By: Shane Petagna

WALL— The No. 1 seed Garden State Junebugs hosted the third-seeded Wall Clippers in the
Shore Division Championship on Tuesday night.

For the underdog Clippers, it was going to take a full team effort to pull off the upset just like
they did two days prior against Frazier Baseball in the Quarterfinal round. In that game, Alex
Jankowski threw six scoreless innings and the offense rode a six-run seventh inning to victory.
Another strong pitching performance was going to be key for Wall, both to keep up with the
Garden State stable of arms and their explosive offense.

The Clippers followed those keys to victory early on. Southpaw Brian Yadlon toed the rubber for
Wall, and did not allow a hit the first time through the order while his team slowly built up a
lead.

Alex Alonso brought in the first run of the game for the Clippers in the second inning, coming
on a line-drive single just out of the reach of the diving second baseman. Alonso had a fantastic
day at the plate, going 3-4 and recording four more RBIs in the remainder of the game.

Wall added to their lead in the fourth inning when Jack Scrivanic unloaded a no-doubt solo
home run deep to left field, and Joseph Palmisano made it 3-0 on an RBI single up the middle.
Yadlon finally ran into some trouble in his last frame in the bottom of the inning, as a bunt
single and two walks loaded the bases for the Junebugs. Chris Corchado cashed in the chance
with a hard grounder past the glove of the shortstop to make it 3-2.

Although the Clippers never lost the lead until late, both offenses would trade blows in the late
innings. Wall extended their lead by three in the sixth inning against the Junebugs bullpen.
After Andrew Glauber walked the bases loaded with one out in his second inning of relief,
Palmisano recorded another RBI on a sacrifice fly. Alex Alonso followed up with a double of the
very top of the left-center field fence to score two runs and extend the Clippers advantage to 6-
2.

The Junebugs did a good job of answering back all night, and cut the lead to 6-5 in the bottom
half of the inning. However, Wall made sure not to let momentum swing fully in favor of
Garden State. Both teams tossed a scoreless frame in the seventh, but the Clippers got some
much-needed insurance in the top of the eighth after riding reliever Ryan Lasko for three
innings of relief. Alonso plated RBIs four and five on another two out hit, this time a double into
the left field corner.

With an 8-5 lead and the lower half of the Junebugs lineup due up, Wall needed just six more
outs for another huge upset in the Shore Division playoffs. Luca Marshall entered to start the
bottom of the eighth, but struggled to find the zone.

In an elimination game, every pitcher must be on a short leash. Marshall threw a strike on his
first pitch, but proceeded to throw seven consecutive balls to walk the first two batters of the
inning. With the tying run now at the plate for Garden State, Clippers’ manager Tom Lasko
decided Marshall’s day was over and opted for Matt Kunzman to right the ship.

However, Kunzman did nothing to stop the bleeding for Wall. He walked the only two batters
he faced in uncompetitive plate appearances to allow one run to score. Lasko decided that he
had seen enough from Kunzman and opted for the hard-throwing Nick Galvan to clean up the
nightmare of an inning foe the Clippers as their lead started to slip away.

Galvan retired the first batter he faced on a 91 mph fastball, but began to struggle against the
next two batters he faced. Velocity without control means nothing, as Galvan’s next eight
pitches were all out of the zone to allow the tying runs to score.

Lasko once again was forced to go to a new arm, now the fourth reliever of the inning, in John
Wade. Wade had only pitched three innings in the regular season and entered in an impossible
situation.

The Junebugs scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch with Thomas Radigan at the dish, where
he would walk on four pitches. That brought up Ezra Caspi, who finally put a ball in play in the
bottom of the eighth. Caspi crushed a bases-clearing triple to deep center that blew the game
wide open at 12-8 that sucked all life out of the Wall bench. Connor Luckie added the final run
of the game on an RBI single to cap off the Clippers collapse.

Alec Schwartz entered in the ninth inning, just as he did in the quarterfinal, to put a bow on the
incredible comeback for the Junebugs. Schwartz struck out the side to clinch the division title
and send Garden State back to the Championship Series for a second straight year.

The Junebugs will host the CGI Monsoons in Game 1 this Saturday at noon. The contest will take
place at Snyder Park in Berkeley Heights, NJ. Games 2 and 3 (if necessary) will happen on
Sunday.