Nitti, Allentown blank Northern Burlington
ALLENTOWN » Those who see Allentown sophomore right-hander Jack Nitti as just another young pitcher don’t know Jack.
The Northern Burlington High baseball team learned more about the crafty young hurler Thursday as he threw a two-hit shutout to help the third-seeded Redbirds win what could possibly be their last game at Dan Venet Field this season, 6-0, over the sixth-seeded Greyhounds.
With the win, defending state champ Allentown (196) advances to play at second-seeded Jackson Liberty (20-3) at 4 p.m. Tuesday in the sectional semifinal round. The Lions defeated 10th-seeded Pennsauken, 155, Tuesday.
All Nitti did Tuesday was limitNorthern to a pair of infield hits before retiring the NO. BURL.
ALLENTOWN ab r h bi Lopez 2b 3 0 00 Clauser 3b 3 0 1 0 Forcini dh 3 0 00 Mesa c 3 0 00
Irvin rf 3 0 00
Feig lf 1 0 00 Repack ss 2 0 00 Olshfski 1b 2 0 1 0 Osborne cf 2 0 0 0 Totals 22 0 2 0
ab r h bi Tnnnbm2b 3 1 2 0 Gaul 1b 4134 Reeder c 3110 Arcuri 2b 1001 Zupko lf 2001 Marcrio ss 3 0 2 0 RMiller dh 3 0 0 0 Ferrier rf 3110 Merkel cf 3220 Totals 25 6 11 6 LOB — Northern Burlington 2, Allentown 6; 2B — Tannenbaum, Gaul; SF — Arcuri, Zupko; SAC — Tannenbaum; SB — Marcario.
IP H NORTHERN BURLINGTON
Horton L,5-1 2.0 5
Blue 3.0 4 Babuschak 1.0 2 ALLENTOWN
NittiW,4-2 7.0 2 0 0 1 5 Horton faced 2 batters in the 3rd inning. WP — Blue. final 15 batters he faced.
“We hit him hard in the first inning, but not really after that,” Greyhounds head coachRickDoppler said. “He made us pop up a lot and kept us off balance.”
“He had something because we flew out 11 times and struck out five more
R ER BB SO
3 2 1
3 2 1
2 0 0
1 3 0 times,” Northern Burlington senior third baseman Cam Clauser said. “We couldn’t seem to put the ball on the ground against him very much.”
Six times was all the Greyhounds could hit ground balls off Nitti. Considering he only walked one batter, it did not give the visitors many base runners or chances to run.
Only one runner (Ryan Feig, who walked) reached second base momentarily when Joey Olshefski knocked an infield single off Nitti’s leg. But the ball ricocheted to third baseman Giuseppe Arcuri, who alertly threw to second base and caught Feig as he strayed a little too far off second for the third out.
“I basically came in blind against them,” said Nitti, who did not know much about the Greyhounds. “I did what I had to do and tried to stay tough. It took me the first and the second innings to settle in.”
After that, Nitti took no prisoners. He retired Northern’s hitters in order in each of the last five innings.
Nitti’s teammates gave himall the support hewould need in the bottom of the first inning when Matt Tannenbaumand Brandon Gaul hit back-to-back doubles off Greyhounds junior righthander Joe Horton. Chris Reeder followed with a single before sacrifice fly balls coach Brian Nice’s team smiling when he delivered a two-run single off reliever Tyler Blue in the fourth and anRBI single off Jake Babuschak in the sixth.
“We hit it where they were, and they hit it where we weren’t,” said Shenandoah Valley (Va.) Collegebound Clauser, who had the only other hit off Nitti, an infield single two batters into the game.