Pine Crest Rides Long Ball To District Victory

It’s very easy for Pine Crest Manager Glen Pierson to be excited about his team this year.

Thursday’s 12-2 victory over Somerset offered a good reason for such happiness, as the team played near-flawless baseball across the boards.

The win gives Pine Crest the early district edge after the first game of District 4A-13 competition for both squads.

Pine Crest pounded out four home runs, the pitchers controlled the opposition and the defense had an error-free performance as it cruised to victory in a game shortened by the mercy rule.

Pine Crest (2-0) sent 13 batters to the plate in the bottom of the first inning, erupting for a 9-1 lead that quickly put the game out of reach. The hosts hit three home runs in the inning off of Somerset ace Brandon Acevedo, the last of which chased the right-hander from the game.

Following the win, Pierson could not help but credit the hard work that his assistant coaches have put in to help the team get to this point.

“This has been two years in the making, and our hitting coach, Ryan Shealy, has done a remarkable job with these guys,” Pierson said. “The guys have matched his effort to get the bats going. We wanted to start the season against two quality opponents, and today we got on him pretty hard.”

Pine Crest started right where it left off in its first game earlier this week, when it pounded out 14 runs against rival Pope John Paul II.

After Adam Saks reached on an error and Matt Rothenberg walked leading off the first, sophomore shortstop Zack Kone scorched the ball over the right center-field fence for a three-run home run.

Two hitters later, junior catcher Alex Perez launched a shot to nearly the exact same location over the fence for a solo home run.

Scott Halperin drew a walk, and Griffin Conine and Ben Fielder singled to load the bases for Saks. The sophomore second baseman dropped a hit into shallow center field to plate two runners.

Rothenberg then connected on a high fastball that he sent sailing over the fence in right field for a three-run home run.

“Brandon did not have his best stuff today,” Somerset Manager Onel Garcia admitted. “He did not seem to get into a rhythm at all. We can’t get down in a big deficit against a good team like that and expect to win. We can still score some runs on this field but the deficit was so much that the game just got out of hand a little bit for us.”

Perez added his second longball on a solo shot to left field in the fourth inning, as Pine Crest added the final few runs it needed to close out the game.

Somerset (1-1) struck first off of Pine Crest lefty Steven Goldberg when Chris Medina turned on a pitch and delivered it to deep right field to send Luis Mercado home for a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.

But Goldberg settled into a groove after that, throwing 44 of his 67 pitches for strikes while throwing four full innings to earn the victory. Goldberg allowed four hits and issued a pair of walks while notching four strikeouts. The senior had good command of his pitches and kept the hitters guessing by switching up his approaches throughout.

“It always feels good when your stuff is working. I was just lucky that today was one of those days,” Goldberg said. “I always game plan with pitching coach Nick Manganaro, and the second time around, he decided to get a little more creative and let them see things they didn’t see the first time.”

After relying consistently on his fastball the first time through the order, Goldberg began to work in a nasty curve ball and an off-speed pitch that both worked effectively to keep the Somerset lineup off-balance and unable to mount a comeback attempt.

Although any coach would be proud of such execution, Goldberg’s performance was even more memorable for Coach Manganaro because Thursday also happened to be his birthday.

“All I wanted was for them to get the win here today,” Manganaro said.

When a player is in the zone, sometimes they are capable of any feat. For Goldberg that moment came in the top of the second, when he slid across the infield grass to scoop up a soft, slow roller off the bat of Etienne Latour and then pivoting on his hip and firing the ball to first base to record the out.

But while it was that kind of a day for Pine Crest, Somerset struggled to come up with big plays when it needed them most. Several times defenders dove and gave maximum effort only to fall just out of reach of the ball.

“We misjudged the ball on a couple of ground balls. Our defense has to make more plays than we did today,” Garcia said. “We just have to play better defense because we trust our pitching.”

Israel Santana had a big day for Somerset, going 2-for-2 with a pair of long doubles, the second of which sent Mike VanDegna across the plate with its only other run of the contest.

Left-hander Ben Hoffman had a nice performance in relief of Acevedo, going two and a third innings while holding Pine Crest to a hit, walking two and striking out a pair.

Adam Saks went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and three runs, and Matt Rothenberg was 2-for-3 with a double, four RBIs and two runs. He also pitched a scoreless inning of relief to close out the contest.

“We know it takes hard work and we’re going to continue to do that, but it’s a very good feeling when they’re putting it all together,” Pierson said.

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