Clearview edges Rancocas Valley in Group 4 baseball
New day. New field. Old approach. Old result. "We had to get back to the way we played previous games," Clearview coach Rocco Cornacchia said after his team's weather-delayed, 7-6 victory over Rancocas Valley on Tuesday in the first round of the South Jersey Group 4 baseball tournament.
New day. New field.
Old approach. Old result.
"We had to get back to the way we played previous games," Clearview coach Rocco Cornacchia said after his team's weather-delayed, 7-6 victory over Rancocas Valley on Tuesday in the first round of the South Jersey Group 4 baseball tournament.
Junior shortstop Tim Dezzi delivered the game-winning hit with an RBI double in the bottom of the sixth and senior lefthander Kenny Mendoza earned the pitching victory with two innings of scoreless relief for top-seeded Clearview (17-4-1).
Kwan Jones hit two doubles for 16th-seeded Rancocas Valley (11-8).
"I couldn't be prouder of my guys," Rancocas Valley coach Dave Hower said. "They came here and they fought. That's all I can ask."
The game started Monday and the teams were tied 6-6 with one out in the top of the sixth inning when lightning chased both squads off the field and forced a 24-hour delay before the continuation of the playoff opener Tuesday.
"That was weird," said Dezzi, a St. John's recruit. "We didn't play that well [Monday] and we wanted to get back out here."
Mendoza faced one batter in the top of the sixth Monday. He took the mound again to resume the game Tuesday.
"I was just treating it like a start," Mendoza said. "We needed to get this one."
Cornacchia said the wait was "nerve-racking to say the least" as the members of the top-seeded Pioneers knew they probably were one mistake away from losing in the first round and putting a serious damper on what has been a special season.
"I told the kids, 'Three No. 1s lost yesterday, let's not be the fourth,' " Cornacchia said.
Heavy rain on Monday night rendered Clearview's varsity field unfit for a game Tuesday. So the continuation of the playoff game was moved to the junior-varsity field, forcing the squads to go over the ground rules for the second time in two days.
"The whole situation was different," Mendoza said. "We just had to stay focused and find a way to get this one."
Mendoza faced six batters on Tuesday and struck out three. He allowed one base runner, on an infield error.
He struck out the final two, the last on an 89-mph fastball with a scout from the Baltimore Orioles watching him from behind the backstop.
"He's tough," Hower said of Mendoza, a Campbell University recruit.
Clearview broke the 6-6 tie with a run in the bottom of the sixth as Eric Lauk singled, stole second, and scored on Dezzi's two-strike liner to right-center for an RBI double.
"With Eric on second, I was just trying to go the other way," Dezzi said.
The victory was Clearview's 11th in the last 12 games, and seemed comfortably familiar to the Pioneers' veteran coach.
"We looked like ourselves again today," Cornacchia said.
Rancocas Valley 000 420 0 - 6 8 1
Clearview 110 221 x - 7 9 3
WP: Kenny Mendoza. LP: Liam Sullivan.
2B: RV-Kwan Jones 2. C-Tim Dezzi 2, Mike Decker.
@PhilAnastasia
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