Lights Out: CBA, Don Bosco Forced to Resume State Final on Thursday

HAMILTON TWP. — Not many high school baseball games end with fans of both teams booing in the general direction of the field, but that is how the night ended Wednesday at Veterans Park at the NJSIAA Non-Public A championship game.

Then again, the game did not technically end.

Christian Brothers Academy and Don Bosco were locked in a 4-4 tie through eight completed innings when the NJSIAA, umpire crew and both teams agreed to suspend the game due to a Hamilton Township ordinance that requires the lights at Veterans Park be turned off by 11 p.m. The game will resume at the start of the ninth inning Thursday, 3 p.m. back at Veterans Park.

“It really never happened before,” NJSIAA Baseball Tournament Director Tony Maselli said. “It was really for the safety of the fans. Once the lights go out, you can’t see anything in the park.”

According to Maselli, the lights were scheduled to shut off at 11 p.m., but the NJSIAA was granted an extension until 11:30 p.m. The game was suspended shortly after 10:30 p.m. to make sure the crowd could evacuate the park before the lights were turned off, with the coaches and umpires also preferring not to start an inning they could not complete.

“We got it extended to 11:30,” Maselli said. “That would be great if I knew we would get it in, but once these lights go out, it is pitch-black out there. There is no way for me to safely get a thousand people out of here without any lights. So, we had to come up with a breaking point and since that (eighth) inning went a little longer than we expected, we had to stop the game.”

“(Don Bosco) Coach (Mike) Rooney and I were talking and we’re wondering, ‘How is this not told to us before the game?,'” CBA coach Marty Kenney Jr. said. “They said they never encountered this before, but we’re only talking about a three-and-a-half hour game. It’s not like we went eleven innings. We went eight. It wasn’t like there was a ton of hitting going on or anything like that, so I just can’t believe we didn’t know about this beforehand. I don’t know how you schedule a game for seven o’clock at night if you’ve got a curfew like this, and with a drop-dead time too.

“People have to be able to get out of here safely and I totally get it, but then you can’t start the game at seven o’clock. It’s hard to believe this has never happened before, because this isn’t an extraordinarily long game.”

Both CBA and Don Bosco were on their third pitcher of the game when the game was suspended, but only CBA senior Shane Langan is eligible to continue pitching on Thursday. Per NJSIAA rule, in a suspended tournament game that is continued the following day, pitchers who have thrown 50 pitches or fewer in the game and are still eligible by normal baseball substitution and re-entry rules may pitch when play is resumed.

Despite Langan’s eligibility, Kenney Jr. was not comfortable with the idea of running Langan back out to the mound for the ninth inning on Wednesday after the senior threw 43 pitches in 2 1/3 impressive innings on Wednesday.

“Forty-three is a lot of pitches,” Kenney Jr. said. “It’s going to take a lot of convincing for me to put him back out there. There is a career after this for him. I’m having to think about it so quickly, but I’d say right now, probably night.”

Langan entered the game with runners on second and third and two out in the bottom of the sixth inning and fired three fastballs to the glove of senior catcher Danny Tsimbinos for an inning-ending strikeout, which kept the score tied, 4-4.

After CBA came up empty against Don Bosco right-hander Nicky Gilpin in the top of the seventh, Langan struck out the side in order in the bottom of the inning to move the game into extra innings while he punched out the first four batters he faced.

Gilpin countered with a one-two-three inning of his own and Don Bosco mounted a threat against Langan in the bottom of the eighth when Langan hit catcher Chase Bagley and walked leftfielder Mike Hanna on consecutive batters with one out. That brought University of Virginia commit and shortstop Nick Becker — a potential day-one selection in July’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft — to the plate with a chance to win the game with a base hit. Becker set off early fireworks with a two-run home run that opened the scoring in the first inning.

Langan, however, was up for the challenge. He got ahead, 0-2, with a pair of elevated fastballs that Becker swung through and on the fourth pitch of the at-bat, Langan froze the N.J. Gatorade Player of the Year with a pitch on the lower-outside corner for strike three and the second out. The CBA senior then struck out clean-up hitter Junzen Sarza to end the threat, the eighth inning and the night of baseball at DeMeo Field.

Langan entered Wednesday with a 0.81 ERA and 39 strikeouts against seven walks in 17 1/3 innings this season — all as a reliever.

“We just laugh about it,” Kenney Jr. said of Langan’s dominance — both on Wednesday and throughout his senior season. “He comes in and gets the strikeout right away, but then he gets in a pressure situation with Becker and you’re like (oh, no). He just steps up again. It’s almost comical. I don’t have any words for it. It’s not just the strikeouts; it’s the lack of contact. They just don’t see the ball off of him. It’s not like he is throwing 96. It’s a quick arm action, he spins it pretty will, but it just gets on you and guys have a tough time with it, obviously.”

After falling behind, 2-0, on Becker’s home run off CBA junior starter Dylan Iwanynk, the Colts scored three runs in the top of the sixth without a hit thanks to three Don Bosco errors. The Ironmen tied the game with an unearned run in the bottom of the fourth and took the 4-3. lead in the fifth on another error with two out in the inning.

CBA’s game-tying run in the top of the sixth was also unearned, but it was forced by some inspired base-running by senior Justin Feurbacher. After senior third baseman Dan Russo chopped a single into leftfield leading off the inning, Feurbacher was summoned to pinch run and stole second base. He then darted to third on a chopped to the left side, scooting into third just ahead of Becker’s shovel to Sarza on the bag.

That gave junior Jayden Matejicka an infield single and set CBA up with runners on the corners and none out. Gilpin got a key strikeout, but Matejicka stole second base and when the throw from Bagley got away from the bag, Feurbacher broke for home and scored without a throw, tying the game, 4-4.

Iwanyk and fellow junior Danny DiTullio combined to cover the first 5 2/3 innings prior to Langan’s entry into the game, with Iwanyk going 3 2/3 and DiTullio pitching two before passing the ball to Langan. Don Bosco, meanwhile, went to the bullpen with none out in the top of the second when senior left-hander Anthony Costello exited the game with an apparent injury. The Ironmen went to senior Dylan Henshaw for four innings before Gilpin took over for the next three.

Both teams have standout juniors available to pitch a full pitching slate tomorrow, with Don Bosco keeping right-hander and Virginia Tech commit Ethan Lee available and CBA also holding back Virginia commit and left-hander Sean Loggie. Kenney Jr. also said senior Jack Dufficy could get the ball when the game restarts on Thursday afternoon at Veterans Park.

“We’ll talk to them and make a decision,” Kenney Jr. said of Loggie and Dufficy. “It will probably be one of those two.”