| Things looked bleak for the Hilltoppers as they entered the bottom of the 7th down 4-1 in ths 1st Round game of the State Tounament. Even more depressing was that Nutley's pitcher had completely throttled the Summit offense. For the first 6 inning Summit had hit only two balls into the outfield. Then, for the 5th time during this 13 game winning streak, Summit rose to the occasion and staged another "walk-off" rally.
The rally began when, with one out, Andrew Aguilera was walked. Kyle Brown singled and Nutley decided to replace the starter whose pitch count had hit 95. The next hilltopper hit a double play ball to the shortstop that would have ended the game. However, the short stop bobled the ball and all runners were safe. Having gotten a reprieve, the Hiltoppers were inspired. Andrew George got his second hit of the night driving in Aguilera and Brown giving George 3 RBIs for the game. Unfortunately, George was gunned down when he tried to stretch his hit to a double. Now Summit was down to its last out with a 2 run defeicit and a runner on 3rd. Nick Abbott drew a walk. David Berardi, hitting for Justin Vitti, singled to score Mike Bredahl to tie the game at 4-4. A wild pitch moved Aboott to 3rd and Berardi to 2nd. Tanner Fulton capped the rally with a sharp single that scored Abbott and sent Summit to the Quarter Final round. Amazing!
John Floegel started on the mound and pitched 3 shutout innings. Rob Carbone came on in the 4th, but uncharacteristicly, struggled, giving up 3 runs. Aguilera pitched the final 2 2/3 innings and was credited with the W.
Summit will next play Cranford (the #1 seed) on Friday at Cranford.
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