Wednesday, July 17, 1996
The North Plainfield 12 & Under All-Stars broke a 5-5 tie in the fifth inning with a 3-run, 3-hit attack to beat rival Long Hill on Long Hill's turf, effectively avenging their 10-to-6 defeat from earlier in the season.
With one out in the fifth, catcher Jeff Bassman beat out an infield hit. One more out later, Bassman took second and then third on passed pitches and scored when shortstop Pat Davis' grounder to first was overthrown to the plate. Pete Feigenbaum kept the rally alive with a single to right, and relief pitcher Jake Cohan, fulfilling Coach Velasquez' prediction, stroked a 2-out, 2-strike pitch for a double into right-center, driving in Davis and Feigenbaum with what proved to be the winning and insurance runs.
Brian McFarlane started on the mound for North Plainfield and allowed only three hits, but he needed help with two outs in the bottom of the third, with a 5-to-4 NP lead, the bases loaded, and the tying run on third. Cohan came off the bench and struck out the only batter he faced in the inning, but not before a runner crossed the plate with the tying run on a changeup that went in the dirt and got lost in the high grass by the backstop.
Cohan, who struck out six and allowed only 2 hits in 3 1/3 innings on his way to earning the victory, kept Long Hill scoreless in the fourth and fifth frames and gave up only one more run in the bottom of the sixth before fanning the last two batters to end the game.
"This was a big one, guys, a really big win," Coach Ivory told his troops after the game. North Plainfield batters got nine hits to Long Hill's five. In addition to Bassman (2 singles for 3 at bats and 3 runs scored), Feigenbaum and Cohan, other batters contributing hits were McFarlane, Colin Disch, Matt Velasquez, Pat Davis, and Matt Senna. Senna's third inning, two-out, bases-loaded double against the fence in right field drove in two runs to give NP its short-lived 5-to-1 lead.