Hill falls to rival Lawrenceville
Early runs aren’t enough in Blues’ 6-3 loss
Hill School versus Lawrenceville School is a big deal in anything. And Saturday afternoon’s baseball game between the two reflected that intense rivalry right from the start, with both teams scrapping for every base runner they could get and every extra base they could take.
That worked well for the Blues in the first inning as bunt hits, stolen bases and run-scoring grounders produced two runs. But Hill’s offense, along with some of its enthusiasm, waned after that and Lawrenceville rallied for a 6-3 Mid-Atlantic Prep League win on the latter’s field.
Hugh Devine pitched into the seventh inning and earned the win for the Big Red (3-1 MAPL, 5-6 overall). Anthony Grosso pitched well for the Blues (1-2, 2-9), but was hurt by too many errors and walks.
“Every aspect of this school is Hill versus Lawrenceville,” said Grosso, a left-handed sophomore from Fleetwood. “These are special games. We definitely want to win.”
Grosso set the Big Red down in the top of the first,
allowing only a two-out walk. Then the Blues went right to work in the bottom half.
Will Reger put a bunt down the third base line for a hit and stole second, then Grosso bunted for another hit with Reger moving up to third. A grounder to second by Daniel Palmieri brought home a run and the Blues scored another on an infield error and an RBI grounder to short by Cole White.
“Came out firing,” Grosso said. “Started off with small ball. That’s the way we like to play. Got to get gritty runs, steal bases, bunts.”
Lawrenceville got one back in the second. Then the Blues had a chance to get more in the bottom of the frame with the bases loaded and one out. But
Devine got a big strikeout and then a pop to left to squelch the threat.
“We left too many runners on base,” said Hill coach Ed Turner, whose team also left the bases filled in the sixth and stranded nine in all. “We like to preach to the guys, especially with a runner on third and less than two out, to do our best to put the ball in play.”
The Big Red also squandered some scoring opportunities, stranding 11 total. A prime example of that came in the fourth inning when Lawrenceville scored to take a 3-2 advantage and still had the bases loaded with none out.
But Grosso avoided further damage with a fly to shallow center, a grounder
to third baseman Cole Albert for a throw to home for a force out and a bouncer to short.
“He’s done a great job for us this year,” Turner said concerning Grosso.
“Command was a little off,” Grosso added. “With the errors in the middle, we got down on ourselves, couldn’t dig out of the hole.”
The Big Red added a run in the fifth on an RBI single by Devine and two more in the sixth – the big hit a triple by Shaun McMillan – for a 6-2 lead. The Blues tried to make a game of it as Collin Mattis led off the bottom of the inning with a walk, Jonathan Moore doubled and a walk to Reger loaded
the bases with two away.
Grosso was hit by a pitch to force in a run, but Lawrenceville catcher Jack Moses made a play on a foul pop just inside the screen behind the plate to retire the side.
Devine shook off his struggles to start the game and pitched to one batter in the seventh before reaching the pitch limit.
“They got a couple good bunts down,” Devine said concerning the opening inning. “I thought they hadn’t squared up the ball yet. I’ll keep throwing strikes and the outs will come. I think the fastball worked well. They didn’t make a lot of loud contact. I was just throwing a fastball until they hit it.”
He remembered a game at Hill two years ago.
“My sophomore year, they had some students barking up on the hill,” Devine said. “It’s definitely a rivalry. We take it very seriously.”
“A great game between us,” Turner added. “Great rivalry. They’ve had our number the last couple of years.”
And the Blues are looking forward to the return match in New Jersey next month.
“The whole team was excited for this game,” Turner said.”We’re excited to face them them again in a couple weeks.”