BOGOTA – The young Bogota High School baseball squad fell to Waldwick, 10-4 on Tuesday afternoon. A six-run sixth inning turned out to be the difference in the game, but the Bucs entered that inning in a 4-4 deadlock with the Warriors and had a lot of positives to take away from the game.
Bogota fell behind, 4-0, when they came to bat in the top of the third, struggling to solve Waldwick starting pitcher Connor Walsh. However, the Bucs continued to battle at the plate and brought home a couple of runs on an RBI-groundout by catcher Joe Mitchell and a solid RBI-single by Niko Callabia.
“That’s our main philosophy as a team,” said head coach Dan Limone. “We’re coming in a little bit low after last season when we were 7-17, we have a lot of freshman on our team. The only way we are going to stay in games is if we don’t quit. They have been following that philosophy for the most part and it has helped us, but now we have to get over the hump.”
The Bucs ran wild on Walsh all game long, stealing more than 10 bases, and the strategy was directly responsible for their final two runs.
Third baseman Carlos Ovalle drew a one-out walk in the fourth and stole second and third base before being brought home on a sacrifice fly by Aaron Lewis. In the fifth, center fielder Michael Gioiosa led off with a walk and then stole two bases before being brought in on an RBI-groundout by Alan Albino. The game was all tied up heading into the sixth.
“It’s the kind of thing you just pick up on after the first inning or two,” explained Limone. “He wasn’t using the slide step, he was just using the high leg kick and that’s when you just have to run.”
Led by Brian Nitsche, Joe Simeone and James Moran, the Warriors pulled away in the sixth inning, scoring six runs to break open the game. Despite falling behind, the Bucs continued to fight hard and even loaded the bases in the seventh inning, but they could not push anymore runs across. It was a tough loss for the team, but another learning tool for a very young team learning to play together.
“Our young players are some of our better player,” said Limone. “So I treat them as if they are juniors and seniors and I do expect a lot out from them. I try to treat all of the players the same no matter how old they are.”
Bogota heads back onto the field two more times this week, as they traveled up to Cresskill on Thursday before coming home to host Wallington on Friday.
