Drama in the Treehouse

Rodriguez’ sac fly in 12th lifts Mighty Oaks past RCSJ-Cumberland for sweep of doubleheader, weekend series

SATURDAY REGION 19 BASEBALL
Salem 10-4, RCSJ-Cumberland 3-3
Montgomery 7-16, Bergen 6-11
Brookdale 9-2, Middlesex 1-4
Mercer 5-4, Morris 3-2
Raritan Valley 6-12, Sussex 3-2
Lackawanna 11-11, Delaware Tech 3-6
Northampton 23-22, Delaware Co. 1-7
Ocean 18-7, Union 5-5

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – Yen Rodriguez had two very good and very personal reasons for ending the marathon that became the nightcap of Salem CC’s doubleheader with RCSJ-Cumberland when he came to the plate in the 12th inning Saturday.

The switch-hitting sophomore shortstop lofted a sacrifice fly into center field that sent Tim Bowlby home with the winning run to give the Mighty Oaks a 4-3 win that swept the scheduled seven-inning doubleheader and the weekend series. They won the opener 10-3 that had an equally interesting storyline.

“It’s funny because before that at-bat I was like I don’t want to go through the lineup again,” Rodriguez said. “I’m hungry. I really want to go home. Righty is my dominant sense, a lefty was on the bump, so I knew I had to do the job.

“He threw me two good pitches. The one low I got a hold of it. It was very good, up the middle. (The centerfielder) got it and all I thought was please score, please score, please score. I was hungry. I was tired. I couldn’t do it again.”

Bowlby, who entered the game in the ninth as a pinch-runner and stayed, got the winning rally started by drawing a leadoff walk. He raced all the way to third when the throw on Jason LeBold’s sacrifice got loose. LeBold stole second just to give the Dukes something to think about and Rodriguez followed with his walkout sac fly..

The Mighty Oaks (10-13), now 3-0 since coming back from their Florida trip, had plenty of chance to win it earlier in the extra innings, but could never deliver the decisive hit.

They had the winning run at third with one out in the eighth and ninth innings, the winning run at second with one out and third with two in the tenth, and at third with no outs in the 11th (after tying the game) and went a combined 0-for-9 with six strikeouts.

“We had a lot of opportunities to end it; it’s frustrating,” Mighty Oaks coach John Holt said. “We’re doing some of the things a little better simpler. We try to preach ‘do simple better’ and some of the simple things we didn’t get done today made us go that longer. That’s baseball.”

Things looked dire for the Mighty Oaks after Cumberland scored twice in the top of the 11th to take a 3-1 lead. But Demetrius DeRamus gave them life when he re-tied it with a two-run moonshot homer inside the left field foul pole. He had been 0-for-5 in the game before the blast.

“I was just trying to be patient, trying to stay relaxed as much as possible,” the sophomore centerfield said. “There was a lot of noise going on, so I was just trying to relax. Do simple. I soon as I hit it … I knew it was gone.”

Matt Murphy kept the line moving with a walk and raced all the way to third when Angel Velez beat out a sacrifice bunt and nobody covered the bag. But each of the next three batters struck out to kill the threat.

Jared Vanderstuer came out after pitching seven innings for the first time in his career and holding the Dukes to one run. Alex Newman kept the Dukes off the board until the 11th – working out of jams in the ninth and tenth – and Tyler Hacker pitched the 12th without incident and got the win.

Until the drama of the nightcap, the story of the day was going to be how Seth McCormick came on in emergency relief in the opener and carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning.

As a reliever you learn to be ready at a moment’s notice, but nobody could’ve planned for the way he entered the game.

Normally, the reliever has an idea when he’s going to pitch, and normally he gets a chance to warmup in the bullpen before getting summoned into the game. McCormick knew he was going to be the first reliever behind starter J.D. Wilson, but likely in the third or fourth inning.

He went in at the fifth batter after Wilson tweaked a hamstring pushing off the rubber on his second pitch of the second inning.

“Honestly, that’s probably the first time that’s ever happened in my life,” McCormick said. “And then it’s like, take your time, don’t hurt your arm and make sure you’re ready to go. Being a reliever you’ve gotta be ready when you’re needed.”

McCormick was doing his usual bands in the bullpen when he got the call. It took him fewer than 20 pitches to get warm. He finished out the walk to his first batter, but he also carried the no-hitter Wilson started into the fifth inning when Chase Montgomery broke it up with a bloop double to shallow rightfield.

The fifth was his toughest inning. He gave up two runs on two hits and three walks. It drew the Dukes within 4-3, but Mighty Oaks got the runs back in the bottom of the inning when two scored on an infield error.
 
McCormick gave up three hits total, but only one that was considered solid. He struck out two, got 12 groundball outs, picked off a runner and his infield turned two double plays.

“First batter, I knew I was gonna walk him just by the fact it was 2-0, but once I got that first walk out of the way it right back to the zone and hope for a double play,” he said. “The fifth inning I got a little rattled had to dial it back in.

“I felt I had to change my mechanics for some reason, just getting in my head about it. The sixth inning I had to take a break, went back out and started shoving again.”

His day got even more eventful in the nightcap when he came in to catch in the third inning after Chris Laute took a pitch in the dirt directly off his knee. He entered the game after Holt tried to hit Joe Fekete in Laute’s spot but couldn’t because the player wasn’t on the scorecard and then sent Ben Charbonneau in to hit. 

McCormick caught until the eighth inning when Angel Velez replaced him during the pitching change that brought Newman into the game.

ACORNS: The 19 innings of baseball took 6 hours, 10 minutes to play. The nightcap took 3:40 … 
DeRamus (three hits) and Hacker (two hits) both had three RBIs in the opener … Vanderstuer has a unique way of fielding comebackers to the mound. He takes them himself to first base. Did it three times Saturday. “I mainly do it as sort of a mind game against the other team,” he said. “By racing them to the bag when I know I can beat them there it is just another way to try to get in the other team’s head.”

RCSJ-Cumberland	010 020 0-	3	3	1
Salem CC	103 024 x-	10	13	1

RCSJ-Cumberland	000 100 000 020-	3	11	3
Salem CC	010 000 000 021-	4	7	2