Kinnelon & Whippany

Kinnelon/Whippany battle in CHC play.

In softball, as we are starting to learn, no game can be overlooked and no game is over until the final out.

Kinnelon scored one in the top of the 6th to tie the game at 3. As we move the top of the 8th. Leading off the top of the 8th, Kinnelon 2nd baseman, Ariana Infozino (who had already homered) walked to lead off the inning. Multi-sport standout Madelana Escudero beat out a bunt for an infield single. With runners on 1st and 2nd & no outs, Hailey Jester drew a walk to load the bases with no outs. LaMarca induced a pop up to short for the 1st out. The next batter grounded to LaMarca who fired home to catcher, Casey Musarra. Musarra fired to first for the inning ending double play.

Now, we’ve talked about the parity amongst Morris County teams … it’s moments like this that separate that top 4 or 5 teams from the rest. Forget scores, all you need to know at the end of the game is who won.

Which brings us to the bottom of 8th. Senior, Kim Gogel reached first as a result of being hit by a pitch. Casey Musarra’s sac bunt moved sophomore Kelly Griffith (courtesy for the catcher) to second. Senior Kelly Frasier roped a ball into the outfield scoring Griffith.

In a conversation with Todd Callaghan after the game, he credited his seniors for showing leadership in the 8th, after failing to score with a runner in scoring-position in the 7th, and immediately facing bases loaded in the top of the 8th. “They didn’t get down. They stayed composed. They knew they’d get the last at bat.” He also credited Frasier’s quick hands and reiterated his confidence in his seniors, “Kelly has quick hands, I was thinking she’s 0-3 … she’s due.”

You have to give serious credit to Coach Jackson and her athletes. She’s taken a dedicated, young group that was placed in the right direction last year and has rapidly guided them down the path to success.

Let’s move to Kinnelon for baseball action between WP and Kinnelon. The #9 hitter in the Colts line-up, Skyler Struck singled to lead off the 2nd inning. With one out Tyler Peden singled. Both runners scored as a ball was mishandled in the infield. The Colts added two more in the bottom of the 6th. Matt Conrad reached on an error. Ryan Bewighouse walked with two outs. A walk followed by a single by Struck scored Conrad and Bewighouse.

Sean Bierman struck out 12 and walked five as Kinnelon improved to 4-1. Their only loss thus far is in conference to Verona. Whippany beat Verona in their 1st meeting. Verona has beaten Booton. The Bombers have yet to face Whippany or Veona.

Thank you

Looking a few numbers late last night … no not baseball stats or records, but hits and counts. Huh? Unique hits and page counts for my web site.

Unique hits show you how many individuals visited a web page pages.

I was shocked to see that I’ve been getting on average nearly 1,000 unique visitors a day at MCHSS.net. This makes me very happy. I actually had to sit back and smile. By looking at those numbers. I know that I am on the right path to providing you with quality H.S. sports coverage and you are coming to check out what I have to offer.

I was amazed that the wrestling community was all over the coverage and dominated the hit count and sites visited. Thank you and I loved covering every second of the wrestling. Next year will only be better.

The state football tournament accounted for a large number of hits in 2006. It’s pretty cool to sit back and see what brings in the most visitors.

Spring Sports are up and running. Remember, we offer daily results, group for Morris County and provided by NJO.com. The Star Ledger is in the midst of doing some great things for H.S. sports. You’ll be quite happy soon.

We offer softball and baseball standing, as accurate as we can get them as reported to the newspapers and scores emailed to me.

Track coaches: Get your fraternity of other track coaches to email me their results. It’s as easy as TheCoach@MorrisCountyHSsports.net to your email list.

Believe me, we’d love to cover more games, events, etc. and coverage will grow as we grow. I started this as a compliment to your local papers, which I believe it is. But the idea was to simply cover 1 or 2 games a week. This has ballooned into a great venture that we are happy to bring you.

