Sean Keselica has produced one great outing after another on the mound this season. Admittedly, the lefty ace wasn't at his best on Saturday, but it was plenty good enough to help Voorhees earn an 8-2 win over Sparta in a Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex Tournament quarterfinal round clash at Voorhees High School.
Voorhees (11-1) earns a date with top-seeded Pope John in one semifinal on Saturday, May 14 and Hunterdon Central hosts Hackettstown in the other matchup. The winners meet for the championship on Saturday, May 21 at Diamond Nation.
Keselica improved to 7-0 on the season and the Virginia Tech recruit matched his season high with 14 strikeouts. He allowed only three hits, one blooper and another slow roller down the third-base line. Other than that, Sparta hitters were simply overmatched for the most part.
Keselica struck out 10 of the 13 batters he faced from the third through sixth innings, issuing two walks and a groundout, while getting four batters looking at third strikes.
"I couldn't really settle in the first two innings," said Keselica, who also fanned 14 -- on shy of his career high -- in a 3-0 win over Franklin on April 7. "Once I settled in I got ahead (in the counts) and tried to keep them off-balance. My curveball was good and I didn't throw too many changeups."
Keselica now has 71 strikeouts in six starts and one relief appearance with no less than nine in any of his starts. This time, Keselica was working on short rest.
"I've seen him pitch better," said Voorhees coach Spark Mattson, whose team has won four straight since a 4-3 loss at North Plainfield on April 29. "He was throwing on three days' rest and threw about 65 pitches (in a 10-0 win over Franklin on Tuesday), so I was comfortable throwing him. He wasn't as sharp and I don't think he had his normal velocity, but I think he did a great job."
Keselica, an excellent hitter, also helped himself at the plate. His two-run single, a rope to left-center, highlighted a six-run sixth inning that was the difference. A walk to leadoff hitter Josh Hausler and consecutive singles by Trey Conroy and Mitchell Palmer loaded the bases. After Bryan Konsig drew a bases-loaded walk, Casey Conroy plated two with a high-chopper up the box for a single. Keselica drove in the next two and scored on Tyler Duplaga's double to the left-center field fence to cap the scoring. In all, Voorhees sent 11 men to the plate.
"(Keselica is) pretty good (on the mound) and he mashes the ball, too," said veteran Sparta coach Sam Slobodzian, whose team carried a seven-game winning streak into the contest. "(Reliever Gaveric Bach) threw a curveball outside and he creamed it. He hurts you two ways."
Losing pitcher Tommy Roche was very effective for five innings. The hard-throwing righty struck out seven and yielded only three of his six hits prior to the sixth. Voorhees tied the game at 2 in the second after Sparta struck for a pair in the top half. Konsig reached on an error for the first run and Casey Conroy's fielder's choice plated the second.
"Tommy threw a great game," said Slobodzian, whose pitchers allowed a total of 13 runs over the team's seven-game win streak coming in.
Sparta (12-4) had two runners on in the first and got its only runs in the second on back-to-back RBI singles by Brendan Monahan and Pete Forman -- all with two out. An error started the inning and Keselica retired the next two hitters before issuing a walk.
However, after hitting Brucker to load the bases, Keselica induced a groundout by the cleanup hitter Bach to end the threat. The Spartans would lament not striking for more.
"A couple more runs could change the game early on," said Slobodzian, whose 2010 team reached the title game. "We were aggressive (at the plate) in the beginning and that was key to the game. We held the bat too many times and you don't get chances against a (pitcher) like this unless you swing the bats."
Sparta threatened in the seventh against reliever Casey Conroy, who walked one and hit another to put runners on first and second with one out. But Brucker grounded into a fielder's choice and Bach flew out to center to end the game.
Keselica will oppose another unbeaten ace in next weekend's semifinals as Voorhees travels to Pope John in a rematch of last year's first-round game. Keselica held the Lions to only two hits in a 6-1 victory. Pope John ace Brendan Mayers, who will attend Rutgers in the fall, is 5-0 this season.
Sparta (12-4) 020 000 0 -- 2 3 2
Voorhees (11-1) 020 006 x -- 8 9 1
SPARTA (ab-r-h-rbi) -- Monahan, cf, 1-0-1-1, Forman, dh, 3-0-1-1/Magid lf-rf 0-0-0-0, Brucker, ss, 3-0-1-0, Bach, rf-p, 4-0-0-0, Glew, 1b, 2-0-0-0, Postorino, 3b, 3-1-0-0, DeAcquino, 2b, 3-0-0-0, Appaluccio, c, 3-0-0-0, Roche, p-lf, 2-0-0-0/Zaleski, cr, 0-1-0-0. Totals: 24-2-3-2.
VOORHEES (ab-r-h-rbi) -- Keselica, p-1b, 4-1-2-2, Duplaga, 3b, 4-0-2-1, Hawke, ss, 3-0-0-0, Hausler, c, 2-0-1-0/Marini, cr, 0-2-0-0, T. Conroy, 2b, 4-2-2-0, Palmer, lf, 3-1-1-0, Konsig, dh, 1-1-0-2/Barone, rf, 0-0-0-0, Bonavita, cf, 2-0-0-0. Totals: 26-8-9-8.
E -- Postorino, DeAcquino; T. Conroy. DP -- Sparta (Bach-Glew). LOB -- Sparta 7, Voorhees 6. 2B -- Duplaga. SAC -- Hawke. SB -- Monahan 2, Brucker, Postorino; Konsig. CS -- Monahan.
Roche, Bach (6) and Appaluccio. Keselica, C. Conroy (7) and Hausler. W -- Keselica (7-0). L -- Roche (2-2). SO-BB -- Keselica 14-3, C. Conroy 0-1; Roche 7-5, Bach 0-0. WP -- Roche 1, Bach 1. HBP -- Brucker (by Keselica), Forman (by C. Conroy).
Elsewhere on Saturday:
Pope John 5, North Hunterdon 2 -- Connor McGlynn hit a two-run double and Ryan McNally belted an RBI triple to carry Pope John (13-2). Winning pitcher Brendan Mayers improved to 6-0 and had a season-high 14 strikeouts. Derek Jenkins and Nick Plinio belted homers for North Hunterdon (6-8).
Hackettstown 10, North Warren 0 (5 innings) -- Catcher Mark Feci belted a homer and had three RBIs and Kirby Neuner added three hits as the Tigers (13-0) reached the semifinals for the second straight year. Winning pitcher Justin Knight (4-0) allowed zero hits and struck out two. Travis Eldrige took the loss for the Patriots (10-4), who saw their eight-game winning streak end.
Hunterdon Central 6, Phillipsburg 0 -- Winning pitcher Greg Scassera struck out eight as the Red Devils (12-4) defeated the Stateliners (9-8) for the second time in three days. Central, the 2010 champion, gets a rematch with Hackettstown, which lost 11-3 in their semifinal meeting last season.
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