Kinnelon Eliminates Madison Baseball From MCT

KINNELON–The Madison baseball team's stay in the 2010 Morris County Tournament ended up being a short one.

Kinnelon, the tournament's No. 14 seed, beat Madison 5-1 Saturday morning in an MCT preliminary-round matchup at Pearl Middle School in Kinnelon.

The 19th-seeded Dodgers outhit Kinnelon, but left 10 men on base–and at least one in every inning after the first.

On the other hand, the Colts made the most of their opportunities, scoring all five runs in the second inning thanks to three hits and four walks.

"We came in expecting to win, even though we were the lower seed," said Madison coach Mickey Ennis. "And any time you expect to win and you don't, it's incredibly disappointing."

It was another frustrating day at the plate for Madison, which had its two-game win streak snapped. Alex Brownlee and Mike Haughey each picked up a pair of hits, but the other seven hitters in the lineup combined for two hits.

"They can pitch a little looser with a five-run lead," Ennis said. "Our bats were a little slow today. I don't know if it was due to having a game [Friday] night and a game this morning, or what."

Even when the Dodgers hit the ball hard–which they did often–they were foiled by perfect defensive placement or, on a long Connor Allen flyball in the fifth inning, the lack of outfield fences.

Down 5-0, Madison had a chance to get back in it in the top of the fourth. Mike Wallace hit a double down the left field line to score Brownlee and cut the deficit to 5-1.

The next batter, Alex Ruiz, hit a fly ball to shallow left field. The out was made, and Ennis sent Haughey tagging from third. The throw home was nearly perfect, and Haughey was gunned down at the plate to end the inning.

"I rolled the dice," Ennis said. "I didn't get a good feeling that we were seeing the ball well at the plate, that we were going to score a lot of runs. If the ball skips by the catcher, it's 5-2 and we have a runner on third, if you want to play the 'what-if' game."

The Dodgers loaded the bases, bringing the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the sixth. The rally came thanks to a Brownlee single, Wallace reaching on an error, and Mike Wulff taking a walk, the latter two coming with two out.

Jake Meister worked the count to 3-1, but Kinnelon reliever Nick Farallo threw a called strike on the next pick, then induced a foul tip into the catcher's mitt for strike three.

Farallo picked up the save with a relatively straightforward seventh inning, allowing a single but needing just 12 pitches to retire the side.

Meister (1-3) started and pitched 4 2/3 innings for the Dodgers. The junior right-hander threw well in every inning but the nightmarish second, when he gave up three of his five hits, four of his seven walks and all five runs.

Three consecutive one-out walks in the second inning loaded the bases for Billy O'Brien, who singled for Kinnelon's first run. John Spatidol added a sacrifice fly. Two batters later, Ben Van Put lined a fastball to center field, making the score 3-0. The Colts completed their scoring with a two-RBI single to left by Farallo.

"You can't walk three guys in an inning and be successful," Ennis said. "They'll always come back to haunt you. Jake was rushing himself a bit, and they picked up some clutch hits on their end."

Kinnelon, the tournament's No. 14 seed, advances to play third-seeded Delbarton next Saturday in Morris Township.

NEXT UP
Madison returns to action Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m. for a non-conference game against Newark Academy. The game will be a homecoming of sorts for Madison coach Mickey Ennis, who coached at the Livingston school the last two seasons.

The Minutemen are 1-11 in the ultra-competitive Super Essex Conference, losing four games by one run.

Connor Higgins (1-2, 4.35 ERA) is scheduled to make the start for Madison; Higgins' strikeout-to-walk ratio (14-to-1) is by far the best on the Madison pitching staff this season.

BOX SCORE
[19] Madison   0  0  0  1  0  0  0  -  1  6  0
[14] Kinnelon   0  5  0  0  0  0  x  -  5  5  1

MADISON (5-8)
-Meister, P           0-3, BB, SB
-Kluge, CF            0-3, BB
-Tracy, 1B             0-3, BB
-Allen, 3B              1-4
-Brownlee, 2B        2-3, R, HBP, SB
-Hunter, DH           0-3
-Haughey, RF        2-3, SB
-Wallace, SS         1-3, RBI, 2B
-Ruiz, C                 0-2
---Wulff, PH            0-0, BB

-Meister, SP          4 2/3 IP, 5 R, 5 ER, 5 H, 3 K, 7 BB, 94 pitches (49 strikes)
---Wallace, RP       1 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 K, 0 BB, 16 pitches (12 strikes)