Extras and Tops

I had made my top ten using, what I think was, the seeds that the Morris County Coaches would have seeded if they had voted. The Daily Record covers Sussex, so Sandy includes Pope John & Sparta. It looks like Sean looked at most recent head’s up matches most importantly, Morris Hills 10 running Parsippany & Parsippany beating Mendham (which did not occur on when I ranked).

I think what we all need to realize is that this pack of teams from 1 through 13 or 14 is very competitive. The string of Morris Hills beating Parsippany; Parsippany beating Mendham, Mendham beating Morristown, Morristown beating Knolls, Knolls beating Whippany, Whippany beating Morris Hills, Morris Hills beating Par Hills, Par Hills beating Mendham, Mendham beat West Morris; West Morris beat Knolls; and so on.

Let’s consider a quality win. Obviously all wins are positive and this is high school ball so we know that consistent play 100% of the time, every inning, every at bat is a very difficult task. So, you will, at times have to just pick a team that you think will win the next time they play. But do you even, or should you even consider a quality loss?

What exactly is a quality loss in softball? 1-0 to Caldwell? I consider a quality loss a game where the teams could have won. When look at games like Chatham losing to Morristown, all of Montville’s losses, Mendham’s 3-2 loss to West Essex. These are losses that are not going to drop you in my voting process. Heck, even a 8-0 loss or something like that happens. We all have bad games, so when I vote, I look for consistency.

Once this nice weather comes in, we’ll have plenty more material to sort out and hopefully all these teams will make our lives of sorting out a top 10 even more difficult. The best thing that can happen is that the high school kids prove us wrong ON THE FIELD.

Speaking of … How about Par Hills and their 5-3 victory over Mendham Monday?

Even more fun … 4 extra inning games … Baseball from Tuesday – Welcome, Jason Izsa, to the coaches with a TIE on their records. Not an easy task, but there are a couple of us around. Mt. Olive cause the most fireworks, winning is a walk off 12^th inning homerun. Parsippany won on a single in the 8^th over Chatham. Mendham and their Guyer-ball antics were at it again. I heard there’s a new line Vegas, call the Guyer. You get to bet if the total runs in a game is going over 20 or not. After 4 innings, I was counting my winnings only to lose a bundle yesterday on the Mendham game! (* just joking *) But add Mendham’s 8^th inning 10-9 victory over Par Hills to that list. By the way Par Hills 1-4, all losses by a total of 4 runs. Jefferson goes 9 innings and wins on the road!

I’ll be taking today off from coverage. We’ll be back tomorrow at Randolph for Randolph-West Morris Lacrosse.

Montville Sweeps DePaul

Please give a warm welcome to Andrew Sidebottom, a guest writer for MCHSS.net and hopefully a mainstay.

Montville Baseball and Softball both handed DePaul losses on Thursday April 18, 2007. The Mustangs won 11-6 in Wayne behind Thomas DeBendetto and the Lady Mustangs triumphed 6-1 in Montville behind Noelle Sisco. Montville Baseball is now 6-1 after the win and Montville Softball is 4-3.

The Mustangs jumped out to 5-0 lead in the top of the first in Wayne but quickly gave it back up. The Spartans of DePaul responded with five runs of their own in the bottom half. The Mustangs got three more runs in the top half of the second. DeBendetto after a shaky first shut down the DePaul offense for the rest of the way. DeBendetto finished with six hits, four walks, seven strikeouts and five earned runs over six innings. His record now stands at 2-0. Montville added two runs in the fifth and one more in the seven. DePaul only mustered one run in the sixth. The Mustang offense was catalyzed by MCHSS.net’s Player of the Week, Jay Schwartz, (2-3 with 2 runs) and Charles Matarazzo (2-4 with 2 RBI). The pop was provided by Lee Gross, 2-3 with a triple and 2 RBI, and Jim DeZao who was 2-4 with two RBI.

