| PLAYER | POS | AB | R | H | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | BB/HB | K | E | | McNeil | SS | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Bariexca | P | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | | Johnson | CF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Krupa | 3B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | | Della Piazza | C | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | | Cheng | RF | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | | Dolny | 1B | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | | Lawton | DH | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | | Smith | 2B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Mahoney | 2B | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | Landau | 1B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | TOTALS | | 34 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 2 |
This was a truly quality baseball game. Steve Bariexca and West Essex's Frank Cernza carried on a great pitcher's duel through six innings. It was one of those games that neither pitcher deserved to lose. In the 7th Cernza was replaced by a reliever with Summit on top1-0. West Essex tied the game in the 7th inning to send it to extra innings. Summit regained the lead in the top of the 9th but West Essex managed 2 runs in their half to take the game. In the bottom of the 7th inning Bariexca came within 1 strike of winning the game. After getting an 0-2 count on the first WE batter he was hit and took 1st base. The next batter laid down a nice bunt to move the runner to 2nd with 1 out. The following batter popped up to Paul Krupa for the 2nd out. One more out and we go home winners. The count was 1-2 on the next batter when he hit a long fly ball to deep left center. The fielder raced to the ball, got his glove on it but it popped out of his glove and the tieing run came home sending things to extra innings.
In the Summit 9th Summit regained the lead. Evan Cheng led off the inning by getting on 1st because of a dropped 3rd strike. Brad Dolny sacrificed him to 2nd and Bryan Lawton singled to drive him in. As the bottom of the 9th began Bariexca had already thrown 117 pitches. The first WE batter singled and the 2nd batter walked to put runners at 1st and 2nd. At this point Krupa took over in relief and faced the top of the order. The next batter laid down a near perfect sacrifice bunt and beat it out to load the bases. A single to right brought in WE's winning runs.
The Summit defense made some sparkling plays. In the 3rd inning with runners on 1st and 2nd with no out Bariexca fielded a sacrifice bunt and forced the runner at 3rd base. The next batter hit back to Bariexca who threw to McNeil to start a nice 1-6-3 double play. Again in the 5th with runners at 1st and 2nd Krupa fielded a sharp ground ball, stepped on 3rd and threw to Noah Landau for another double play.
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