A great bunch of kids who can call themselves state champions, that’s what.
I was working a district Little League game in Wood-Ridge on Sunday the 13th when I discovered that the Rutherford Babe Ruth 13-year-old team had won the district championship and had entered pool play in the Northern New Jersey state championship in Hazlet. With one exception, a player who had moved into town during his 12-year-old season, these were all kids who had played in the Little League program in Rutherford, a program I’ve been proud to be affiliated with for 28 years. I knew I had my games set for the next week.
(Babe Ruth Baseball, which started in Trenton in 1951, is big enough in its home state that there is a North Jersey champion and a South Jersey champion. Instead of calling the winner of each tournament a half-a-state champion, Babe Ruth League refers to both tournament victors as state champions.)
I had already missed the team’s first state game, a 14-4 win over Bergenfield. I made my first trip to Hazlet on Monday, July 14, and realized how good the caliber of play was. Despite the fact that most of these kids were playing their first season on a regulation baseball diamond, this was a superb brand of ball. Bobby Miskura, who had pitched for the Rutherford National team that went to the Little League state finals in Clayton in 2007, was on the hill, and he scattered six hits and allowed just two runs in pitching to his limit of seven innings. Good enough to win on most days, but not this one. The game went into ooooooooooovertime, and an eighth-inning sacrifice fly gave Bayonne a 3-2 victory.
I was hooked. I came back the next night to watch Rutherford take on Randolph. Most of the Randolph team was the squad that, as Randolph East, won the 2007 Little League state title. I knew Rutherford would have their hands full, and they did. But Rex MacMillan, who was also there in Clayton last year, was up to the task. He turned in a gritty performance, going the distance. Rutherford won it in the seventh, scoring two runs on a single by Mike Carey, a steal, a wild pitch, a single by Anthony Gallo, another steal, a balk, and a Miskura grounder. It wound up 4-3.
With weather threatening on Thursday, Rutherford was already assured of advancing to the elimination round, and I have to admit, they took it easy. Oh, Darien Pannella gave his club three nice innings on the hill, but then he surrendered a run in the fourth and four in the fifth (two earned). Readington was up 6-0 after six innings when the umpires noticed lightning. There are no lights on the Raritan High School baseball fields, and so there was no way to restart the game. Readington took the 6-0 victory and the top seed in the pool. Bayonne was second, Rutherford third. The other pool had host Hazlet on top, followed by Bridgewater and Edison.
The format for the elimination round was that the No. 1 team in pool A would play the winner of a game between the No. 2 seed in pool B and the No. 3 seed in pool A. That meant Rutherford drew Bridgewater – at 11:30 on a Saturday morning when the temperature was already in the 90s. Anthony Gallo had led off by reaching on a bunt, MacMillan walked, Miskura and Jake Regina reached on errors, J.J. Watt had an RBI single, and before you knew it, Rutherford had three unearned runs. Bridgewater put up unearned runs in the first and second innings, but Rutherford came back with single runs in the third and fourth. Bridgewater got to Miskura for two straight singles and a fifth-inning run, but Miskura was the bulldog in the end, going 136 pitches and completing the 5-3 victory.
That meant Rutherford got to play Readington again. I don’t think anyone expected this first inning, least of all Readington.
Anthony Gallo led off, as usual, and he worked the count full and then doubled past the center fielder. Rex MacMillan then singled over the shortstop’s head, and stole second. Bobby Miskura singled past the shortstop, scoring one run; MacMillan came home on an error by the center fielder, and Miskura went to second. Jake Regina walked. They double-stole. Darien Pannella dropped one just out of the reach of the second baseman, driving in a run to make it 3-0. Mike Rosamilia singled past the third baseman, loading the bases. And Brian Caron was done as a pitcher. He went to catch, and this kid DeStefano (whose first name I never got) took the mound. J.J. Watt was the batter, and Readington brought the infield in. Watt hit a grounder to second, and John Icaza air-mailed the throw home. 5-0, runners on second and third. Jimmy Hadrava singled in Rosamilia. Hadrava went to steal second, and Caron threw short in an attempt to get Watt – but he was too late, and they had another double steal and another run. Then Mike Carey hit a grounder to short that Jeremy Ake kicked. Carey promptly stole second. Now it’s 7-0, and still nobody out. Well, the top of the order made some outs – but they were productive. Gallo hit a sac fly to center, and MacMillan hit a sac fly to left. Miskura walked, Regina flied out. 9 runs, 6 hits, 3 Readington errors, 1 left.
About the only shame here was that Rutherford couldn’t wrap up a 10-run victory and get the game over with quickly. Fortunately, the Capobiancos brought a portable tent to set up in the bleachers, and we all waited out the 13-6 victory, with MacMillan allowing ten hits to the team everyone said was the best-hitting club in the tournament. Yet Rutherford outhit them, 13-10.
Bayonne, who had defeated Edison on Saturday, fell to Hazlet on Sunday afternoon, meaning that Rutherford’s final task was to get by the host team. I made one last trip down NJ 36 and SR 516 to the home field of the Raritan Rockets, to see if Rutherford had anything left. Jake Regina went to the mound for Rutherford, after their hitters went down 1-2-3 off Nick Pasquenza in the top of the first. The first Hazlet batter reached on an error, but Regina got two strikeouts and a line-out to the box, and we were scoreless after one inning. Now here comes an unbelievable inning, the Rutherford second.
The reliever was Tyler Roldan, who had pitched the sixth inning against Readington but for the most part had been relegated to a bit role. This was his chance. He caught pinch-hitter Jared Rivera looking. Then he allowed a two-run single to Cody Regueiro. Suddenly, it was 9-7. But he got Pulcine to ground to third, ending that scary inning.
Carey singled in the sixth but got no farther than second. Pannella was hit by a pitch in the seventh, but his pinch-runner, Andrew Capobianco, got no farther than first. Fortunately, Roldan was humming it in there. He allowed just one runner in the sixth, a two-out single to Pete Burtone. In the seventh, he got Pasquenza to line out before walking Ronan – who went to third on a pair of wild pitches during Rivera’s nine-pitch at-bat. But Rivera finally flied to left. And on the first pitch, Roldan got Regueiro to hit a sharp grounder to third – the 11th time in 11 batters that Roldan threw a strike on the first pitch. Regina came up with it and made the long throw to Hadrava . . . game over. At 8:02 in the evening, Rutherford had the 9-7 victory and the state championship.
The next game for this amazing group is Friday, August 1, in Washington Township. Now there are five Washington Townships in New Jersey (hey, there were six until a few months ago), so naturally they had to choose the one that was farthest away from Rutherford, the one in Gloucester County, on the way to Glassboro. But at least a few of those players know the road: it’s the same one that goes to Clayton.
I’ll miss the next phase, as I’m away on vacation when the tournament starts, but I have every confidence that they’ll do Rutherford, and North Jersey, proud. Congratulations, guys.