In the clash in Montville, DePaul looked posed to strike with runners on second and third with no outs, and Jaci Rahey at the plate, but Noelle Sisco induced a comebacker and then struck out the next two batters to end the inning. Then in the bottom of the second, Kristin D’Arienzo doubled and advanced to third on an error, after Jackie Wallace, and Stephanie Malgeri walked to load the bases, Sisco delivered with a 2 RBI single, plating Wallace and D’Arienzo. In the fifth, Laura Verillo lead off with an infield single and was on third with two outs, when Michelle Geannakakes mashed a double to left center and then Stephanie Malgeri tripled to right center. With that, Montville increased the lead to 4-0. Then in the top of the sixth, Rahey hit a solo homer to left. The Lady Mustangs responded with two more in the bottom of the inning to push their lead five with RBI from Candace Harrison and D’Arienzo. Sisco, now 4-2, allowed on the one run, on five hits, with ten strikeouts in exactly 100 pitches. Geannaakakes was 2-3 with a double, 1 RBI, and 1 Run. D’Arienzo was 2-4 with a Run and RBI. Montville is scheduled to face Verona on Thursday, Butler on Friday, and West Milford on Saturday.

Big Day for Morris Lax

Let's start off with MorrisCountyVarsity.net's coverage of Mendham at Chatham in Girls' Lacrosse:

1. MCHSS.net's Recap
2. Photos from NJ Sports Images

MCHSS.net's Highlight Video

Kinnelon took down undefeated Don Bosco Prep! Madison remained undefeated. See the stories from The Star Ledger:

• Kinnelon 11 (4-2), Don Bosco Prep 6 (5-1)
• Madison 14 (6-0), Johnson 3 (1-2)
• Columbia 13 (3-2), Mendham 7 (3-3)

The SOFTBALL week in review: Week #2

Monday: 4-9-07

Jefferson puts up six runs, but still loses 10-6 to Blair Academy.

NHC Action: Courtney Raneri and four different Dodgers knock in runs for Madison in a 6-4 win over Villa Walsh. Montville beats St. Elizabeth 20-1. Lakeland beat Butler 12-6. Caldwell takes a lead in conference play with a 3-0 win over Pequannock. The Chiefs scored all three runs in the 6th. Sophomore, Megan Brain fanned 10 in the victory, but could not muster a run against Desi Giordano and Caldwell.

CHC: Cedar Grove beats Morristown-Beard 17-0 and Newark Academy beats Morris Catholic 9-3. Mountain Lakes was up 15-1 before Science made a late surge to close it to 16 10. Kinnelon pulls an upset beating Verona 4-1. Coach Jackson has already made her presence felt and Kinnelon will only get better. Whippany Park beat University 17-1.

IHC-Hills: Dover opens with a 12-0 win over Weequahic 0. Hanover Park squeaks by Chatham 3-2, as Tina Banta improves to 2-0. Morris Hills gets on the winning trail beating Par Hills 7-0. Parsippany 10-runs Summit, 10-0. A major conference match-up, West Essex scores 1 in the bottom of the 7th to overtake Mendham 3-2.

IHC-Iron: Livingston shuts out Randolph 9-0. Morristown down 5-2 after 5 score 2 in the 6th and two more in the bottom of the 7th to beat Roxbury 6-5. Mount Olive reamains strong beating West Morris 7-2.

Tuesday: 4-10-07

Non-Conference Games: Chatham, guided by Alex St. Romain’s 4-for-4 day, knocks off West Orange 6-2. Morris Knolls manages just 4 hits, but beats Hanover Park 5-2.
Mount Olive beats Hopatcong 11-1. Wayne Valley wins a tight one over Montville 3-2.

Conference Play: MSD gets by St. Elizabeth 12-0. Morris Hills explodes 10 runs in the last 4 innings guided by Michelle Bauer’s 2-run homerun to beat Parsippany 10-1. Villa Walsh edges Lakeland 3-2.

Wednesday: 1-14-07
Villa Walsh has a strong showing against Caldwell, but the Chiefs win 4-3. Montville responds from the Wayne Valley loss with an 8-3 victory over Madison. Pequannock beats Lakeland 4-1 and DePaul 10-runs Butler.

