MIDDLETOWN — In a game that was, as advertised, a battle between two soon-to-be Division 1 left-handed pitchers, Allentown High’s J.C. Laquara came away as the surprise hero Monday at Walter Woods Field in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Group III Central Final.
Laquara, a senior designated hitter for head coach Brian Nice’s fourth-seeded club, led off the top of the seventh inning against third-seeded Middletown South in a tie ball game.
Heading into that at-bat, Laquara had had the Redbirds’ first hit of the game, a second-inning single. It was one of only two A’town hits against Seton Hall-bound senior southpaw Mason Christopher through six innings of play.
Then Laquara leaned into one. The left-handed swinger sent a ball deep into right field on which outfielder Jack Concordia made a diving effort to get back to the ball, only to see it hit off his glove and bounce away.
Before the ball could be located, Laquara chugged around the bases to score the first of two runs that inning, then NJIT-bound lefty Eddie Werse closed out a gutsy performance to give Allentown a 3-1 victory over head coach Jeff Karpell’s Eagles.
With their first sectional crown in six years, the 20-8 Redbirds advance to play in Wednesday’s Group III state semifinal at South Jersey champion Delsea in Franklinville, the time to be announced. The 26-3 Crusaders defeated Shawnee Monday, 4-1, in the SJ III Final.
“My first at-bat, I hit a fastball up the middle. My next time up, he struck me out with off speed, so my last at-bat, I moved up on the plate, figuring he would try to get me with a curveball,” Randolph-Macon College-bound Laquara said. “When he came at me with another fastball, I turned on it and knew it was deep. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but my coaches kept waving me on. I kept running, but I was very confused.”
He wasn’t the only one.
“I saw J.C. running like crazy around the bases, and I couldn’t have been happier for him,” Nice said. “He has been grinding all year without as much success as he would have liked. That was a great moment for him.”
“J.C. hitting an inside-the-park home run, no one expected that,” his classmate Werse said. “We were going nuts in the dugout.”
After working hard to get back in the game it trailed against Christopher, the excited Redbirds were not about to settle. No-9 hitting sophom*ore Anthony O’Rourke drew a one-out walk in the top of the seventh, then Max Kleinz grounded out to second base, advancing the runner.
At that point, Karpell lifted Christopher after he reached his full allotment of pitches, and saw reliever Dan Daley get Grant Howlett to hit a ball toward left fielder Mike Frandsen. But the ball was right in line with the blinding sun. It hit Frandsen in the glove and face and dropped in as O’Rourke came around to score an insurance run.
Middletown South (21-7) had taken the lead in the second inning when Brody Tacca singled in Joey Massagli. With two outs and Tacca on second base after a stolen base, Frandsen singled, but left fielder Howlett threw out Tacca at the plate to keep the lead at 1-0
Even though the Eagles got runners in scoring position each of the next four innings, the score stayed that way until A’town scored an unearned run in the top of the fifth. O’Rourke reached on a two-out error, stole second base, then scored on a single to center field by Kleinz, just his team’s second hit.
Werse had been under the watchful eyes of his coaches since surrendering a leadoff double to Lou D’Alessio in the fifth inning after escaping a bases-loaded jam in the fourth. But the crafty veteran stranded a runner at second base in the third, D’Alessio at third base in the fifth, plus runners at second and third in the fourth and sixth.
His pitch count had grown to 96 pitches heading into the final frame, yet he had no intentions of leaving the game.
“No one was going to take the rock from me,” Werse said. “No way. Not today.”
Werse caught D’Alessio looking at a called third strike to start the bottom of the seventh. There was a little more concern when Brevin Bezick followed with a walk.
“Dom Inzilla’s great play at short(stop) really helped me,” Werse said.
Mid South cleanup-hitting catcher Andrew Marquis hit a ball into the hole, on which junior Inzilla made a backhand stab and an equally impressive throw to second base to force out the lead runner.
From there, Werse went back to work, striking out Massagli (two hits) to end the game on his 109th pitch. That was Werse’s 10th strikeout on the day, compared to nine for Christopher.
“He battled today just like I did,” Werse said of Christopher, whom he might very well meet in college games down the line. “He made it to the final out, and he worked really hard to get to that point. Props to him.”
The biggest props of the game, however, went to No. 7 hitter Laquara, whose inside-the-park homer in the seventh inning changed the game into the Redbirds’ favor.
Allentown (20-8) 000 010 2 — 3 4 1
MiddletownS(21-7) 010 000 0 — 1 8 2
2B: Howlett (A), D’Alessio (H); HR: Laquara (A); RBIs: Kleinz, Howlett, Laquara (A), Tacca (MS).
WP — Werse (7-1); LP — Christopher (6-2).
