BCCA Baseball: After further review....

With a little help from the weatherman, a last-minute friendly AD and some superior groundskeeping, the Round of 16 in the Bergen County baseball tournament is in the books. 

I was in Demarest for the three games, and you can read the story in Sunday's edition of The Record.  Check out below for some further insights on the trio of contests.

But first, here's today's results:

(1) Don Bosco 6, (17) Rutherford 1

(2) St. Joseph 6, (15) Indian Hills 3

(3) Old Tappan 1, (14) Teaneck 0

(4) Ramapo 8, (20) Cresskill 2

(5) Lyndhurst 4, (21) Elmwood Park 0

(22) Paramus 5, (6) Dumont 4 (9 innings)

(7) Ramsey 9, (10) River Dell 3

(8) New Milford 9, (9) Westwood 5

As for the Demarest Three, we'll take them in order, but first, a big shout out to the Greg Butler, Jerry Emison, Mike Carcich and the rest of the guys.  Beginning before 9:00 a.m., they worked the field into shape, allowing for the tripleheader to start only 28 minutes behind schedule.  Even Ramsey head coach Bill Chesney was impressed with the effort.  When his team arrived about 11:00, he didn't think they'd be playing baseball, but he was glad they did in the end.

Ramsey showed its mettle against River Dell, finally solving the early craftiness of Hawk sophomore Dave Powell.  Making his first varsity start after moving up from the junior varsity two weeks ago (he made two appearances, 4.3 innings, 1 unearned run before Saturday), he showed poise while doing his best to paint the outside black down and away.

Ramsey was equally poised, and when they got to the second time around the order, they were patient and waited for Powell to have to come back over the dish.  The five-run third inning all but doomed River Dell.

Casey Ruel drove in three for the Rams, two in the fifth on his second single.  They had a chance to end it in the sixth, up 9-0 with a man on second with one out, but A.J. Meccia got the last two outs.  The Hawks then put three runs up in the seventh to avert the goose egg.

The middle game was a bit more dramatic than expected by most.  Indian Hills put a scare into St. Joseph and Brendan Lobban, taking a 3-0 lead that could have been more in the second inning.  The Braves were sitting back and waiting for the fastball, and in the first two innings they were on it.

Justin Van Groww stunned Lobban with a leadoff home run to left.  The next batter, Chris Turton, then hit a monster shot that was a good two-thirds up the trees in left, but was only inches foul.  Lobban got him on strikes, only to see Jake Hansen drive another one over the left field fence, this one fair.

Pitcher Ryan Furbeck helped his cause with an RBI single, but he gave it all back in the bottom of the second when the Green Knights scored three times without the benefit of a hit.

The dreaded leadoff walk, to Pat Kivlehan, started the frame.  Kevin White hit a comebacker to Furbeck, but he threw low to second and everyone was safe.  A sacrifice moved the runners up and Kevin Ferguson plated the first run with a sacrifice fly.

Joe Jimenez was hit by a pitch, and a passed ball moved pinch runner Dylan White and Jimenez up a base.  Furbeck then wild pitched White home, then walked David Wood and Brian Bullard to load the sacks.  Another wild pitch brought Jimenez in with the tying run.

Lobban, given a reprieve, settled in.  After throwing 48 pitches in the first two innings, he allowed only three hits over the last five innings, using 127 pitches in the complete game effort.  It wasn't pretty (6 walks, a hit batter, 6 hits, 5 strikeouts), but it was good enough.

St. Joe's got the lead runs in the fifth, and again it was Kivlehan starting it with a walk.  Kevin White singled and Alex Aitkens singled in the go-ahead tally.  Ferguson had an RBI hit and David Wood added the final run on a single.

The nightcap became intriguing when Don Bosco committed an error on the first batter of the game.  That lead to a Frank Isola RBI single and a 1-0 Bulldog lead.  It was only the second time in 23 games that the Ironmen have trailed.

The Rutherford lead lasted until the bottom of the second, when Bosco dropped five on the scoreboard.  It looked as though the expected rout was underway, but give full credit to Jim McCann, who shut the door on the Ironmen.

He came in after Steve Proscia's two-run double made it 5-1.  He got a strikeout to end the inning, and save for Anthony Gomez' fourth inning RBI single. he made the key pitches to keep Bosco from adding to the scoring.

McCann went 4 1/3 innings, allowing six hits and the single run without walking a batter.  Sure, he came in down four runs and the Bulldogs never got it closer, but how many times has that stopped Don Bosco from burying a team via the mercy rule?

On the opposite side, Mike Dennhardt was brilliant.  Even with the first inning unearned run (he has yet to allow an earned run this season), he was pinpointing his spots.  He used 73 pitches (51 for strikes), and was at 54 pitches through six innings.  He allowed only the one hit, walked two and struck out 11, including the side in the second and the seventh.

All season, the word has been the only way to beat Bosco is to get a magnificently pitched game.  McCann showed it could actually happen, but Dennhardt proved that just keeping the Ironmen down doesn't mean a victory.

As for the other games, Paramus continued to validate the committee's decision to go to 24 teams in this year's tournament.  Remember, this was the largest field in history, and there was plenty of debate over the final five teams in the field.

Three of those teams, Cresskill, Elmwood Park and Paramus, all won last Wednesday, and the Spartans are now a quarterfinalist thanks to their extra-inning win over Dumont.  It spells PARITY, which is what this season, save for Don Bosco and St. Joseph, is all about.  Anyone can beat anyone else, and that proved out in the first two rounds.

Also, the change to the three-week format, which split the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals, has given the smaller schools a chance to prove their worth.  In the final eight are two Group 1 schools (Lyndhurst and New Milford) and Group 2 Ramsey.

It should be a fun quarterfinal next week. The Paramus-Old Tappan game could be the best of the lot, though the Lyndhurst-Ramapo meeting also has some juice.