Hanover Park beats Weequahic 19-0. Chatham explodes offensively and beats Summit 14-0. Parsippany rebounds in a big way and knocks off Mendham 4-3. The Red Hawks lead 4-0 aided by Chrissy Deleasa’s two-run triple in the1st inning, then held off a Mendham comeback to pull the upset. Parsippany Hills 6 gets their 1st win by beating Dover 6-2. West Essex wins their second important, early IHC match-up, beating Morris Hills 5-1.

Kinnelon beats Science 15-0. Whippany Park improves to 4-1 with a 10-0 victory over Verona 0. The important win gives Whippany 2 wins over their main competition in the CHC and a good early lead in the conference race. Casey Musarra, a senior catcher, went 2-3 with a 2-RBI double. Senior Gabby Gruchacz also added two hits.

Pingry took an important conference game from Morris Catholic 4-3.

Iron-side: Livingston keeps West Morris winless with 5-3 loss. Randolph grabs their 1st win 3-2 over Roxbury 2. Morristown handcuff Knolls and wins 6-1. Mount Olive stays on par with a 11-0 victory over Columbia 0.

In the SCIL, Jefferson outscores Vernon 7-6.

Friday: 4-13-07

A lot of games were played despite the heavy rain on Thursday.

Caldwell continues to win close ones in the NHC, edging Montville 3-2. These key 1-run wins are key and important wins. Knowing how to win these games and having the confidence to excel in this situation makes and breaks you in June. Madison beats St. Elizabeth 5-2. Pequannock grabs a NHC victory over DePaul 6-1.

SCIL: Jefferson explodes for 12 runs in a 12-1 victory over Hopatcong.

Glen Ridge beats Mo-Beard 13-0. Mo. Catholic puts up 20 over Montclair Immaculate.

Hanover Park 10-runs Summit and Mendham beats Weequahic 18-0. Morris Hills 4 continues to play well with a 4-0 victory over Chatham. West Essex shuts outs Dover 3-0.

Morristown 13 continues to play well and explodes for 13 against Randolph 13-3. Roxbury gets their first in the win column with a 9-0 victory over Columbia. Joelle Cancelliere led the Gaels throwing a two-hitter and two doubles. West Morris stuns Morris Knolls 1-0 for their first victory.

Verona beats Boonton 6-1 and Whippany Park passes Science 17-1.

Saturday: 4-14-07

Villa Walsh Tournament: The Host Vikings go 2-0, starting the tournament with Mo-Beard, a 7-0 win. Villa followed with a championship win over cross-town rival St E’s 8-4.

IHC Challenge gave the fans all they could ask for. If you thought making a top was tough enough before, today really threw two or three wrenches in the system. I had mentioned that it’s anybody’s race and this week simply strengthens my theory. Mendham goes 2-0 with wins over Roxbury 10-1 and an Amy Appel led no hitter over Morristown 2-0. Morris Hills wins a thriller over Montville 2-1, then holds off Roxbury 3-1. Host Randolph has a banner day, going 2-0. The Rams win in the 8th inning, beating Dover 9-8 and stun Hanover Park 3-1. Chatham went 1-1, losing to Morristown and beating Lenape Valley. Hanover also beat Lenape. Montville knocked off Dover.

The Wallkill Valley Tournament was won by Pequannock. Megan Brain pitched the 1st game as the Panthers beat Phillipsburg 6-4. Her freshman sister was strong in the final, shutting out host Wallkill Valley 3-0. Wallkill had edged Mountain Lakes 6-5 to get to the final. The Lakers beat Phillipsburg in the consolation game.

Hackettstown Tournament was won by Mount Olive. A 12-4 victory over Butler set up a final win over Hackettstown. Emily Archer gave up only 2 hits and walked one for the shut out victory. Diana Noelle had 3 singles and scored 3 runs for the Marauders.

