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Sports

St. Rose Baseball Eliminated from NJSIAA Tournament

Sloppy seventh inning doom Roses & Napolitano

For much of the afternoon at the Edward I. Brown Athletic Complex, St. Rose ace hurler Chris Napolitano dominated Holy Cross lineup much like he did throughout the 2011 season. For six innings, Napolitano was locked in a stellar pitching duel with his counterpart, southpaw Jeff Singer.

In the game’s final frame, Napolitano’s defense let him down for three errors that led to four unearned runs and was the difference for Holy Cross in a 6-2 victory over the Roses in the Semi Finals of the South Non Public Group B in the 2011 NJSIAA Tournament.

For Napolitano and the Roses, the four-run seventh, put a blemish on what was otherwise a stellar performance by the Marist College bound hurler.

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Napolitano struck out 12 Holy Cross batters over the seven frames and allowed only two unearned runs.

“I was feeling good today, we held them to pretty much two runs throughout the whole game and then we just kind of fell apart in that last inning,” said Napolitano. “It happens sometimes. A bad hop here, an error there and yeah of course it stinks to lose, but it’s been one hell of a ride.”

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The Lancers responded in the seventh right after St. Rose tied the game in dramatic fashion. With two outs, Nick Morrissey belted a two run double over center fielder John Walls head, which tied the game at two.

The hit had erased the two run lead that Holy Cross held for much of the game courtesy of a run scoring wild pitch and a run scoring double by Kyle Semmel.

For St. Rose, who came from back from a deficit against St. Joseph Hammonton on Tuesday, appeared poised to punch their ticket to the finals after Morrissey’s booming double.

However after recording one out in the seventh inning, Napolitano’s defense let him down. Two errors, and a single by Singer loaded the bases for John Adryan, who promptly delivered what turned out to be the game winning two run single.

“I was pretty much all on adrenaline there in that last inning,” said Napolitano. “It was tough when they got that hit, but I thought if I hold those guys right there at two, we’d have a chance to come back.”

However, the two run single would not be the only blow against the Roses in disastrous seventh inning. Holy Cross strung together two more run scoring singles, which stretched their lead to an insurmountable four runs.

St. Rose skipper Jerry Frulio never even considered pulling his ace at any point during the seventh inning.

“Of course we have some guys that can throw in our pen, but if I pulled him(Napolitano) at that point, and things didn’t go our way, I would hate myself forever,” said Frulio.

“I have to go with our horse, and I’m going to ride him until we can’t ride him anymore. His stuff was still good in that last inning, it just so happened that the wheels fell off for us. “

St. Rose’s offense aside from the two-run double from Morrissey, was unable to provide Napolitano with much support.

Although the Roses were able to put together six hits, they also stranded nine runners throughout the course of the game.

“We’ve found ways to score runs all year round against some great pitchers,” said Frulio. “Of course, it takes some wind out of your sails, when you strand a lot of runners, but as long as we had at bats, I thought we had a chance to get at them. Unfortunately, we were unable to do so.”

St. Rose finished up a sensational 2011 campaign, with a 22-4 record on the year.

“I can’t say enough about this team,” said Frulio. “We had some great wins this season. Anytime you can string wins together verus Ocean and Freehold Townships and Howell, you sign for it any day of the week.”

“We had some great wins, fun times and this was the best senior class I’ve had in my years of coaching,“ said Frulio. “I’d go to war with these guys any day, they made my life so much easier, and I’m really upset that I’m not going to coach them anymore.”

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