By Will Harrigan | For NJ Advance Media
on May 14, 2018 10:40 PM, updated May 14, 2018 11:20 PM
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05/14 - 12:00 AM Baseball |
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Morristown |
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Delbarton |
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Morristown's storied baseball program has seen its share of legendary performances in a Morris County Tournament final on the pitcher's mound.
There was Rick Sofield and Rob Ogilvie's perfect games of Roxbury and Hanover Park, both 1-0 classics in 1973 and 1999, respectively. Brandon Gonnella’s 14 strikeout masterpiece in 2010 to defeat Delbarton, 2-0, was the most recent of them prior to this spring.
On Monday night, it was both Tate Ballestero's bat and Brennan O'Neill's arm that entered the Pantheon of Morristown Baseball, and put Morris County's oldest and most decorated program back on the mountaintop.
Ballestero, a lefty-batting junior shortstop committed to Virginia, belted out two solo home runs off of Delbarton ace Jack Leiter over the far away right-center field fence. It was all O’Neill needed, as his own masterpiece helped second-seeded Morristown finish a 2-0 victory over top-seeded Delbarton, No. 9 in the NJ.com Top 20, in the 51st Morris County Tournament final at Montville High School.
The title is Morristown’s county-leading 15th MCT crown overall and first since Gonnella's memorable night in 2010. Delbarton (14-5) defeated Morristown (12-7) twice in NJAC-United regular season games earlier this season.
Perhaps fittingly given both of their nights, upon being named the Tournament MVP that followed his four-hit shutout with no walks against one of the state’s top offenses, O’Neill immediately passed off his trophy to Ballestero for a group shot with the MVP trophy.
"There’s no one better on the mound than Brennan O'Neill in Morris County," said Ballestero. "Every time we're in a big game, a must-win game, he’s at his best. I’ve never seen anyone do it like him (so reliably.)”
After Justin Barrett went down swinging against Leiter to open the game, Ballestero launched the first of his solo shots on a fly ball that kept on carrying to one of the deepest parts of the outfield.
Ballestero would park another ball in just about the same location two innings later in the visitor's third, giving O'Neill all the run support he'd need on this evening. Joe Pucek's second inning single was the only other hit surrendered by Leiter as the Vanderbilt commit blew away 14 Colonials while only walking one in 6 2/3 innings of work.
"First off, I have to say hats off to Leiter, because he's a phenomenal pitcher that's tough to hit against. On the first one, I was lucky enough to get a change-up that kind of stayed up and then it kept carrying," said Ballestero. “" may have gotten some help on that one."
For his part, O'Neill – who fanned nine Delbarton hitters – was surgical on the mound in bringing fifth-year coach Ed Collins his first county title to the Morris County seat.
Four times the Green Wave went down 1-2-3, and on only three occasions did Delbarton advance a runner into scoring position.
O'Neill's biggest jam came in the home half of the second, when Mark Darakjy and Justin Kim led off the inning with singles. With no one out, O'Neill boldly fired Willie Schwarick's sacrifice bunt attempt to third base, where he just got the lead runner in Darakjy by half a step. The Seton Hall-bound ace recovered to strike out Patrick Harrington and Kyle Vinci in succession to end the threat.
Schwarick doubled to lead off the fifth and advanced to third on a wild pitch with one out. But Morristown first baseman Pucek made a diving stop of a foul liner off Vinci’s bat, and O'Neill fanned Liam Corcoran looking with two outs to come out unscathed.
Delbarton would not seriously threaten the rest of the way.
"It does mean a lot to carry on the Morristown Baseball tradition and win it for the 15th time," O'Neill said. "(You need pitching,) but Tate was all the difference for us tonight. It’s been a few years since we had beaten Delbarton actually, but it’s just winning the county championship as a senior that is special."