In Regular Season Action: North Hunterdon, a solid 6-0 team, edged Morris Knolls 1-0. The loss was the Denville’s school third straight as they fell to 3-3. Parsippany won the Mayor’s Cup in a great cross-town match-up against Parsippany Hills. The 5-2 victory was spurred by Rubino’s 9 K’s and Jen Nista’s home run and 3 RBI.

Boonton lost another close game, falling to Vernon 4-3.


Yep ... what a week. Where to start … ok … here’s my top 10. This is basically how I would seed the MCT if the meeting was held today:

1. Mount Olive (5-1): Strong team with 2 pitchers. This is very important. Don’t let Coach O fool you, this team can hit. They have scored 5 or more runs in every game.

2. Pequannock (6-2): Don’t let the two looses fool you. This is another team that can hit and will only begin to pound out runs as the weather improves. The Brain sisters are formidable hurlers and can be a dangerous combination.

3. Whippany Park (5-1): It’d be nice to have Whippany and Pequannock meet this week, but Mother Nature might just postpone that yearly meeting that always makes for great softball. Coach Callaghan has the Wildcats on the right path and the 10-0 victory over Verona was another big step in that direction.

4. Mendham (5-2): Mendham responded well from two early week losses. West Essex is that strong and Parsippany showed that they can play with anyone. The Minutemen responded with a 10-run spot on Roxbury and an impressive 2-0 no hitter over a red-hot Morristown team.

5. Morris Knolls (3-3): Tough, tough week for the Eagles after beating Hanover. Knolls needs to go back to the Morris Hills gym and pick up the bats they left. Coach Lazzaro and his reliable staff will have the Eagles ready to get back on their winnings ways. Many of you may be asking … how are they so high after losing to Morristown and a then-winless WMC? Conference play is war, especially in the Iron-side. North Hunderton is that good. This is where they’d be seeded by the coaches.

6. Morris Hills (5-3): Throw out that frigid opening weekend and Hills is hot. I wonder if they stole the Knolls bats after the MH tournament. All kidding aside, solid win over Montville. They are holding teams scoreless and coach Nieman hasn’t been screamin’. That’s a great combo for the Scarlet Knights.

7. Montville (3-3): Yep, another 3-3 team in the top and they could easily be top 3 with the right bounces. The Mustangs have 3 losses by a total of 3 runs … for all you non-math majors, that 3 one-run losses in 3 games. This is a solid team with a good pitching combination. They need to start winning those 1-run games to get closer to the top.

8. Jefferson (3-1): The Falcons are letting up runs and lots of them. But, if you can score more than you let up … well … you get the point. If the Falcons can cut back on he runs-against, look out … they’ll be back when everyone else maybe counting them out.

9. Parsippany (3-1): The rough couple of innings against Morris Hills maybe erased by the stunning next-day victory over a strong Mendham squad. The Red Hawks can move up and they have the pitching to do it.

10. Morristown (4-2): Wins over Morris Knolls, Randolph and Chatham give the Colonials a boost in the top-10 and the two losses definitely do not hurt. This is an up and coming team that is on the verge of a break-out year. I liked the team chemistry and confidence in the win over Chatham. The bats looked lively and pitching was solid.

Who else should be here?: Chatham is capable of being in here, but they need a quality win or two to get them over a few teams. Hanover Park can definitely be a top 10 team, all the pieces are there. Their best win was over Chatham, but the loss to Randolph combined with Morristown’s week keeps them out. Randolph is now 4-3. All three losses have been by 9 or more runs. The Mt. Olive game was close except for one break out inning when the Rams let up 8 runs. Randolph, as always, is the team you do not want in the MCT. Villa’ 4-3 loss to Caldwell opens your eyes, but a loss to Madison keeps them in that 11-18 range.

