Scotch Plains Baseball Wins at Johnson

Sometimes change is good.

For the Scotch Plains-Fanwood High baseball team, a shakeup of the batting order took place this week following a six-game span in which the vaunted Raider lineup averaged just four runs.

What followed was shutout wins at Franklin 14-0, at home against Roselle 11-0 and at Union 10-0.

On Saturday in Clark, Scotch Plains was hungry to continue its success against the hottest team in the county. Host Johnson was 12-2 and riding an eight-game winning streak, including another comeback win Friday at Governor Livingston.

Scotch Plains continued to hit the ball well and scored four runs in the first to take the lead for good. The Raiders banged out 13 hits, scored in every inning but one and rolled to a decisive 11-1, six-inning, Union County Conference-Interdivision triumph.

The Raiders, who are in second place in the UCC's Watchung Division behind Westfield, have now won four straight and are 11-4 overall.

The Crusaders, who are in second place in the UCC's Mountain Division behind Cranford, have slipped to 12-2.

When the 57^th annual Union County Tournament gets seeded Monday night, expect the top four seeds to go this way: 1-Westfield, 2-Scotch Plains, 3-Cranford, 4-Johnson. Seeds 5-8 could go 5-GL, 6-Roselle Catholic. 7-Summit and 8-Union.

Scotch Plains is the defending champion for the first time since 2005, has won four county crowns and is seeking to repeat for the first time.

The Raiders were well aware of the roll Johnson was on and wanted to show the home team that it was back playing better baseball following a 3-3 stretch that concluded with a loss to Bloomfield last Sunday at Roselle Park.

Scotch Plains seventh-year head coach Tom Baylock moved seniors Joe D'Annunzio and Gary Binkiewicz from 1-2 in the order to 5-6, with senior Ricky Shevlin now batting leadoff, junior Marcus Rivera in the No. 2 spot, senior John Maxwell staying No. 3 and senior Mike Ridge batting cleanup.

"It's been working so far," said Binkiewicz, who went 1-for-3, with a double, a stolen base, a run and an RBI on a sacrifice fly against Johnson. "We've been seeing a lot more fastballs, we've been getting deeper in the counts and we've been able to put the bat on the ball."

Scotch Plains scored four runs on four hits in the top of the first against Johnson senior left hander Rich Mullin. Joe D'Annunzio walked with the bases loaded to produce the game's first run, while Binkiewicz followed him with a sacrifice fly to center for the second. Ahead of them, Shevlin and Maxwell reached on singles.

Later in the inning, seniors Lou Mazzella and Taylor Schon followed with RBI-singles.

"We couldn't find a way to finish games, we were having trouble with that," Binkiewicz said.

Scotch Plains had no trouble finishing off Johnson. The Raiders scored two more runs in the third and two more in the fourth for an 8-0 lead before the Crusaders answered with their only run in the bottom of the fourth.

Scotch Plains added one run in the fifth and two more in the sixth.

Raider senior right handers Jordan Bayroff and Rivera each pitched three innings with starter Bayroff giving up the only run.

Baylock took out Bayroff in the fourth with the bases loaded and nobody out. Bayroff allowed a leadoff single and then walked his third and fourth batters of the game.

"I might have had a little bit of a loss of concentration, but other than that I think we did what we needed to do as a team," Bayroff said.

Rivera came in and yielded only an RBI-sacrifice fly to center hit by Johnson senior Frank Carnovale.

"We have Marcus and a lot of other good pitchers who can come in after me," Bayroff said.

Bayroff allowed one run on two hits, struck out three and walked four. He had two strikeouts in the second on off-speed pitches.

"I was throwing a couple of changeups and curveballs," Bayroff said. "The game plan was to go out there with that stuff and have the fastball secondary."

Rivera allowed no runs on one hit in three innings, striking out two and walking two.

Baylock remembered last year's game against Johnson when his team scored nine runs in the bottom of the seventh to stun the Crusaders 14-13 in Scotch Plains. Plus, Baylock was aware of all of the comebacks and late-inning heroics by Johnson so far this year, including Friday when the Crusaders scored three runs in the top of the seventh to come back and beat conference foe GL 4-2 in Berkeley Heights.

