STREAKING SPARTANS
Steinert continues hot stretch, knocks out rival Hamilton in state tournament
HAMILTON » For much of Steinert’s baseball season, Murphy’s Law was common law as whatever could go wrong seemed to happen on a regular basis.
But ever since coach Rick Freeman borrowed a pep talk from former Notre Dame High Chaplain and Athletic Moderator, Msgr. Walter Nolan, things have been a little different.
The war cry “Nunc Coepi” struck again Monday, as the eighth-seeded Spartans rallied from behind twice to take a 5-3 win over ninth-seeded Hamilton West in an NJSIAA Group III Central first-round game at Rich Giallella Field.
Streaking Steinert (16-6-1), which won despite being outhit 6-3, travels to top-seeded Wall for a second-round showdown Thursday.
“We’ve been believing all year and a couple games ago we started this new thing, and we’re 8-1 since then, so you’ve gotta believe that’s a pretty good record,” said Brady Plunkett, who had the game’s decisive hit. “Any team that can do that, you can go as far as you want.”
Nunc Coepi is Latin for “Now I begin” and the Spartans began their hot streak after a 15-inning tie at Notre Dame May 2. Steinert won four straight, lost to Hun in the county tournament, and has won four more with the win over Hamilton being the biggest yet.
“Just a great game by both teams,” Freeman said. “Both teams played their hearts out and I’m glad we came out on top.”
Neither team had played in six days but little rust was apparent in a well-played game. Hamilton took a 1-0 lead on Justin Wiltsey’s solo home run in the top of the third. A walk, two errors and Plunkett’s ground-out allowed Steinert to tie it in the bottom of the inning, which was the only sloppy frame of the day.
West (12-11) re-took the lead in the fourth when Tyler Springett walked, reached third on David Zamora’s single and scored on Steven Meckel’s sacrifice fly.
Ryan Beczo carried a nohitter into the fifth but the gem was ruined after winning pitcher Joey Sacco was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on CJ Pittaro’s single.
Drayven Kowalski led off the Spartans sixth with a walk and was sacrificed to second by Gabe Santin. Tommy Gater delivered a run-scoring double for his first RBI of the season.
“I was so excited to finally get that hit,” Gater said. “I’ve had some tough times this year for my first year on varsity so that felt great.”
“Awesome for Tommy to break out there,” Plunkett said. “I told him right before he went up ‘Tommy you’re breaking out right here,’ and sure enough he got a pitch right there, extended and probably feels awesome.”
Plunkett felt pretty awesome a few batters later. After Sacco drew a walk, Brady laced a two-run double down the line for two massive insurance runs.
They proved big when Hamilton refused to die in the seventh. Zamora hit a one-out double and scored on Meckel’s single. Dom Maglione entered in relief of Sacco and, after allowing a single to put the tying runs on, he got two popouts to end it.
Sacco moved to 4-0, throwing 6.1 innings of five-hit ball with one walk and six strikeouts. He outdueled Beczo, who pitched outstanding and has been Hamilton’s hard-luck loser on several occasions this year.
“Joey is the best swing and miss guy we have,” Freeman said. “He got some swings and misses today and battled to keep us in the game. We had a pitch count on him because he hadn’t pitched in a while and it was 80 and he was at 79, so it was time for him to come out.”
And time for Steinert to move on. Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores Hamilton(12-11) 001100 0—262 Steinert(16-6-1) 001013 0—530 2B: Zamora (H), Plunkett (S); HR: Wiltsey (H); RBIs: Meckel 2, Wiltsey (H), Plunkett 3, Pittaro, Gater (S).
WP— Sacco (4-0); LP— Beczo.