Paramus Baseball Team Rallies For Win

DEMAREST- It wasn’t pretty, but baseball head coach Joe Cervino will take the win.

“We didn’t play well,” said the coach, who is in his 30^th year at the helm. “We didn’t get the clutch hits in our RBI part of the lineup [3-through-6]. The bottom part of the line up actually came through.”

The Spartans (18-3), the tournament’s No. 3 seed, rallied to defeated pesky No. 14 Waldwick 8-6 at Northern Valley Demarest on Saturday afternoon. 

Paramus trailed 6-2 entering the third inning. The Spartan defense committed three costly errors in the early going. Starting pitcher Joe Szorentini was pulled in the third inning. He faced five batters in the frame without recording an out. Frank Colasante (6-1) took over and blanked the Warriors for four innings. He allowed four hits and struck out five.

“I came in after we had our worst inning,” Colasante said. “I tried to do my best, try and shut them out.

“We knew coming into this game Waldwick was going to be a good hitting team, knew it was gonna be a slugfest,” he added. “We didn’t play well defensively and offensively early in the game but we battled our way back.”

Paramus recorded seven hits, six of them coming in the fourth and fifth innings when the team rallied to score two and three runs, respectively.  

In the third, Szorentini knocked in a run on a fielder’s choice, and Matt Krum hit a sac fly to score Nick Henriquez.

Henriquez did not log an official at-bat, as the senior co-captain reached base via two walks and was hit by a pitch twice.

Paramus overtook the lead in the fifth inning. Catcher Rob Bonastia hit his second double of the game. Colasante hit an RBI single. Tyler Garguilo (2-for-3, three runs) and shortstop Bryan Criscione (1-for-3, run, RBI) followed up with singles. Henriquez reached on a hit by pitch. Center fielder Chris Covello picked up an RBI by walking with the bases loaded. The Spartans may have had a chance for more runs in the frame, but Szorentini—who gets credited with a single—hit Henriquez, who was running from second to third, in the leg. The ball was ruled dead, and both Henriquez and Covello were called out. (The play goes down as a 6U, meaning shortstop unassisted, because he was the closest to the play).

Waldwick (15-6) pitcher James Dertouzos, who started in center but pitched in relief of Ryan Biango, took the loss.

Paramus is looking to win the Bergen County title for Cervino, its battle tested skipper. The long time head coach has never won a County Title at the varsity level, but he did win a championship in 1973 while coaching at East Brook.

The Spartans will play Old Tappan next Saturday at noon at Demarest. The Golden Knights (the 11-seed) defeated Paramus 5-0 earlier this season.