Passaic County Baseball
The Passaic County High School Baseball tournament has been in full swing. We reach the quarterfinals this Saturday, May 3. Let us look at the four matchups that will take place this weekend and see who advanced to the Passaic County Tournament semifinals.
No. 8 Passaic Tech vs. No. 1 DePaul
DePaul: The number one seed in the tournament comes in at 10-6 on the season. As a team they are batting .307 on the season. Junior infielder J.C. Pacheco has been on fire this season, batting 468 with seven home runs and 24 RBI. Including him, DePaul has four players batting over .370 for the year. Talk about a big four lineup in Pacheco, Derek Brand, Jason Amalbert, and Shane Patten. Defensively, they have a 3.38 ERA as a team. DePaul comes into the game with 60 quality power points.
Passaic Tech: The Bulldogs play against Wayne Hills on Friday, but as of now, they sit with a 9-10 record. They are though 7-1 in Big North play and have won four in a row leading into the weekend. Will they make five straight heading into the quarterfinal game, that is yet to be determined. As a team they are batting .327 with 108 runs scored. Defensively, they have a 4.48 ERA with 123 runs allowed. Passaic Tech has 54 quality power points.
The only time these two teams met this season, DePaul beat them in only five innings by a score of 17-1. The Bulldogs are coming into this game on a hot streak; they will need to keep the fire lit if they want any shot of beating DePaul to advance in the Passaic County tournament.
Almabert powered DePaul Catholic's offense as he hit a pair of home runs and drove in five runs to give the Spartans the 9-1 victory over Passaic Tech.
No. 5 Passaic Valley vs. No. 4 Lakeland
Lakeland: They come into this game at 10-5 on the year and 6-4 in the Big North. They are batting .284 on the season as a team with three players that stand out in Senior Xavier Diaz, who is batting .378. Sophomore Mickey Gilligan, who is batting .372, and Junior Anthony Nyhuis, who is batting .350. They have been great defensively, only allowing a 1.97 ERA with 47 runs allowed on the season. They have 54 quality power points this season.
Passaic Valley: They come into this game at 10-6 on the season and 5-4 in the Big North. As a team they are batting .262 on the year with 95 runs on the season. Eric Allmendinger and Mike Romano have been the standouts of the season, batting .364 and .362 on the season. They have a 3.87 ERA on the season with 83 runs allowed. Passaic Valley has 60 quality power points this year.
Passaic Valley beat West Milford in the last round 9-3 to get here, these teams have faced off twice splitting those games. Lakeland won the first game 8-3, while Passaic Valley won the next game 5-4. Two evenly matched teams face off in a rubber match to see who can advance to the Passaic County tournament semifinals.
The game was a pitcher's duel as starters Matt Nicholson and Jake Delaney combined to allow five hits and each struck out nine batters. Tyler Lynn drove in two runs, which turned out to be the difference as the Lancers pulled out a 3-1 victory.
No. 6 Passaic vs. No. 3 Pompton Lakes
Pompton Lakes: The Cardinals come into this game with an impressive 13-2 record on the season. Having won nine in a row up to this point. They are batting .332 as a team with 118 runs on the season. They have six players who are batting over .300 in the season with a minimum of 35 plate appearances. Junior Vinnie Stigliano is batting .438 with 22 RBI; he also has 9 stolen bases. They have a 2.18 ERA as a team with 37 runs allowed. They have 78 quality power points in the year.
Passaic: Passaic is 12-3 on the year and is 9-1 in the Big North. They have won six games in a row coming into this game. They are batting .318 as a team with 146 runs on the season. They also have six players batting over 300 with a minimum of 40 plate appearances. Junior Andy Rodriguez is batting 429 with 21 stolen bases, while Freshman Randis Rosario is batting .463 with 22 stolen bases and 10 doubles this year. They have a 3.54 ERA as a team, with 62 runs allowed. Passaic has 72 quality power points this season.
These are two high-octane offenses that are ready to explode in this, as it will come down to the pitching to limit each other’s offenses. Pompton Lakes has done a good job doing that all season. Passaic defeated Hawthorne 11-1 to make it to the Passaic County quarterfinals.
Stigliano pitched a gem as he only allowed three hits in five innings of work as the Cardinals beat Passaic 5-1 to advance to the Passaic County Tournament semifinals.
No. 7 Wayne Valley vs No. 2 Wayne Hills
Wayne Hills: Wayne Hills comes into this game with a 12-4 record and 6-2 in the Big North. They are batting .345 as a team with 93 runs this season. Senior Dean Qira is batting an insane .510 with 49 plate appearances. Juniors Casey Baratta and Max De Lagarde are both batting over .400, with Baratta nearly at .500 batting .490 this year. They have a 2.29 ERA, giving up 73 runs this year. Wayne Hills has 72 quality power points.
Wayne Valley: Wayne Valley comes in at 8-7 as they are 4-6 in the Big North. Junior Christian Varano, Senior Jacob Gonzalez, and Freshman Nick Erminio are all batting over .400 this year for the team. As a team, they are batting .310 with 94 runs. They have a 2.97 ERA, giving up 70 runs this season. Wayne Valley has 48 quality power points heading into the Passaic County quarterfinals.
It is the battle of Wayne, a big deal in Passaic County. Wayne Hills beat Valley this season twice, winning both games 4-3 and 9-6. Valley will have a chance for redemption or will Hills complete the sweep? Both teams’ pitching has been good this year, and the previous games were close.
Wayne Valley pulled off the upset as the Indians scored four runs in the fifth inning to give them the 4-3 victory over rival Wayne Hills.
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