It was a spirited effort shown by the Ridge High School baseball team that came up just short against a solid Hillsborough squad.
Catcher Anthony Toresco of the Raiders singled in Ryan Lukach to break a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the seventh to lift Hillsborough to a 3-2 victory over the Red Devils Thursday afternoon at Memorial Field.
"We played very well against a great team. Hillsborough did what they needed to do to win," said Ridge head coach Tom Blackwell.
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Jake Hotz came in relief in place of senior hurler Rob McCarthy to start the bottom of the seventh for Ridge. Leadoff hitter Bobby Peck of Hillsborough popped up to Greg Fazio for the first out. Lukach smacked a double off of Hotz down the left field field line with one out. Two pitches later, Toresco smacked a fly ball just eluding left fielder Dan Curcio for the game-winning hit, sending the elated Raiders team into a happy frenzy.
Hillsborough improves to 3-1 on the season. The winning pitcher was Chris Reilly who went the distance, allowing two runs on three hits while fanning seven and walking five.
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Curcio, the junior outfielder for the Red Devils kept the game scoreless when he caught Toresco's fly ball in the bottom of the third with one out and threw a perfect strike to catcher Mike Brady at home who tagged out Rick Devlin of the Raiders for the double play to end the inning.
"Dan [Curcio] is only a junior, but he has performed very well for us this season," said Blackwell.
Ridge snapped a scoreless tie with two runs in the top of the fifth inning to seize a 2-0 lead. Designated hitter Kevin Watts led off the frame with a walk. Hotz, who went 2-for-3 on the afternoon with a walk, singled to right to put runners on first and third. McCarthy smacked a double to right center, scoring both runners. McCarthy pitched six innings allowing two runs on six hits while fanning two and walking five.
"Rob has always had great stuff, " said Blackwell. All three pitches he threw today were for strikes when he needed to and made the big pitches when it counted," Blackwell added.
The Raiders were able to peck away at the lead held by Ridge scoring singles runs in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings to knot the game at 2-2.
In the bottom of the fifth, shortstop Brandon Young of Hillsborough singled but was erased on a force play off the bat of Kevin Toro. Peck singled and both runners executed a double steal to advance to second and third. Lukach grounded out to second base to knock in Toro. In the bottom of the sixth, Adam Rind walked, Kevin Curran (2-for-3), singled, and Dylan Zobrow walked to load the bases. Young executed a perfect squeeze bunt to score Rind and reach first on the hit. Devlin tried to execute another squeeze bunt but missed allowing Brady to tag out Curran out at third and McCarthy struck out Devlin to squelch the threat. Young and Peck each collected two hits for the Raiders.
Some potential home runs off the bats of Fazio, warning shot fly to left in the fourth, second baseman Andrew Graziano and Watts in the sixth were knocked down by the wind for Ridge, which falls to 1-4 and hosts Rutgers Prep tomorrow at home at 4 p.m.
"It was one of those days where the wind knocked down some of our hits," said Blackwell.
Brad Halperin had eight putouts for Ridge. Strong efforts on the defensive end were also shown by Fazio at short, Graziano at second, Charles Dennis at third and Brady behind the plate.
"We're looking for consistency from our team as the season goes along. Once we do that, everything will be fine."
RIDGE (1-4) 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 -- 2 3 1
HILLSBOROUGH (3-1) 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 -- 3 8 0
2B -- R - McCarthy. H - Lukach.
WP - R- Hotz. H - Reilly.
