Madison Baseball Drops Heartbreaker in States

MOUNTAIN LAKES–For the second time in three days, the Madison baseball team had a four-run lead, only to watch its opponent rally to force extra innings. As is so often the case in baseball, what worked out on Saturday, didn't on Monday.

Jake Sorrentino shut down the Dodgers in the late innings, then delivered the walk-off single in the eighth inning to give third-seeded Mountain Lakes a dramatic, come-from-behind 7-6 victory over Madison in the first round of the NJSIAA North 2, Group II Tournament.

It was a frustrating end to Madison's upset bid. The plucky, 14th-seeded Dodgers (9-13) received a sterling start from pitcher Connor Allen, and led by four with five outs to play. But the bullpen couldn't hold it.

Reliever Jake Meister loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, then gave up a two-run single to Ken Flynn that cut Madison's lead to 6-4. Two batters later, Robbie Rohan lined another single to right field, scoring another run. Meister escaped further trouble by inducing No. 3 hitter Sorrentino to hit a grounder to short.

"Our plan was to get Connor for four or five innings and then get Jake for two," said Madison coach Mickey Ennis. "It didn't work out, but I was felt very comfortable with Jake on the mound. That's a good hitting team out there. They didn't win 16 games by accident."

Things didn't start much better in the seventh, when cleanup hitter Brian McDonald (3-for-4, 2 RBI) led off with a double to deep right centerfield. Angel Concepcion bunted McDonald over to third, and McDonald scored on a sacrifice fly by Tom Walsh.

Sorrentino, who was devastating for 2 2/3 innings in relief - zero runs, three hits, three strikeouts, more than two-thirds of his pitches for strikes - put the Dodgers down in order in the eighth. Ethan Steible led off the bottom of the eighth against new pitcher Jamie Hunter with a walk, and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt.

Sorrentino fouled off three straight pitches, working the count to 2-2, before looping a single up the middle. Steible rounded third and beat the throw to the plate easily, sending Mountain Lakes to a second-round matchup with 11th-seeded Garfield on Friday.

For a while, it appeared to be Madison's day. They took advantage of some breaks, and made their own luck to earn a four-run lead in the sixth.

Allen, who threw 38 pitches in relief in Saturday's eight-inning win over Newark Academy, started and pitched efficiently and effectively, needing just 60 pitches to get through five innings.

The free-swinging Lakers swung early and often in the first four innings; Allen threw just 24 pitches to get through the third. The first Mountain Lakes hitter to see more than four pitches in an at-bat was Concepcion, who struck out on five pitches to open the fourth.

"They are a very aggressive offense," Ennis said. "They saw a few more pitches once they realized (in the fourth inning) that Connor's pitch count was so low.

Allen allowed just two runs, getting help from his defense - like Tracy's diving stop of a sharp grounder with two outs and a runner on third in the third inning - and some eagle eyes on the bench.

With a man on and one out in the fourth, Lucas Marker hit a liner to right field. Mike Haughey dove for the ball but missed it, and Marker reached third on the triple. It appeared as if the runner scored to cut Madison's lead to 3-2, but the umpire said the runner missed third base on appeal. The Lakers did eventually score their second run the following inning, but Allen still left with the lead.

Meanwhile, Madison's hitters were patient, forcing starter Steible to throw nearly 120 pitches in 5 1/3 innings. They came up with timely hits with runners in scoring position, and had opportunities for more.

"It was kind of by accident that he threw so many pitches," Ennis said. "He threw on Thursday, and we were surprised to see him on three days' rest. I thought we could get to him, and we did."

Red-hot first baseman Tom Tracy hit a seeing-eye single in the third inning to give Madison its first lead, 2-1. Two batters later, after a passed ball advanced pinch-runner Mike Zuzaro to third, Allen hit a bloop that landed just inside the right field line to make it 3-1. Dilan Kluge hit a screaming line drive to center field with the bases loaded and two out in the same inning, but Rohan made a sprinting catch to save two runs.

"We had chances with runners in scoring position," Ennis said. "And we didn't. We hit a line drive to center with the bases loaded, and he runs it down."

Allen came up with two men in scoring position in the fourth, but popped out to shortstop. His next at-bat came in the sixth. Just prior, Jamie Hunter had walked on four pitches with the bases loaded, scoring Kluge to make it 4-2 and chasing Steible.

Allen hit a sharp liner off of Sorrentino's 2-2 pitch, scoring Mike Wulff and Tracy to give Madison a 6-2 lead. Meister appeared as if he added another RBI with a two-out single later in the inning, but Hunter was just barely thrown out at the plate.

After Meister's hit, only one more Dodgers would reach base off Sorrentino, the hard-thrower who poured in strike after strike. His relief performance kept it close enough for Mountain Lakes to tie and eventually score the winning run.

"Our goal this season was to win a championship, and we didn't," Ennis said. "But I'm proud of the effort today. They left everything on the field, and that's all I can ask for them as a coach."


NEXT UP
With the state tournament run over, Ennis said the goal for Madison would be for his young team to win more games this season than last, when the Dodgers won 11 times. To beat that mark, the Dodgers will have to sweep their remaining three games over the next three days (weather-permitting).

First up for the Dodgers will be Dover Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m. at Dover High School. These two teams met at Madison High School on April 25, with Madison picking up a 15-5 win in five innings.

After that, Madison will face Kinnelon Wednesday in a rematch of the preliminary round of the Morris County Tournament, which the Colts won 5-1, before traveling to Chatham Thursday in the season finale.

BOX SCORE
Madison     0  1  2  0  0  3  0  0  -  6  10  3
Mt. Lakes   1  0  0  0  1  3  1  1   -  7  13  2
W: Jake Sorrentino
L: Jamie Hunter

#14 MADISON (9-13)
-Wulff, LF                    1-4, R, BB
-Brownlee, 3B            1-4, R, BB, SB
-Tracy, 1B                   2-3, R, RBI, BB, HBP
---Zuzaro, PR                      R
-Hunter, DH               1-4, RBI, BB
-Allen, P                       2-4, 3 RBI
---Dias, 3B                   0-1
-Haughey, RF            0-4, R, 2 SB
-Meister, SS                1-3, BB
-Wallace, LF               0-4
-Kluge, CF                   2-4, R, SB

-Allen, SP                    5    IP, 1 ER, 2 R, 7 H, 3 K, 0 BB, 60 pitches (39 strikes)
---Meister, RP           2    IP, 4 ER, 4 R, 5 H, 0 K, 3 BB, 49 pitches (25 strikes)
---Hunter, RP            0+ IP, 1 ER, 1 R, 1 H, 0 K, 1 BB, 14 pitches (6 strikes)

#3 MOUNTAIN LAKES (17-5)
-Steible, P                   2-4, 2 R, 3B, BB
-Rohan, CF                 1-4, RBI, sac bunt
-Sorrentino, 1B        1-5, RBI
-McDonald, 3B         3-4, R, 2 RBI, 2B
-Concepcion, DH     0-2, R, BB, sac bunt
-Walsh, C                    2-3, R, RBI, sac fly
-Marker, 2B               2-4, 3B, 2 SB
-Carrico, RF              0-2, R, 2 BB, SB
-Flynn, LF                  2-4, R, 2 RBI

-Steible, SP               5 1/3 IP, 5 ER, 6 R, 7 H, 7 K, 5 BB (1 HBP), 118 pitches (68 strikes)
---Sorrentino, RP   2 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 0 R, 3 H, 3 K, 0 BB                , 43 pitches (30 strikes)