Getting just two hits in a Mercer County Tournament semifinal against a team that mashes the ball isn’t the best game plan for victory.
Committing four errors in an MCT semi is another unrecommended recipe for victory.
Losing a fly ball in the lights for a run-scoring double or not tagging up from third on a deep fly ball can also be costly in a big ballgame.
Put them all together in one performance, and it’s pretty certain the team will lose by the 10-run rule and maybe even get thrown in jail for setting the game of baseball back 100 years.
Unless you’re freakin’ amazing Hamilton West.
The fourth-seeded Hornets unbelievably did all those things against top-seeded Notre Dame Tuesday and still managed to pull out a 5-4 victory in the second semifinal of the night at DeMeo Field. Hamilton scored two in the top of the seventh and ND, ranked No. 5 in the NJ.com Top 20, stranded two runners in the bottom of the inning to cap an ugly, but incredibly exciting contest.
West (15-6) is headed to the finals for the first time since 2014, where it will meet second-seeded Hun at 7 p.m. Thursday at Trenton Thunder Ballpark.
“We’re maturing as a team,” said Mike “Mo” Moceri, who had never won an MCT game as a head coach until this year. “We’re figuring out how to get it done against three great pitchers they threw against us. They had under-two ERAs for all of them. Nobody thought we would win this game tonight, nobody is gonna think we can win the next one and we’re gonna have to find a way.
“I always joked Mo never got an MCT win before so I cheer for him every time we get a win,” said Mac Meara, who scored the winning run and got the save. “Hopefully we end with a win.”
The way Hamilton battles, nothing should be surprising at this stage. Expectations were minimal for the Hornets prior to the season but no one ever questioned their grit. Is it what allowed them to turn a potential mess into a thing of beauty against an ND team that also struggled with four errors.
The way the game played out, it wasn’t surprising the tying and winning runs scored on an error, and a balk, respectfully.
ND (15-3) took the lead in the fifth on Brendan Buecker’s sacrifice fly and a fly ball by Jack Hughes that Andy Figueroa lost in the lights, allowing Jackson Wargo to score and make it 4-3.
Luke Foley, who had thrown three innings of solid relief, walked pinch-hitter Jason Ferdetta to start the seventh. ND coach Joe Drulis opted for closer Dylan Palmer, who had gone 4-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored and was looking to add a save to his resume.
Palmer walked Meara, then threw the ball away on a perfect sacrifice by Mike Drosos, which allowed Andy Figeuroa to score. That put runners on second and third and ND walked the dangerous Ryan Marino to load the bases.
Nate Mains lifted a ball to left field deep enough to score Meara but for some reason, Mac stayed at third.
“I screwed up,” Meara said. “I thought we were down by one, I didn’t even realize we had scored. I will say I was pretty nervous that I thought we were gonna lose the game because I thought we were down at the time.”
Moceri had no answer for the misadventure.
“I got nothing,” he said with a laugh. “I had no idea what he was doing. I was yelling tag up.”
Palmer then got a strikeout and got ahead of AJ Maddalena, 0-2. When the count hit 2-2, Meara broke for home and the hurler balked.
“I was about to do it earlier, but he saw me,” Meara explained. “Mo said ‘Go on this pitch, he’s in the windup.’ I was going for it. But I was creeping after he started. Mo wanted me to run but I was taking my time. Once he started the windup, he saw me and stepped off.”
“I told Mac at the beginning of the at-bat just to time him up, we may try something,” Moceri said. “I gave AJ a couple of swings. He fell behind and I said ‘Mac, we’re gonna do it. When I say go, you go.’ He went and sure enough he balked. He started his windup and then stepped off.”
It was a tough moment for Palmer, but Drulis put the blame on the coaching staff.
“He hadn’t pitched in 19 days,” the coach said. “It’s been a while since he’s pitched. So maybe he should have been from the stretch. That’s on us, because if he goes into the stretch he probably steps off and doesn’t balk. But Hamilton found a way, hats off to them.”
It was never going to be that easy, of course.
Dylan Parsons, who was his usual standout self against a powerhouse lineup, came out for the seventh but after a strikeout, he walked two straight and had run out of gas.
Moceri turned to Meara, who will be the likely starter against Hun. With the tying and winning runs on, he got a fly ball to center and a called third strike to end it.
“I just had to throw strikes,” the junior southpaw said. “I’ve had some control issues, I knew I had to throw strikes there at the bottom of the lineup. It’s weird, I’m a lefty but I hate facing lefties so that last kid I struck out, he pitches lefty so I thought he was a lefty coming up. It turned out he was a righty so I was just feeding him fastballs.”
Meara saved it for Parsons, who ran his record to 8-1 and simply battled throughout the game. He scattered eight hits, walked three and fanned seven as Notre Dame left eight runners on through the first six frames.
“This is one of the best hitting teams in New Jersey but he shut them down,” Meara said. “We knew he was gonna do that. We knew we’d beat them, Dylan’s our ace. He definitely pitched an amazing game. I was feeling his pain. Errors did not help so it was pretty nerve wracking. But Dylan battled it out.”
“Dylan was unbelievable, he was great, he was Dylan” Moceri said. “We made so many mistakes. I think it was a little bit of nerves on our part for sure. I don’t think any of our guys have played in a game of this magnitude with this crowd and this atmosphere. Hopefully it’s out of our system, we can’t use it as an excuse anymore.”
In a game that featured just three RBI hits, Hamilton took a 1-0 lead when Dom Costantino scored on a wild pitch. ND got two back in the third when Parsons threw an errant pickoff throw with the bases loaded. Two runs scored and a third would have tallied until Mike Drosos ran in from shortstop to cover the plate and took a throw from Mains to make the tag.
In the fourth, Mains leadoff single was followed by three successful sacrifices and two Irish errors that led to two runs and a 3-2 lead. That set up the wild final innings.
“We did a lot of practicing yesterday,” Moceri said. “We bunted for about a half hour. We worked on stealing home for a little bit. We said we had to execute today to get runs in and that’s what we did. Our guys fight until the end. We’ve won many games this year with two hits. Our M.O. is to find a way on base, get ‘em over, get ‘em in. I don’t care how we do it, just get it done.”
They found a way to get it done; which made a night filled with mistakes turn out just right.
The N.J. High School Sports newsletter now appearing in mailboxes 5 days a week. Sign up now and be among the first to get all the boys and girls sports you care about, straight to your inbox each weekday. To add your name, click here.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.
Ad Choices