Steinert eliminated
HAMILTON >> Brian Giallella offered no excuse, passed no buck and assigned no blame.
To his credit, Giallella stood up and took the bullet for his 2nd-seeded Steinert baseball team after a 4-3 loss to 7th-seeded Jackson Liberty in a NJSIAA Group III Central quarterfinals Friday.
It marked the third straight season that the Spartans (226) have failed to get past the second round despite being a top-two seed each year.
“I’ve got to do a better job, obviously, of getting us ready to play in this game,” Giallella said. “Once you get in this round, anything can happen.”
Steinert scored three firstinning runs but did not tack on as it got just two hits over the final six innings.
“I thought we would have better at-bats after that first inning because we had really good ones to start the game,” Giallella said. “Their guy got better, and like I said, I think we have to do a better job and prepare better for the games. We’re a high seed and it seems like we get bumped out, and that’s on me.”
The Spartans faced sophomore Kevin Ritz, who was 4-1 with a 5.10 ERA and making his first state tournament start. He looked like a newbie in the first, opening with walks to Ryan Mostrangeli and Joey Sacco.
Mostrangeli got caught stealing, which cost Steinert at least one run. CJ Pittaro was hit by a pitch with two outs and Jake Beyer’s RBI single resulted in an outfield error that allowed a second run to score. A throwing error on Alex Coleman’s infield single let Muller to score.
From that point, Ritz became a different pitcher, allowing one hit over the next four frames.
“It was just the first inning yips,” Ritz said. “I came out there, I was like ‘We gotta do a job’ and I was choking it. I talked to somebody out there, one of my good friends, and he told me to ‘Bear down, settle in, do your job’ and that’s what I did.”
Indeed, he did not crumble under duress.
“That’s kind of been my whole life pitching,” Ritz said. “I’m a bulldog. Whatever happens I’ll just get through it and do whatever I gotta do to help my team.”
As Ritz settled in, the Lions (17-9) took advantage in the third inning, getting an RBI single from David Melfi and putting runners on first and third with no outs. Ryan Meszaros appeared ready to escape more damage when he got a pop out and strikeout, but Rich Dordas hit a runscoring double and Conner Keenan hit a two-run double for the game’s decisive runs.
Giallella turned to Sean Johnson after a leadoff single in the fourth, and the lefty threw four scoreless innings of one-hit ball.
“He did a great job,” Giallella said. “He told us ‘They’re not going to score any runs on me.’ They didn’t, but we had to put one on the board.”
They appeared ready to in the sixth by putting runners on first-and second with one out. But junior Matt Pickus entered to record the final five outs. It was Pickus’ third save to go along with a 6-3 record.
“He’s just a great pitcher and a great friend,” Ritz said. “You can’t ask for more than our number one guy. He came in and did his job. I was happy to turn it over to him.”
Unfortunately for the Spartans, they are unhappy to turn what they feel is a premature page to next season.
“It’s a disappointing year unless you win the last game,” Giallella said. “That’s our goal every year. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, and we’ll get back at it next year.”