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Dominick Paoli | profile | all galleries >> BHS Baseball 2008 >> Game #28 vs. N. Hunterdon @ Demarest - Semi Final Round State Playoffs Group IV, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 - Lose-10-0 tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Game #28 vs. N. Hunterdon @ Demarest - Semi Final Round State Playoffs Group IV, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 - Lose-10-0

North Hunterdon 10, Bloomfield 0
by BOB BEHRE, FOR THE STAR-LEDGER
Tuesday June 03, 2008, 8:28 PM
Knapp tosses gem to lift N. Hunterdon
Wednesday, June 04, 2008

It may be an old baseball axiom that good pitching beats good hitting, but what Bloomfield saw yesterday in North Hunterdon right-hander Jason Knapp was no axiom. It was raw heat.
Knapp stifled one of the state's more punishing lineups with a fastball clocked as high as 97 mph on the way to a one-hitter when North Hunterdon rolled to a 10-0 victory in six innings in the NJSIAA/Star-Ledger Group 4 semifinals in Demarest.
The victory sends North Hunterdon to the Group 4 final on Saturday in Toms River, where it will find Hunterdon County neighbor and heated rival Hunterdon Central, which defeated Toms River North, 5-1, in the other semifinal.
"Who would have guessed it," North Hunterdon coach Parker Snare said. "We're eight miles apart and will be going all the way down to Toms River to square off."
First, unranked North Hunterdon had to deal with Bloomfield (22-7), No. 18 in The Star-Ledger Top 20.
Knapp, a senior right-hander committed to North Carolina and projected as a selection in the first five rounds of Major League Baseball's First-Year Player's draft tomorrow, pitched perhaps his finest game at the scholastic level.
He carried a no-hitter into the sixth when losing pitcher Kevin Miller (9-2) opened the inning by lining a 1-0 pitch down the right-field line for a double. Knapp's response was to strike out Bloomfield's number three, four and five hitters in order to end the threat.
Those would be Knapp's last pitches of the game, as North Hunterdon (18-11) struck for three runs in the bottom of the sixth to end the game via the 10-run mercy rule. Knapp struck out seven, walked two and hit three batters in an 84-pitch gem.
Knapp's approach with the Bloomfield hitters was overt. His first 17 pitches were fastballs and one of them hit 97 on a radar gun held by one of the many scouts behind the batting cage.
"In a game like this against a team like that, you want to get through the order the first time with fastballs," Knapp said. "I was fortunate to get through the first couple innings with it and that set me up for the later innings."
Knapp did mix in his biting curveball in the later innings, at times battling his control, but that seemed to weigh in his favor, too.
"He was all over the place," Bloomfield coach Mike Policastro said. "Our guys would be ducking a high hard one, then he'd slip in a breaking ball on the knees. It's not everyday you're going to face a guy throwing 95-96-97 as this level."
Knapp got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fourth after walking the leadoff batter, Mike Chiaravalloti, and plucking Jason Chesterman and Matt Mazzola.
But Knapp got Dan Bataille swinging at a 3-2 fastball, then Chris DelliPaoli hit a hard two-hopper at third baseman Nick DiLeo. The junior stepped on third and fired to first for an inning-ending double play.
North Hunterdon had already built a 5-0 lead by then, mainly off a four-run fourth triggered by Knapp's leadoff double.
The No. 7 hitter, DiLeo, who doubled twice and scored three runs in North Hunterdon's Section 2, Group 4 final victory over Bridgewater-Raritan on Friday, followed an RBI single by Brad DelFinis with a ringing triple into the gap in right-center that scored two runs. DiLeo scored the fourth run of the inning on a passed ball.
North Hunterdon tacked on a run in the third when DiLeo double and scored on a single by No. 8 hitter Lou Martini, then extended the lead to 7-0 in the fifth when catcher Jeff Melillo launched a two-run home run over the fence in left center.
It was Melillo (2-for-3, three RBI) who ended the game in the sixth when he poked an opposite-field bloop single to right for a 10-0 lead.
"We didn't see this coming," Melillo said. "But we've been getting help all season from all over the lineup."
Melillo had a front-row seat for Knapp's gem.
"He's a great pitcher and that's about as hard as I've seen him throw all year," Melillo said. "He battled today."
Bloomfield
Player AB R H RBI
Vinnie DelVecchio 3 0 0 0
Kevin Miller 3 0 1 0
Mike Chiaravalloti 2 0 0 0
Jason Chesterman 1 0 0 0
Matt Mazzolla 2 0 0 0
Angelo Salgado 0 0 0 0
Dan Bataille 2 0 0 0
Chris DelliPaoli 2 0 0 0
Chris Janiec 0 0 0 0
Liam Penberthy 2 0 0 0
Tom Petrillo 0 0 0 0
Mike Ciaramello 0 0 0 0
Totals: 17 0 1 0
North Hunterdon
Player AB R H RBI
Shawn Mehring 4 1 0 0
Matt Sutor 4 1 1 0
Tommy Zengel 3 0 1 1
Jason Knapp 3 0 1 0
Kevin Haplea 0 2 0 0
Jeff Melillo 3 1 2 3
John Borkowski 0 1 0 0
Brad Delfinis 2 1 1 1
Nick DiLeo 3 2 2 2
Louis Martini 2 0 1 0
Jordan Geissinger 1 1 0 0
Totals: 25 10 9 7
Bloomfield (22-7) 0 0 0 0 0 0
North Hunterdon (18-11) 0 4 1 0 2 3
Errors - Bloomfield 1, North Hunterdon 1.
2B - Bloomfield: Kevin Miller. North Hunterdon: Jason Knapp.
3B - North Hunterdon: Nick DiLeo.
HR - North Hunterdon: Jeff Melillo.
Bloomfield Pitching
IP H R ER BB SO
Kevin Miller L, 9-2 5 9 10 10 4 3
Mike Ciaramello 0 0 0 0 0 0
North Hunterdon Pitching
IP H R ER BB SO
Jason Knapp W, 6-1 6 1 0 0 3 7
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