Dragons top JS in baseball playoff opener
LEWISBURG — As Jack Marrara stretched out to lead off first after hitting a grounder sharply up the middle, he looked to his third base coach for the sign. He had the green light. At the release of the next pitch, Marrara was hustling aggressively on to second with a stolen base. That was the attitude Lewisburg wanted play with early.
The Green Dragons jumped out to a 3-0 lead in their first at-bats following Mararra’s stolen base, Sam Rosevear cracked another ball up the middle scoring Marrara and stood on second for Wilson Fisher to hit a bloop single between the first baseman and right fielder. The first inning set the pace for Lewisburg’s afternoon Tuesday as it cruised to a 7-1 win over Jersey Shore and advanced to play at Athens Friday in the District 4 Class AAAA baseball playoffs.
“We got to continue playing Lewisburg ball. We hustled on every pitch, every ground ball, every fly ball.” Lewisburg coach Brian Zysset said about his team’s performance.
Even when Shore batters hit a ball hard, there always seemed to be a green jersey locating the ball and quickly getting the out.
As well as he was hitting the ball, Marrara also came up with many defensive stops commanding the field at shortstop making key plays across the diamond, including two double plays when Shore was looking to gain momentum.
Lewisburg’s early aggressiveness got to Jersey Shore starter Timmy Saar, who gave up two more runs in the second and eventually replaced by Brandon Depasqua after just 1 1/3 innings of work. Although the Dragons were calm and waited for their pitch at the plate, Depasqua held Lewisburg to two runs over five innings and got a great defensive snag from his shortstop, Nate Ewing, which would have been an RBI single from Aaron Hoover in shallow left field.
However, on the very next pitch Rosevear scorched a deep fly ball that one-hopped to the outfield bank in center field. Rosevear found himself hustling around the bases, sliding into third and scoring Andrew Ramirez from first.
“Sam Rosevear did a great job at the plate, we needed that insurance run at the end of the game.” Zysset said. He beamed about Rosevear and Marrara as the guys who got on base and advanced runners. Rosevear and Marrara accounted for four hits, two runs and an RBI.
Jersey Shore could not match the same Lewisburg aggressiveness as it scattered just six of its seven total hits off Lewisburg’s Aaron Hoover. The Bulldogs’ lone run came from Lance Welch on a Mac Griswold RBI single that took a sky high hop off the lip of the infield that towered over second baseman, A.J. Ramirez.
Welch hit a single to right-center and advanced to second after Brandon Depasqua’s foul pop fly took Lewisburg’s right fielder out of play.
The loss eliminated Jersey Shore. As for the Green Dragons, the outlook is to continue to play their ball through the postseason.
“The guys had tremendous effort today. Tomorrow we are going to prepare for Athens,” said Zysset. “They are going to be a tough team. It’s on us to continue doing the fundamentals right.”
Jersey Shore 000 001 0 – 1 8 0
Lewisburg 320 011 x – 7 13 1
Timmy Saar, Brandon Depasqua (2) and Wyatt Lorson. Aaron Hoover, Nick Shedleski (7) and Wilson Fisher. W – Aaron Hoover. L – Timmy Saar.
Top Jersey Shore hitters: Lance Welch 2-3 1 run, Mac Griswold 2-3 1 RBI. Top Lewisburg hitters: Aaron Hoover 2-4 2 RBI, Sam Rosevear 2-4 double triple 1 run 2 RBI, Jack Marrara 2-3 1 run.
Records: Jersey Shore (16-17), Lewisburg (16-17). Next game: Lewisburg vs Athens.
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