIPPANY (5-9, 3-4)
-Matti, SS           2-3
-Hance, DH         1-2, sac bunt
-Cerrato, 1B        0-3
-Zolla, P              0-1, 2 BB, 2 SB
-Lejeune, LF        0-3
-Nicosia, C          2-2, R, BB
-Tomaro, 2B        1-2, R, BB
-Merrill, RF          0-2
-Reilly, CF           1-2, 2 RBI

-Zolla, SP           4 2/3 IP, 11 R, 10 ER, 13 H, 2 K, 4 BB, 95 pitches (59 strikes)
---#16, RP          0+     IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 K, 0 BB, 6 pitches (4 strikes)

MADISON (7-8, 2-5)
-Brownlee, 2B      2-4, 2 R
-Kluge, CF           3-4, 3 R, 3 RBI, 2B, SB
-Hunter, DH         2-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB
-Tracy, 1B           4-4, 5 RBI, 2 2B
---Wulff, PR                R
-Meister, SS        0-3
-Allen, P              1-2, RBI, BB
-Dias, 3B             0-2, R, BB
-Wallace, LF        2-2, R, BB
---Higgins, PR             R
-Haughey, RF       1-2, R, sac bunt

-Allen, SP           5 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 7 H, 4 K, 4 BB, 92 pitches (50 strikes)