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Sports

Madison Baseball Falls To Morris Catholic

Tracy blasts third home run, but Dodgers come up short.

DENVILLE–In a game in which they never led, the Madison High School baseball team had one big opportunity. But Morris Catholic pitcher Rob Drexel wouldn't let them take it.

Drexel escaped a two-on, one-out jam with the game tied in the fourth inning, and the Crusaders pulled away for a 9-5 win over the Dodgers in NJAC-Independence action Wednesday at Morris Catholic High School.

Tom Tracy hit a solo home run, his third of the season, and Connor Allen picked up two hits for Madison (7-9, 2-6).

Morris Catholic slugger Brett Bially went 4-for-4 with a double and three runs scored, while Tom Rogers added a three-run homer to give the Crusaders (10-5, 6-2) an insurmountable 9-4 lead in the bottom of the sixth.

Drexel pitched six-plus innings, allowing five runs but striking out seven batters, to pick up the win.

Madison only managed six hits, but placed them at the right times–except in the fourth, when they put two runners in scoring position with one out.

"That was the turning point," said Madison coach Mickey Ennis. "It was the perfect opportunity to take the game in our hands."

The Dodgers loaded the bases with one out before right fielder Mike Haughey smacked a double to right center field, scoring two runs and tying the game at 4-4.

The next batter, Connor Higgins, hit a ground ball back to Drexel for the second out. Then, Alex Brownlee put a solid swing on a 2-2 pitch, but he hit it right to centerfielder Rob Jones for the third.

"Higgins isn't really a No. 9 hitter," Ennis said. "We kind of hid him down there, but we expect good things when he's at the plate. That was our opportunity, but credit, their pitcher held us down."

Drexel, a hard-throwing lefty, promptly retired six of the next seven Madison hitters on just 27 pitches to advance through the fifth and sixth innings.

In the meantime, Morris Catholic broke through against Higgins, Madison's starter, who allowed five earned runs in 4 2/3 innings and picked up the loss.

Bially led off the fifth inning with a single, stole second, and reached third on a groundout. But the groundout was the second of the inning, and Higgins appeared as if he was going to escape with the game tied at 4-4.

But the sophomore left a fastball up to Dylan Gallagher, who crushed it to the deepest part of a very deep center of Morris Catholic's field. Gallagher would have picked up an easy triple, but a bobble in the outfield allowed him to score standing up, giving the Crusaders a 6-4 lead.

"Their kid drove the ball off Connor's mistake," Ennis said. "Connor made some mistakes on 0-2 pitches, up in the count. But he's a sophomore, he's still learning and getting experience. And he will learn as he pitches more."

Morris Catholic added insurance runs when Rogers blasted a towering fly ball over the left field fence off of reliever Kyle Flanagan. The three runs provided enough cushion for Morris Catholic to withstand a seventh-inning rally in which Madison scored once and put two runners on with one out.

Dave Guarino allowed an RBI double to Mike Wulff and hit Jamie Hunter before retiring the final two batters to end the game.

Despite the similar result, it was a fairly different outing from these two teams' last meeting, an 8-5 Crusader win on April 12 in which Madison scored most of their runs late in an ill-fated comeback.

"Drexel shut us down completely the last time we played," Ennis said. "He threw well today, but our approach at the plate was much better, we have improved for sure from that game to today. I can't ask for much more than that from these kids."

The Dodgers touched up Drexel early. After Morris Catholic scored two in the first inning, Tracy led off the second with a blast to deep left, down the line. Jake Meister followed with a shot to deep left center which bounced over the fence for a double. He scored on back-to-back groundouts to second, Mike Wallace picking up the RBI.

The Crusaders took back a run in the second. They made it 4-2 when Gallagher drew a rare walk from Higgins - who issues fewer than two per seven innings - with the bases loaded. Higgins struck out the next two batters on six pitches to keep Morris Catholic's lead at two. The following inning, Haughey tied it with his two-RBI double.