Player(s) of the Week: I am going teammates for co-players of the week for Week #2. Morristown had a great week lead by Rebecca Satz and Julie Camelotto. Satz had a two-run single in the bottom of the 7th to cap Morristown’s come-from-behind victory over Roxbury. Camelotto tripled in the game sending home two runners. In a key IHC-Iron victory over Morris Knolls, Julie Camelotto went 3-for-4 with three RBI. Satz added two hits and knocked in a run. Satz remained hot for the Colonials win a 13-3 victory over Randolph. The sophomore went 4-for-4 with a double, knocking in 4 runs and scoring 4 runs herself. In the 2-1, 10-inning victory over Chatham, Satz was on base 4 out of 5 times with 2 singles. Freshman 1st baseman Julie Camelotto had two hits in the game. The first was a single to lead off the second. The second was the all important shot to deep center that drove home the game ending run.


So what should you expect? You do not have to be a math teacher or brain surgeon to realize that the rain and cold will halt much of the play this weekend. Teams have had an opportunity to see their strengths and weaknesses. Pitching depth will become a huge factor if we lose more games. Of course, teams can always do the cheesy move and not reschedule games. This is an utter outrage to me, but it happens. As a coach, I would rather be rained out and forced to stay inside then play in 45 degrees or colder, 45? 52 or colder!

As always … all the best. I wish you luck and remember, I do his because I care, always have, always will. It’s all about getting the kids the recognition they deserve.

Enjoy.

The Baseball Week in Review (Week #2)

We had an eventful and fun week in Morris County Baseball. Going into the week MCHSS.net, the Daily Record and The Star Ledger all had Randolph at #1. Let’s see what that cold spring wind has blown in for Morris County:

Monday (4-9):

West Morris continues their rock solid schedule and falls to Mt. Olive, 2-1. DJ Critchley knocked in the Highlanders’ run in the top of the fifth. The Marauders immediately tied the game when Dave Otey singled. Mt. Olive won the game in the bottom of the 7th when Zach Krumpfer’s single scored Steve Cileni. Mt. Olive improved to 2-1 as West Morris fell to 0-3.

Randolph improved to 3-0, notching a third straight shutout to open the ’07 campaign. Seton Hall Prep shut out Knolls 2-0.

Roxbury looked strong pounding out 13 hits and over Morristown en route to a 12-2 victory.

Pequannock knocks off Caldwell in NHC play. A 5-0 shutout-road victory adds to the Panthers' already impressive young season. Delbarton beat Madison 12-2.

Summit knocked off Parsippany 2-1. The victory was the first the Hilltopper’s new head coach, Kevin Zelesky. Zelesky, a Hanover Park grad and former baseball alum, was a utility player who started 23 out of the 26 games as a sophomore at Marywood University in 2003. Zaleski’s pounded out 28 hits as a junior and batted .333 in 27 games for the Pacers. Senior year saw the East Hanover Native, and son of long time Parsippany High Softball Coach Dave Zaleski, tally 29 hits with 5 doubles and 19 RBI.

Morris Hills squeaked out a 2-1 IHC victory over Par Hills.

Hanover handed Chatham an 11-0 loss.

Game of the day: Mendham and Coach Guire may have patented the high scoring teeter-totter battle in ’06. The Minutemen started off ’07 in the same ole Guire-ball fashion. Mendham trailed 5-2 after three-and-a half. The Minutemen were back within one on the bottom of the 3^rd, only to trail 8-4 going into the bottom of the 6^th. Mendham rallied for 5 runs in the 5^th to tie it up at 8, and scored in the bottom 7^th to win it in walk-off fashion. John Modero’s singled knocked in the winning run.

