Roxbury 10 - Mt. Olive 0

Roxbury responds with all the right moves.

Roxbury, NJ - There’s no time to dwell on the past in the IHC-Iron. Roxbury boasted a 6-1 record midway through last week. After two tough losses, a 10-9 to Sparta and 8-1 to Seton Hall Prep, the Gaels had to face a red-hot Mt. Olive squad. The Marauders are coming in seven of their last eight, the only loss being to Seton Hall Prep. The Gaels responded on all cylinders today defeating Mt. Olive 10-0 in 5 innings.

Roxbury used a series of hard hit balls, took advantage of a couple errors and a splendid pitching outing from Todd Burdette. Burdette pitched brilliantly, throwing a 5-inning 1 hitter, while fanning three and walking none. Burdette lost is no-hitter bid in the third inning as Marauder 2nd baseman, Joey Rec, planted arching fly ball precisely between the darting middle-infielders and the center fielder. That would be Mt. Olive’s only base runner. “Todd threw pitches for strikes,” Head Coach Greg Trotter stated when asked about Burdette successfully stifling Mt. Olive. Trotter added, “He’s 3-0 and could very easily be 4-0 right now. He’s doing a great job.”

Mt. Olive hurler, Eric Kline looked sharp through four. Klein retired the potent Gaels 1-2-3 in the first. Burdette led off the 2nd and reached on an error. The miscue allowed Burdette to advance to third base with no outs. Burdette’s courtesy runner Joey Shomley scored as Mike Baker launched a screamer down the 1st-base line for a double. After a one-out walk, Kyle Magdziak singled to left field. A quality relay from the Marauders caught Baker at home for the second out. Catcher Dan Lyons immediately fired a strike to Matt Dizinno at third, catching Gaels’ base runner Arthur Lopez for 7-5-2-6 the double play.

Kline retired the side in order again in the third. The Gaels bats came alive in the fourth. Kevin Miller reached on an infield single. Burdette, 2-for-3 on the day, singled. Joey Shomley ran for Burdette and again. Brian Mohr doubled, scoring Miller from second. Two batters late, a bases-loaded walk gave Roxbury a 3-0 lead with one out. Gael’s Nick Riccardi RBI ground out scored Mohr. Weaver’s single to left, combined with an error allowed Roxbury to build a 6-0 after 4. Kline had fanned two batters in the inning, but Roxbury lively bats had already done the damage.

Roxbury added four runs in the bottom of the 5th to end the game via the 10-run rule. The Gaels batted out ten hits on the day as they improved to 7-3, as Mt. Olive fell to an identical 7-3. Amazingly, with both hurlers being so effective combined with aggressive at bats by both squads, the 4:00 start was concluded at 5:01.

Roxbury Head Coach Greg Trotter on the importance of rebounding with a 10-0 victory after two losses in a row: “The kids ... they responded. I had told them that this game was huge. It may be the difference between playing a prelim in the County Tournament on Saturday or getting a chance to scout and prepare for our opponent. ”