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Madison came into Wednesday's game having won four of five, but had not played since last Friday's win over Parsippany, thanks to a pair of rainouts.

DODGERS CONTROL STATE TOURNAMENT QUALIFICATION DESTINY
The NJSIAA tournament cutoff date is this Friday. As has been the case in past seasons, a .500 record by the cutoff date (including any games played Friday) will automatically qualify a team for the tournament.

This year, however, the NJSIAA has added a bit of a twist to the brackets, and it's created a tricky scenario for Madison to qualify.

If a group contains more than eight teams above the .500 mark, the bracket is automatically expanded to 16 teams and seeded by won-loss record. In this scenario, the .500 standard would not be in effect; the top 16 teams, regardless of record, would be seeded.

Madison's loss Wednesday drops the Dodgers to 7-9 overall. They have a chance to qualify automatically with two games in the next two days (at Hanover Park Thursday, at JP Stevens Friday).

The Dodgers won't have to worry about winning both games to reach a 9-9 record - 11 teams in North 2, Group II are at or above .500 as of Wednesday night, with nine of them assured at least a .500 record by Friday night.

While the Dodgers do appear to control their own qualification destiny, they may need to win at least one game to finish among the top 16 records.

Madison is currently in 14th place with a .438 winning percentage; two wins would bring the Dodgers to .500; two losses would drop Madison to .389; a 1-1 record would leave them at .444.

Parsippany (6-9, .400) and Fort Lee (8-12, .400) are tied for the 16th spot. If Madison lost to both Hanover Park and JP Stevens, therefore, they would likely finish outside the top 16.


NEXT UP
Madison hits the road Thursday afternoon to take on Hanover Park (9-7, 5-2) at Hanover Park High School. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.

Connor Allen (3-1) takes the mound for the Dodgers having won his last two starts, defeating Mendham and Parsippany.

These two teams last played on April 14, when Hanover Park eeked out a 3-1 win at Madison.

The Hornets have scored at least nine runs in five of their last six games, including a 16-6 win over Dover Wednesday.


BOX SCORE
Madison                  0  2  0  2  0  0  1  -  5    6  2
Morris Catholic    2  1  1  0  2  3  x  -  9  14  0
W: Rob Drexel
L: Connor Higgins (2-3)

MADISON (7-9, 2-6)
-Brownlee, 2B         0-4
-Kluge, CF                 0-3
---Wulff, PH            1-1, RBI, 2B
-Hunter, DH            0-3, HBP
-Tracy, 1B                1-4, R, RBI, HR
-Meister, SS             1-3, 2 R, 2B, BB
-Allen, 3B                 2-3, R, 2B
-Wallace, LF            0-2, RBI, BB
-Haughey, RF         1-2, 2 RBI, 2B, BB
-Higgins, P               0-2
---Flanagan, P         0-0, R, BB

-Higgins, SP            4 2/3 IP, 6 R, 5 ER, 11 H, 3 K, 1 BB, 90 pitches (58 strikes)
---Flanagan, RP      1 1/3 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 H, 0 K, 0 BB, 24 pitches (16 strikes)

MORRIS CATHOLIC (10-5, 6-2)
-Drexel, P                  0-4, RBI, SB
-Wood, 2B                 1-4, R, 2B
-Jones, CF                 2-4, R, RBI, 2B, CS
-Bially, SS                 4-4, 3 R, RBI, 2B, SB
-Guarino, LF            2-4, R
-Rogens, RF             1-3, R, 3 RBI, HR, BB
-Gallagher, 3B         1-3, R, 2 RBI, 3B, BB
-Ferrira, LF              1-3, R, SB
-DeAngelis, DH      1-3

-Drexel, SP                6+ IP, 5 R, 5 ER, 6 H, 7 K, 4 BB, 108 pitches (64 strikes)
---Guarino, RP         1   IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 K, 0 BB, 12 pitches (7 strikes)

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