Pascack Hills baseball dethrones Ramsey to win sectional championship
MONTVALE − Joey Giordano and Pascack Hills had to knock off the defending champion to earn the crown, and they proved title-worthy.
Giordano threw a four-hitter and the Broncos produced enough offense to win the North 1, Group 2 baseball title with Friday's 3-1 victory over Ramsey.
“This did need to go through Ramsey,” Pascack Hills coach Nick Evans said, “because this was their section, and they’re a [heck] of a team over there.”
Giordano's pitching line: Seven innings, four hits (three of them singles), two walks, and eight strikeouts. The junior left-hander threw 99 pitches.
Pascack Hills (20-7) scored twice in the second inning for a 2-0 lead. Junior Ronin Stern drove in two runs with a double off the fence in right.
The Broncos extended their lead to 3-1 in the third. Senior Sean Busanic's two-out single to center drove in senior Dom Musco, who led off with a walk, stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch.
Junior William Kirk led Ramsey (18-8-1) to last year's Group 2 state title and was again exceptional. The first baseman went 3 for 3 and drove in the Rams' run in the third with a two-out single to center. The team's only other hit was a bunt single.
“[Giordano] pitched a terrific game,” Ramsey coach Paul Urbanovich said. “Hats off to Giordano. He had us off balance pretty much the entire game and we couldn’t get anything going offensively, and that was obviously the difference in the game.”
What it means
Pascack Hills owns a seven-game winning streak and will host the North 2, Group 2 titlist, Hanover Park, in an NJSIAA Group 2 semifinal at 4 p.m. Monday. The Broncos won back-to-back state titles in 2018 and 2019, with the 2020 spring season cancelled by the pandemic.
Key inning
Stern is Pascack Hills’ No. 9 hitter and his two-run double off the fence in right in the second was his biggest hit of the season and provided the critical 2-0 lead.
Stern drove in junior Matt Tortora, who led off with a double to left-center, and senior Will Aschenbrand, who was hit by a pitch with one out. Stern’s brother, Ari, the No. 8 hitter, walked to load the bases.
“We struck first, it’s always good to strike first and help your pitcher out and give him a little cushion,” Ronin Stern said.
By the numbers
Giordano’s 21 outs came via eight strikeouts, seven fly balls and five grounders, with one Ramsey runner thrown out on the bases. He struck out the side looking in the second, and he had at least one strikeout in each of the final four innings, ending it on a strikeout.
“I just tried to get ahead,” Giordano said. “There were a lot of fastball counts that I mixed in off-speed, and a lot of teams aren’t used to seeing that.”
“He was special,” Evans said. “He filled it up. He had command of three pitches. He wasn’t scared of anybody in their lineup, Kirk included. He’s another kid who has embraced the challenge.”
Kirk’s three hits came on a first-inning infield chopper, the third-inning RBI single to center, and a sixth-inning double to right. The left-hander drove in sophomore Nate McLaughlin, who reached on a well-placed bunt between the mound and first base.
They said it
“Give our kids a lot of credit,” Evans said. “Week after week, especially since the state tournament has started, we’ve embraced and accepted every challenge."
“There were a lot of eyes on us this year,” Urbanovich said, “and I thought we competed all the way to the end.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Pascack Hills NJ baseball dethrones Ramsey for sectional title
