Greg Tartaglia – Record Sports Department
NUTLEY – St. Mary left fielder Greg Dahl caught the ball that retired the leadoff batter in the top of the first.
Joey Castellanos led off the home half of the inning with a walk and came around to score the run that got the Gaels on the scoreboard first.
The two Nutley residents made themselves right at home early in Wednesday’s North Non-Public B baseball final at Tangorra Field. Then things unraveled for No. 2 seed St. Mary in an error-filled top of the third, which gave No. 4 Newark Academy a three-run lead on its way to a 6-4 victory.
The game originally was scheduled to be played Tuesday at Ramapo College in Mahwah but was postponed due to poor field conditions. The site change was not confirmed until early Wednesday morning.
“A lot of them were fired up because it was at Nutley; I think we have four or five guys from there,” Gaels coach Dennis Hulse said. “It’s going to hurt for a while, this one, as they all do when the season ends.”
St. Mary finished 22-8, marking the fourth consecutive 20-win season for members of the senior class.
“Our seniors had a combined 89 wins in four years, and three or four of them were four-year starters,” Hulse said. “That’s probably the most in school history for a senior class.”
Newark Academy (18-9), which advanced to Saturday’s state final versus Gloucester Catholic in Toms River, eliminated the Gaels for the second time in three seasons. The teams’ last meetings in the North Non-Public B title game came in 2011, a 5-4 Minuteman victory.
Wednesday’s contest turned after the Livingston school opened the third inning with back-to-back singles. Aman Patil then put down a sacrifice bunt, and the throw pulled the first baseman off the bag just long enough for Patil to sneak in safely and load the bases.
An RBI single by winning pitcher Matt Ciccone (6-3) tied it, 1-1, and two more errors led to three more Newark Academy runs.
St. Mary got one back in the home third when Castellanos doubled to right and a misplay by the fielder allowed Manny Andujar to score.
Gaels starter Kenny Quijano (4-4) permitted only one earned run in his three innings before being relieved by older brother Chris. The formula had worked in the sectional quarterfinals, a 2-1 win over Morristown-Beard, but the patient Minutemen drew four walks in the top of the fourth and added two runs.
“Chris came on in relief – he’s not really used to that, but I don’t know if that had any effect on him,” Hulse said. “We thought if we held them to four runs the rest of the game, we were going to win. And sure enough, we did get to four runs.”
Chris Quijano settled in to retire the last 11 batters he faced. Ben Diaz’s RBI single to score Castellanos plated the third St. Mary run in the fifth and helped push Ciccone over 100 pitches. The right-hander exited after allowing three runs on seven hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.
Ryan Watson’s solo homer off closer Lucas Rich in the sixth cut the margin to two, but Rich did not allow another hit on his way to the two-inning save.
“They were the better team [Wednesday],” Hulse said of Newark Academy. “We didn’t make any plays. They made plays, it’s as simple as that.”
