WONSOWICZ, RIVERA GUIDE NO. 12 DON BOSCO PREP BASEBALL PAST NO. 2 POPE JOHN

As Pope John, No. 2 in the NJ.com Top 20, sent its ace left-hander to the mound, No. 12 Don Bosco Prep tried to gain whatever advantage it could by stacking its lineup with righties. Only one lefty remained in the Ironmen batting order: right fielder CJ Wonsowicz. The senior rewarded his coaching staff for trusting him by driving in the go-ahead run. Wonsowicz’s RBI triple along with seven shutout innings from junior pitcher Devin Rivera, helped eighth-seeded Don Bosco upend top seeded Pope John 4-0 in the quarterfinals of the North Jersey, Non-Public A Tournament on Friday at Pope John in Sparta. Senior pitcher Jake Wells entered Friday’s action with a 7-0 record and an 0.89 ERA in 55.1 innings for Pope John. He broke the school’s career win record earlier this month with a victory in the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Tournament championship game. Wells’ reputation led Don Bosco to game plan around him. “That’s a tough lefty for Pope John with Wells, and we knew that our lefties were going to have to really take a … left-center-field approach, really stay on the baseball, not try to get greedy and pull everything,” coach Mike Rooney said. “We took some of our lefties actually out of the lineup because of him. “But CJ, you trust. He’s a senior. We just knew that he’s somebody that has had the time under his belt, so he was going to be able to give us quality at-bats. He wasn’t going to be surprised by anything because … he’s been there before.” Wonsowicz stepped up with a runner on first in a scoreless game in the second inning. He hit a liner the opposite way that quickly tailed away from the outfielder, who went to the ground in an effort to catch the ball but missed and let it past him. Having already played an inning in right field, Wonsowicz said he knew the wind blowing toward the left-field foul pole had a good chance of knocking the ball down before the outfielder could reach it. “So when I saw that he stuttered a little bit, I knew it had a chance to get past him,” he said. “And once I saw it get down, I was just booking it until I saw coach stop me. It really helps working on the left-side approach, because that’s what we worked on all week, and I knew when I hit the ball, good things were going to happen today.” Trying to prepare the Ironmen for Wells, assistant coach Mike Dwyer had spent the week working his lefties on the outside part of the plate in batting practice, along with work on the tee designed to encourage them to take the ball to the opposite field. “Really just burning that into our brains and making us feel good and feel comfortable in the box,” Wonsowicz said. Senior catcher Griffin Gonzales brought home Wonsowicz with an RBI groundout one batter later. The 2-0 lead was more than enough for Rivera on the mound. The right-hander retired the first 11 batters and did not allow a hit until a bunt single led off the sixth inning. Pope John (22-5) had already tried to bunt for a hit in the fourth inning, but Rivera fielded his position and made a leaping throw to retire sophomore center fielder Mike Bello. It was one of a number of difficult plays executed by the Ironmen defense, the most notable being a diving snare by first baseman Michael Dreznin of a line drive that ended the fifth inning. After the game, Rivera received a share of the credit for his team’s defense because of his pitching style. “Every time Devin goes out, you know you’re going to get seven innings of great pitching,” senior Jason Azzolino said. “He’s going to throw strikes. All you do is put it on the ground and our defense will make great plays.” Azzolino padded Don Bosco’s lead with a pinch-hit RBI double in the fifth inning, scoring the runner from first base. “We try to always have that one bullet off the bench, and we had a lot of discussion, when do you fire it?” Rooney said. “And once we get a little bit later in the game if we had that lead that we did, we thought taking that shot in the fifth inning was the time to take it … We were hoping just (for a) keep-the-line-moving type of approach … my level of respect for Jason in that situation to come off the bench like that and do what he did, it really uplifts everybody in a Bosco uniform.” Wells pitched seven innings for Pope John, surrendering five hits and four runs with three strikeouts and no walks. The Lions doubled and singled in the seventh inning but couldn’t find a way to bring either runner home. Don Bosco (16-7) advances to face fourth-seeded Bergen Catholic in the tournament semifinal Tuesday.

WONSOWICZ, RIVERA GUIDE NO. 12 DON BOSCO PREP BASEBALL PAST NO. 2 POPE JOHN

Photo Credit: Tom Horak