Nottingham’s 2nd straight upset bid falls short against Voorhees
GLEN GARDNER » The Nottingham High baseball team’s attempt to become a surprise entrant in the Central Jersey Group II semifinals came up short after the Colonial Valley Conference club fell to Voorhees, 8-3, on Friday afternoon.
The 13th-seeded Northstars were fresh off a firstround victory over fourthseeded South River, but quickly found themselves in trouble against the defending state champion.
The fifth-seeded Vikings (16-8) scored four runs in the first inning and kept the locals at arm’s length even though Nottingham put runners on base in six of the seven innings.
The Northstars (10-14) left nine runners on base, including twice with the bases loaded in the second and third innings.
Voorhees jumped out to its 4-0 lead despite getting just two hits in the first inning. The home side took advantage of two Nottingham errors, a passed ball and wild pitch.
The second inning was more of the same as the Vikings tacked on three more runs when Ben Crescenzi stole home and James Mueller added a two-run single that chased starter
Tyler Weniger.
Northstars reliever Ryan Applegate did a terrific job to keep his team in the game.
The right-hander tossed 4.2 innings of one-run ball. He allowed four hits and had one strikeout.
In fact, Voorhees failed to score after plating its eighth run in the third inning after Owen McComb (3-for-4, 2 stolen bases) singled with two outs, swiped second and scored on Jake Knapp’s single to right.
Nottingham scored its first run in the third on a bizarre play when Cesar Camacho thought he had walked to force in a run, but it was actually only ball three. As the runners, also confused, tried to scramble back to their respective bases, Voorhees threw wildly behind Aidan Scannon at third base, which allowed him to score.
The inning could have been bigger if the Northstars hadn’t then run themselves into an out at third base on the same sequence.
Tyler Dunmeyer smacked an RBI double to left-center in the fourth that scored Jordan Raba, but Dunmeyer was called out trying to dive back to second base after the
throw came in behind him.
Dunmeyer (2-for-3) led off the seventh with a single and scored on a wild pitch, but the game ended when Mike Septak was robbed of a hit by Knapp in right field after he dove to catch the ball and doubled off the runner at second.
Voorhees faces either top-seeded Rumson-Fair Haven or ninth-seeded Bordentown in the semifinals.
Nottingham (10-14) 001 100 1 — 3 6 5 Voorhees (16-8) 431 000 x — 8 8 2 WP: Quartuccio. LP: Weniger. 2B: Dunmeyer (N). RBI: Dunmeyer (N). Knapp, Mueller 2, Banach (V).