Nottingham rallies to edge Burlington Twp. in 8 innings
HAMILTON >> There may be forcesatworkthatnooneeven knows exist when it comes to the Nottingham High baseball team.
Playing the kind of game most teams would lose, the fifth-seeded Northstars held off 12th-seeded Burlington Township, 5-4, in eight innings in a NJSIAA Group III Central opener Tuesday.
After Bryce Fremgen tied it on a two-out, two-strike single in the seventh, Josh Sikorski scored the game-winner on a wild pitch in the eighth as the Northstars advanced to Thursday’s second round at Allentown. Nottingham (21-7) also tied the 1990 school record for wins in a season.
The ’Stars survived three errors that yielded three unearnedruns,arashofbase-running errors and another lackluster offensive day as they were out-hit, 6-5. But that’s what they do. In a win Friday, they scored four runs in an inning on one hit. On Saturday, they got outhit, 10-5, and won, 5-4.
“We found a way to tie the game, we found a way to win the game, but if we play like this Thursday, we’ll get embarrassed,” coach Jim Maher said of his defending sectional champs. “We played very poorly today. Very, very poorly defensively, offensively. Very poor performance. And we’ve got a lot of guys who have been there.”
It’s because they have been there that the Northstars were able to survive themselves.
“Stay within ourselves,” said shortstop Tom McParland, who scored twice and helped set up the winning run. “If we stay within ourselves, we know we’ll be all right.”
Against the Falcons (8-13), who rallied from a 3-0, first-inning deficit to come within one strike of a huge upset, Nottingham’s winning “rally” came without a hit, and they scored threerunsinthefirstononehit.
“We just did what Nottingham does — find ways to score runs,” Fremgen said.
“We’ve had some rough games,” McParland said. “We knowwecandoitthough.Ilike the fight. We’re not gonna blow past anyone. We know we don’t havealotofoffense,butwehave good pitching and, if we grind out at-bats, we can be good.”
Nottingham scored three in the first off freshman Dean Kasper — who gutted out seven innings — on a rejuvenated Fremgen’s two-run single and Tom Argiriou’s sacrifice fly. Ronnie Voacolo was literally unhittable through the first three innings,strikingouteightofnine.
The ’Stars bats went quiet, and, in the fifth, Burlington Township scored two unearned runs on an errant throw (the inning’s second error) and an AJ Stein bunt single. The Falcons took the lead in the sixth on Kasper’s sacrifice fly and a dropped fly ball.
Leading off the seventh, McParland ignited things with a ground single to left.
“That’s big,” he said. “I’ve been hitting a lot of balls in the air lately.”
McParland went to second base on a wild pitch and took third with two outs on a fly to center. Fremgen, who had a two-run, walk-off single Saturday, fell behind in the count, 0-2, before hitting a game-tying flair into center with the center fielder shaded to right.
“Ijustchokeduponthebata little, tried to get a ball in play,” he said. “I saw them shift, so I tried to hit it up the middle.”
He said Saturday’s big hit carried over into this game.
“It gave me more confidence,” he said. “I’ve had some problems this year, but I’m figuring it out and I’m back to my old self.”
In the eighth, Sikorski hit into a fielder’s choice after Argiriou was hit by a pitch, and Logan Barber and Tom McParland walked before a wild pitch scored Sikorski.
Maher, however, was not in the mood to celebrate.
“We’ve gotta be better than this,” he said. “This would have been a hard lesson for them to learn. We were fortunate to win.” BT: Kasper, Stein, N: Fremgen 3, Argiriou. Houghton (8-2); (2-7). Francisco
BT (8-15), N (21-7).