Hellertown draws even in semifinal series with Limeport
Ganzaroli has hand in 5 runs as Royals edge Bulls
Hellertown Royals manager Bob Zerfass said that even though J.J. Ganzaroli lives in East Brunswick, New Jersey, he is generally one of the first guys at the field for a game.
“J.J. and Paul Roth are the first ones here, and the guys from Bethlehem are the last ones here,” Zerfass said in part in jest.
No matter when he arrives, Zerfass was just happy Ganzaroli got to Hellertown’s Dimmick Park on Thursday night.
That’s because he had a hand, or more accurately, a bat in all five of the Royals’ runs in a highly competitive and compelling 5-4 win over the Limeport Bulls to even up the Blue Mountain League semifinal series at one game apiece.
The best-of-five series is now a best-of-three with the next game coming up at 7:30 Saturday night at Limeport Stadium. The Royals’ win means there will be at least one more game at Dimmick Park, Game 4 Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
Ganzaroli doubled and scored Hellertown’s first run on a sacrifice fly by Ian Burley in the fourth. Then in the fifth he swatted a three-run home run to give the Royals (19-11-1) a 4-1 advantage.
The Bulls, going for their fifth championship in six seasons, answered with a three-run home run in the sixth by Whitehall High product Gianni Sinatore.
Limeport’s Andrew DeCew reached third with one out in the top of the seventh but didn’t score as reliever Dan Blugis worked out of trouble.
That set the stage for the bottom of the seventh when Logan Winchester singled and reached second on an error. Pinch-runner Tone Zabala stayed at second when Ben Piripavel got an infield single. That brought up Ganzaroli, who hit a line drive to center that was dropped allowing Zabala to race home with the game-winning run.
“This is my first year in the Blue
Mountain League and so far it has been spectacular,” Ganzaroli said. “We’ve got a great group of guys and we just want to keep on going. Limeport is a tough team. They keep fighting, and so do we.”
Ganzaroli, who played college ball at a junior college and played for an independent league team called the Sussex County Miners last year, said he was seeing the ball perfectly on a picture-perfect night for baseball.
“I was feeling good, even in batting practice,” Ganzaroli said. “This is great competition and we’re just going to keep competing.”
Zerfass is happy to have Ganzaroli on the roster.
“He was looking for a place to play,” the longtime Blue Mountain League personality said. “Right now, he’s swinging the bat well. Earlier in the year he was down to like .231 with his average but he figured out how they were pitching him and he’s been on the ball tremendously. The home run he hit tonight was a shot.”
Zerfass credited Jack Rothenhausler for his giving his team a shot at winning the game. The recent Liberty High graduate matched Bulls veteran ace Adam
Maini as he worked six solid innings and battled after giving up a first-inning run and then the 3-run home by Sinatore.
It was just Limeport’s fifth loss in 28 games and first-year manager C.J. Saliby said a tough loss like the one his team encountered will be a test of its character.
“You have to deal with adversity sometimes and we’ll see what we’re made of on Saturday,” Saliby said. “It’s a crusher losing that way, but it is what it is. We battled back in the top of the sixth with that three-run home run, but we left too
many guys on base and made too many mistakes in the field. We just need to sit back and regroup. We’ve really been playing well all year and really haven’t had any problems. Now we’ll see how we respond.”
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