"That was it, I didn't want to give them any life," Baylock said. "We know they are capable of coming back, we came back against them last year, and I wasn't taking any chances. We didn't want to see them come back against us in this game. Jordan is in his first year on the varsity. If it was another team I might have kept him in there and let him work out of it, but we know what these guys have done all year long and we didn't want to wait around and give them an opportunity to come back."

Every Scotch Plains batter in the lineup reached base, with all but one hitting safely.

"Today and in the previous couple of games we've really been swinging the bat well," Binkiewicz said.

D'Annunzio went a rare 0-for-4 against Bloomfield last week, striking out twice. He knew he was struggling at the plate a bit.

"Coach makes the decisions and he thought with me struggling a little bit at the top of the order and not getting on base as much as I normally, he dropped me down in RBI situations and I've seen some good pitches and have been able to drive in some runs," said the Rutgers-bound D'Annunzio. "We all just tried to put good bats together and string a couple of hits and stuff like that and when the ball doesn't bounce your way it's tough. This week, with the switches that have been made, it seems like the ball is starting to bounce our way and we're getting a little luck."

Scotch Plains went 4-0 this week and outscored the opposition 46-1.

The Raiders made a statement with their win over the Crusaders that they are still capable of dominating a quality team.

"We were supposed to be the top team (in the county), but we lost a few, so it was nice to come out here and put a good game together all the way around, with pitching, defense and some nice base hits," D'Annunzio said.

"We were struggling to score runs coming into this week and we were finding that Joey and Gary were doing a lot of leading off," Baylock said. "They were getting up to bat a lot with nobody on base, so we thought we would drop them down a little bit. We wanted to mix it up a bit and put a little life in our lineup. Ricky Shevlin has been doing a good job of getting on base and Marcus Rivera has been hitting the ball in the No. 2 slot. They've been finding ways to get on base. 

"Our No. 3 and 4 guys – Maxwell and Ridge – have been getting on base, for the most part, all year," he continued. "It seems now like the 5 and 6 guys (D'Annunzio and Binkiewicz) have been getting up with runners in scoring position and in RBI-situations. That's what we want. We want Joey up with runners in scoring position. He's our best hitter, so we want him up there with runners on hso he can drive in runs."

At the bottom of the order against Johnson, senior Lou Mazzella went 2-for-2, with an RBI-single, an RBI-double to deep center and a walk. He was then injured at his catcher position when a foul ball hit him in the groin area.

Taylor Schon was 2-for-3, with two RBI-singles and a walk, while designated hitter and No. 9 batter Mike Lauricella singled in four trips.

"They're a good team and they can hit the ball and that's what they did today," Johnson third-year head coach Dave Kennedy said. "In no way does this diminish the start to the season we've had so far. This is just one game. We'll move forward and bounce back from this. 

"We did a pretty good job of pitching to these guys," Baylock said. "I've seen them play a couple of times and they have a real dangerous lineup and, especially, late in the games they've been finding ways to win."

NOTES: The Scotch Plains comeback win at home over Johnson last year was on April 25, one day shy of exactly one year from today. Johnson also entered that game after winning at GL the day before, with last year's victory a 14-4 decision.

Johnson entered last year's regular season non-conference game against Scotch Plains with a 9-2 record and five-game winning streak.

Johnson's 12-1 start was one of its best ever for the first 13 games of the season.

The Crusaders are next scheduled to host Westfield Monday at 4 p.m. – weather permitting.

Scotch Plains will next play Tuesday at 4 p.m. at home against conference rival Rahway. 

UNION COUNTY CONFERENCE-INTERDIVISION GAME

SCOTCH PLAINS (11-4, 4 in a row)       4   0   2     2   1   2 - 11  13   0

JOHNSON (12-2)                                      0   0   0     1   0   0 -   1    3   2 

PITCHERS OF RECORD:

Scotch Plains: Jordan Bayroff, senior right hander, (3-1).

Johnson: Rich Mullin, senior left hander, (1-1).

DOUBLES: Scotch Plains – Lou Mazzella, John Maxwell, Gary Binkiewicz. Johnson – Dom Feminello. 

TRIPLES: Scotch Plains – None. Johnson – None.

HOME RUNS: Scotch Plains – None. Johnson – None.