Rockaway Twp. Cerbo team
wins high school division title
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ROCKAWAY TWP. - Carl Harvey pitched a complete-game three-hitter and Brian Stagg and Joe Drossell drove in the runs as the New Jersey Outlaws completed an unbeaten season in the Cerbo Baseball High School Division with a 2-0 victory over Rockland County in the post-season tournament championship game held at Peterson Field here on Sunday, June 20.
Harvey struck out nine - including all three batters he faced in the final inning - to nail down the championship and an 11-0 season for the Outlaws.
The Outlaws went 8-0 to win the regular-season title in the Sunday-only, wood bat league. Seeded No. 1 for the post-season tourney, the Outlaws opened with a 9-2 victory over Ridgefield Park in the first round before beating Parsippany, 4-0, in the semifinals.
In the championship game, the Outlaws scored a first-inning run when Stagg doubled home C.J. Abrahamson.
The Outlaws made it 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth when Tyler Hubin drew a walk, Dan Buback reached when his infield grounder forced Hubin at second and, after Buback stole second, Buback scored on Drossell's RBI single.
Rockland, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, threatened in the fourth and fifth but the Outlaw defense helped Harvey get out of each jam. Outlaw catcher Joey Cregg picked off a runner at third in a failed suicide-squeeze play in the fourth inning and, in the fifth, second baseman Nick Dispenziere made a nice play on a grounder in the hole with two on and two out to kill another rally.
In the semifinal victory over Parsippany, Christian Shuey got the win with a complete-game shutout.
The Outlaws took a 2-0 lead in the first on singles by Abrahamson, Stagg and Nick Dispenziere.
In the third inning, the lead became 3-0 when Vince Opalewski doubled and Stagg drove him home with a single.
The Outlaws scored the final run of the game in the fifth inning when Opalewski singled, moved up a base on an infield out, and scored on Cregg's RBI single.
The Outlaws opened the first-round victory over Ridgefield Park by scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning after two were out.
Shuey and Stagg hit back-to-back two-out singles to get the rally started and, after Cregg was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Dispenziere singled to right-center to drive in Shuey and Stagg for a 2-0 lead that the Outlaws never lost.
Dispenziere finished the game 3-for-3 that included a two-run double in the sixth that gave him four RBIs on the day. Other extra-base hits included a two run-double by Vinny Olivari in the fifth inning and a run-scoring double by Steve Rosen in the sixth.
Tyler Hubin pitched the first six innings for the win and Gary Basil pitched the seventh to finish the game.
The Outlaws, sponsored by The Baseball Station in Wharton, are managed by John Dispenziere Sr. with the help of coaches Steve Buback, John Dispenziere Jr., Tom Shuey and Dave Stagg.
The tournament completes the spring season for the Outlaws, but the team will be playing a fall ball schedule that will start in September.