Verona handed Kinnelon’s ace Sean Bierman his first loss of the season in CHC play. Jefferson knocked off Montville. This win proves huge for the Falcons, as many Morris baseball faithful know that Montville is a strong team, but the vote is still out on both of the tough squads. The hard-nosed Falcons score 7 in the top of the 7th to come from behind, erasing a 4-1 deficit. This game has a huge effect on my top 10, although, on Tuesday morning, I was unaware how much

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Tuesday (4-10):

Dover improved to 3-1 with a 9-8 victory over Newton in non-conference play. The Tigers trailed 8-5 after 3 innings, but put up a two spot in the 4^th and 6^th to mount the comeback. Whippany Park came back from an 8-0 deficit to lead Bloomfield Tech 12-10 going into the bottom of the 7^th. The Wildcats could not hold off Bloomfield Tech and lost 14-12. Mount Olive improved to 3-1 with a 6-2 victory over Kittatinny. Hanover Park exploded for 15 runs in a non conference win over Morris Knolls, 15-1. Morris Hills improved to 2-0 with a 9-4 victory over Vernon. Mountain Lakes stunned 4-0 Cedar Grove with a 9-6 non-conference victory.

Game of the day: Montville avoided being knocked off by Passaic power Wayne Valley.

The Mustangs lead 10-2 after 4, but Wayne Valley racked up 6 runs in the top of the 6^th and 3 more in the top of the 7^th. The Mustangs were able to get one run in the 6^th and 7^th to hold off Wayne Valley and improve to 2-1. Iron-side: Morristown gave Seton Hall Prep all they could in a 2-1 loss to NJ’s #1 team.

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Wednesday (4-11):

A busy day in Morris County … all games featured conference match-ups.

SCIL: Jefferson strong offensively again tops Vernon 10-7, moving to 4-0.

NHC: Butler beat DePaul 5-3; Delbarton moves to 3-0 with a 15-5 win over Caldwell. Pequannock wins over Lakeland 6-4 and Montville wins over Madison 13-3.

CHC: Mountain Lakes tops Arts 12-0. Kinnelon wins over Science 9-1. Morris Catholic wins their 1^st with an important win over Pingry 7-6. Morristown-Beard looks strong over MKA 9-2.

Game of the day #1: Whippany Park stuns Verona 3-1. Verona had just knocked off Kinnelon. The Wildcats and Dan Coriddi held the Hillbillies to 1 run on two hits. Whippany got all 3 runs in the 6^th.

IHC-Hills: Chatham responded from their opening loss pounding out 14 runs with a 14-5 victory over Summit. Hanover Park beat Weequahic 12-0. Morris Hills looked very strong against West Essex, winning 12-2. Mendham improved to 2-0 with a 8-2 victory over Parsippany. Parsippany Hills, coming in 0-2 with two one run losses to tough IHC teams outscored Dover 6-4 for their 1^st win.

IHC-Iron: Livingston wins 5-0 over West Morris. Morristown shuts out Morris Knolls 2-0. Mount Olive squeaks by Columbia 4-3.

Game of the Day #2: Roxbury 5-0 over Randolph 0. We all knew what Randolph had coming in, and after watching Roxbury and hearing preseason raves from opposing coaches, the Gaels must have had this match-up circled in bright red marker. Todd Burdette allowed only three hits to hold Randolph scoreless. Roxbury tallied 5 runs on the previous unscored-upon Rams. This makes things very interesting in the IHC-Iron side, if someone can knock off Seton Hall Prep.

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Friday (4-13):

Columbia spoiled the Gaels stunning win over Randolph and caught Roxbury with an 8-6 victory. Six runs in the bottom of the 6^th was just too much for Roxbury to overcome. Randolph came back strong and held off Morristown, 4-3. A 3-0 lead after 1 was not enough to hold off the Rams. With Morristown moving to 2-4 and West Morris 0-4, the state playoffs look almost out of reach for these two quality squads with ultra-tough schedules. These are two teams that no one will want to draw in the MCT, I’ll tell you that much. The IHC will not bow down to NJ #1 Seton Hall Prep. Mt. Olive lead 4-0 after 4, but the Pirates popped in 5 runs in 5^th and one more in the 6^th for the 6-5 victory, spoiling the Marauders upset bid. Now seriously, how tough is this conference?

Morris Hills beat Chatham 10-0.

