Millburn Baseball Reaches Sectional Finals

An unlikely hero emerged on Tuesday afternoon for the Millburn baseball team as it advanced to the North II Group 3 state sectional finals following an 8-6 home win over Somerville.

Sophomore pitcher Ethan Mintz entered the game in the top of the third inning with the bases loaded, no one out and the Millers clinging to a 5-4 lead. It was the third consecutive inning in which the Pioneers loaded the bases, so Millburn was clearly in trouble.

The junior varsity call up got three outs in three pitches, including a fantastic diving catch and double play turned by second baseman, Jeff Fischer, to escape the inning and turn the tide in Millburn’s favor.

Mintz finished allowing just a run on two hits, one strikeout and no walks in three innings of relief work.

“I just thought this is a team and I’ve got to protect Ian [Riddell], who was having a little bit of a rough inning,” Mintz said. “So I just did my job. I had to come into the game and play to the best of the best of my ability and put us in the best position to win the game.”

“He was dynamite, he totally changed the game,” said MHS head coach Brian Chapman. “We were reeling when he came in and to get out of that inning without giving up a run, I thought was the absolute key top the game.”

Seniors Stephen Near and Danny Frischman finished off the game, allowing just one more run to cross, with Frischman earning the save, stranding runners at second and third base with the three hole hitter at the plate.

“Playing on Friday and Saturday, we knew we needed to go deep into our staff today, even before the game,” Chapman said. “Our original; hope was to get five out of Ian and then let Near and Danny go six and seven. That was our original plan.”

Aside from relief pitching, Millburn’s bats were the story of the game. Millburn had only scratched out four runs in its last two games coming in, but with a Somerville team which had scored 65 runs during a six game winning streak entering Tuesday, the Millers knew that two or three runs wasn’t going to get it done.

“We’ve rebounded a lot. The past couple of games we were not scoring too many runs,” Frischman said. “Our coach told us before the game that we need to start scoring runs. We can’t rely on pitching and defense to get us all the way. There will be off days, and they were hitting the ball, so we had to respond.”

Things got started in the bottom of the first, when a leadoff single and stolen base by Swanson was converted into a run off of an RBI single to center by Frischman.

With two outs, and two on in the same inning, Millburn starting pitcher, Ian Riddell, cracked a two-run triple deep to right field and Clayton Elder finished the inning off with another two out hit for an RBI. But in the top of the second, Somerville loaded the bags with three consecutive base hits by Joe Marchiafava, Alex Holderbaum and Mike DeMarco.

Millburn made three errors in the same play during the next at bat, allowing two runners to cross. An RBI single by Dylan Cruz, followed by a sac fly by Alec Hardy tied the score. Frischman put Millburn back on top with his second RBI of the game, knocking in Fischer, who reached on a bunt.

“This was not our type of game. I feared this match up because they are a pretty explosive offensive team,” Chapman said. "We’re not used to playing in these types of games, we play more 3-2, 4-2 or those types of games. A lot of credit to our offense.”

With two on and two out in the bottom of the third, Elder knocked in Miller third baseman Anthony Del Greco with a single to left and an error by the Somerville centerfielder allowed Ryan Rounick to score on the same play, putting Millburn up 7-4. Will Fitzgerald tacked on another two-out run for Millburn when he knocked in Frischman on a booming double to center.

“I think a lot of our runs came with two outs and it’s definitely worth noting,” Chapman said. “I say to them all of the time that good teams always score with two outs. I think we were able to do that today.”

But Somerville would not go easily. They picked up a run on an RBI groundout by Mike DeMarco in the top of the fifth. A sixth inning RBI double by Hardy to right, slightly misplayed by the Miller right fielder, brought the Pioneers within two runs. But Near stranded two on base in the sixth, before Frischman shut the door in the seventh.

Somerville fell to 16-6.

The win sets up Millburn’s first trip to the state sectional championship game since winning the section back in 2008. They will face 10thseeded Mendham on Friday for the championship.

Mendham has been the giant killer of the section knocking off both Cranford and South Plainfield on the way to the title game.

“It’s a big game to get to and I’m sure that we’re going to get ready for it,” Frischman said. “Our freshmen year the varsity team did that and at the beginning of the year, what we wanted to do was repeat what the team from the freshmen year did and I think we’re coming really close to doing it.Millburn is in action again on Thursday in Montclair with a share of the conference championship on the line. They improved to 23-5.