South Orange Falls in First Tourney Game

The South Orange American Junior American Legion team received a tough draw in the opening round of the District 1 Tournament. The Cougars were handed the task of playing defending state champion Denville on Saturday night. For a brief time, it looked like the Cougars were in position to perhaps pull a jarring upset.

South Orange fell behind 7-0 at Gardner Field in Denville, but scored five runs in the fifth to pull within two runs before losing 11-5. South Orange will play Sparta in the double-elimination tournament Sunday at the same field at 11:30 a.m.
"They showed a lot of heart, battled back with five runs and made a whole new ballgame right there,'' said South Orange coach Chris Henry. "Once we got a couple of guys on we put a little pressure on their defense and had an opportunity there. But we gave a couple of runs back and the guy they brought in at the end threw pretty well.''

Power is what got South Orange back into the game.

South Orange wasn't just behind 7-0 as the fifth inning began, but hadn't even managed a hit. But Sean Tamayo opened the inning with a sharp single, Jake Pomper followed with another single and Russ Levine was hit by a pitch. Mark Donatelli drove in the first run one with a single, and another run came home on an error. Chris Auriemma's groundout scored another run to pull South Orange to within 7-3. Brandon Spears, who'll be a sophomore at Columbia High this year, then blasted a two-run homer over the left-center field fence and South Orange was behind just 7-5.

Spears's homer was the team's first of the season. Spears just missed hitting a homer last week in a victory over Montclair. But that was using a wooden bat. The players use metal bats at the district tournament.

"The last game I hit one with a wood bat that was close to the fence,'' Spears said. "We were saying that once we went to metal bats we'd see what we would do. Today I got a nice pitch, I grooved it and luckily it went over the fence. When I took the pitch I got a ball, I thought he'd come back with a fastball, so I sat back on it and I just grooved it.''

Unfortunately, the groove didn't last into the bottom of the inning. Rob Hansen opened the inning with a ground rule double and C.J. Abrahamson singled before Pat Shapiro clubbed a two-run double to extend the Denville lead to 9-5.

"A lot can happen when you use metal bats,'' said Henry. "I thought our guys hit the ball hard, they just made the plays. I'm proud of these guys. They did a great job. I thought we held our own.''

Henry thought his team might have been understandably nervous early on. Denville took advantage of a couple of first-inning errors to take a 2-0 lead, then extended the cushion to 6-0 in the third on RBI hits by Abrahamson and Mike Reggiani. The inning ended with South Orange shortstop Pomper making a pretty scoop and throw to first baseman Donatelli. The Cougars also successfully completed a long run-down play in the fourth inning. Pitcher Ross Levine caught Jackson Baird off first after Baird had singled home a run. Several South Orange players were involved in the run-down before. Tamayo, playing right field, hustled in to make the tag.