Delbarton improved to 4-0 with a 6-0 shutout over Lakeland. Pequannock suffered a tough 14-7 loss at the hands of DePaul giving the green Wave an early 1 game advantage in conference play. Montville outscored Caldwell 7-1 on route to the Mustangs’ 4^th victory of the season.

Jefferson, who already had a strong showing this week, was knocked off in SCIL play by Hopatcong. The 6-5 loss was the Falcon’s first of the season.

Morris Catholic was a big winner of Montclair Immaculate and Mountain Lakes passed University 19-1.

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Saturday (4-14):

Montville and Randolph squared off in a battle of two Morris County heavyweights and the Mustangs came out standing after 7 tight innings, 7-5. Montville improved to 5-1 aided by Eric Berman’s 3-3 day and Jason Schwartz’ RBI in the 4^th to tie the game and game winning RBI in the sixth. Are you ready for one of the deepest MCT’s in years?

The only two conference games saw Morristown-Beard lose to Newark Academy 7-6 and Knolls hand WMC a 5-1 loss.

Out of Conference play saw Dover beat Mountain Lakes 5-2, bringing the Tigers to 4-2 on the year. Madison topped Summit with a 6-5 win. Morristown may have just found a break out game, knocked off a strong Mendham squad 11-1. Pequannock won 6-4 over Wallkill Valley. Roxbury found themselves in another battle, but outscored Pope John 14-13. Seton Hall Prep looked solid with a 3-1 victory over Delbarton, handing the Green Wave their 1^st loss of the season. Watching Hills managed to top Hanover 8-5. West Morris put one win the winning column with 6-1 victory over Voorhees. Whippany Park rocked Morris Catholic for 10 runs in a 10-5 victory. The Wildcats kept with the “late inning surge” theme that has been so popular this season. Whippany put up 2 in the 5^th and a big 6-spot in the 7^th to stun Morris Catholic, who held an early 5-2 lead.

Which brings us to our Player of the week for Week #2: Many teams had big weeks and a ton of runs were scored with a multitude of offensive production across the board, but our player of the week was a big force in Montville’s 4-1 week. (Actually you can add in the Mustangs’ 3-2 win over Morristown last Saturday for this.

In 6 games, Jason Schwartz tallied 11 hits in 23 at bats for a .478 average. Schwartz had two singles and two RBI in Montville’s 8-4 loss to Jefferson. Schwartz followed with a 4-for-5 day against Wayne Valley. He recorded a double, a triple and three RBI in Montville’s 12-11 win, and throw in 2 steals. The next day Schwartz recorded two more hits with an RBI and run scored as Montville beat Madison 13-3. A 2-for3 day with 3 runs scored in a conference win over Caldwell added to his already strong numbers. Schwartz capped the week with a 2-RBI game as Montville knocked off Randolph 7-5. Schwartz scored 2 runs and added two hits against the Rams.

A strong contender for Player of the Week was pitcher/ Third-baseman Todd Burdette of Roxbury. At the plate Burdette went 6-10 in 4 games, including 5 hits in the games against Morristown and Randolph. More impressively, Burdette pitched a shut out, handing Randolph their first loss of the season. He allowed only 3 hits and fanned 9 as Roxbury improved to 4-0 with the win over the Rams.

Getting Ready for the week in review

What’s new at MCHSS.net? 1st, we have two nice articles sent from NJ Sports Images. Delbarton Lacrosse won two big games, beating SHP and St. Anthony’s of NY.

My coverage of the afternoon games of the IHC Challenge hosted by Randolph. Two of the games went extras and three of the first four were won in the final at bat.

Our top 10’s in Softball and Baseball are up. Players of the Week for softball and baseball as well as the week in review for softball and baseball will be up by 9 pm tonight. This was simply an amazing week in both sports and shows how evenly matched the teams in Morris County are. West Morris Baseball has yet to win a game, but in all honesty is capable of beating just about any of our10 teams. It’s going to be a shame if they do not make the states.

There’s no need for me to tell you about the weather. It looks like there will not be much sports action for a few days … hopefully by Wednesday.