Wallace Hurls Madison to Historic Win

Friday was a historic day for the baseball team as the Dodgers, propelled by a complete-game, three-hit shutout by Mike Wallace, became the first-ever 20-win team in school history with a 1-0 victory over Rutherford in the NJSIAA North 2 Group 2 quarterfinals in Madison.

The fourth-seeded Dodgers will play at top-seeded Hackettstown in the sectional semifinals on Tuesday.

Madison struggled to manufacture runs on Friday, but it certainly wasn’t due to a lack of effort or strategy, as head coach Mickey Ennis employed a small-ball approach against Rutherford, calling for multiple bunts and hit-and-run plays.

In the days leading up to Friday’s game, Ennis had his club working on its bunting in practice, placing a target in the infield and having the Dodgers lay bunts towards it.

“Rutherford plays on an all-dirt, hard field,” Ennis explained. “This is different and we used the field to our advantage. Unfortunately, we didn’t take advantage of those bunts that we laid out here.”

In the bottom of the fourth inning the Dodgers found success with their strategy, even if it wasn’t exactly how Ennis had planned it.

With senior Jake Meister on first after a leadoff single and Jamie Hunter at bat, Ennis put on the hit-and-run. Hunter missed the sign, but Meister was still able to get into second base safely, putting a runner in scoring position with no outs.

“I missed the hit-and-run sign at first,” Hunter said after the game. “Coach was just like, relax, just get up there and hit the ball. And that’s exactly what I did.”

Hunter ripped a single into left, scoring Meister and giving Madison the only run it would need.

“I’m flying high right now,” Ennis said. “We’re down to four teams in the state section right now. Here’s a team [Madison] that won 11 games last year and tied a school record in wins. Today was big, certainly because we advance in state, but 20 wins for this program is just outstanding.”

Wallace continued to live up to his reputation as ace of the pitching staff, allowing  just four hits while striking out eight–including two of the final three batters of the game.

“He’s the most consistent pitcher that we have and I love the way he finishes off games,” Ennis said. “We didn’t have anyone up in the bullpen [late in the game]. He just seems to feel it and that’s the sign of a great high school pitcher, to finish off games. Mike Wallace can do that.”

Wallace had a new battery-mate in sophomore Nick Lucas after starting catcher Mike Wulff was lost to a concussion on Thursday against Morristown.

Lucas played as well as anyone could have hoped behind the plate, including Ennis.

“We came in here with our starting catcher out of the game after he got hurt the other night, and we had a sophomore come in…a lot of the shutout can be credited to the catcher and Nick Lucas just did an outstanding job.”

If you talk to Wallace, he’ll defer any and all credit to the teammates positioned behind him.

“To get to 20 wins is awesome,” the junior said. “I don’t know when the last time that’s been done in Madison baseball, but today my defense, just everybody was behind me. I don’t remember one error. Jake at short, Dilan [Kluge] in center, everybody was playing great.”

And with the Madison defense playing “as well as we’ve played all year,” according to Ennis, Wallace was confident throwing a multitude of pitches, knowing that his teammates were there to bail him out if need be.  

“I knew I could let up a pop fly and [outfielders] Dilan and Mike [Haughey] and Cameron [Dias] were out there. I really just feel so comfortable with my defense out there, and that’s such a big part of my pitching because if I don’t have the strikeouts, I know my defense is there to make plays.”

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