When Phillipsburg's baseball team held a 5-2 lead against Pope John after four innings, little did anyone in attendance realize it would take eight more innings to decide a winner.
For that matter, even less figured that junior Tyler Woscek, a junior varsity pitcher to start the season, would throw five no-hit frames to help the Stateliners advance to the Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex semifinals with a 6-5 win in 12 innings.
Woscek earned his first varsity win, as ugly as it was at times. The soft-throwing righty walked six and struck out six, retiring eight of the 21 batters he faced with fly-ball outs. Even more amazing was that Pope John had just mounted a three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh on three hits to force extra innings.
"My curveball was working great, but my fastball was a little off," Woscek said. "I have to thank [pitcher] Mike Ciesla for teaching me a changeup."
Designated hitter Rob Sanders' two-run single off P'burg starter Anthony Ciavarella tied the game at 2, as the Lions were down to their final strike when Sanders fell behind 0-2 in the count. It was also PJ's final hit of the game. Woscek even twice retired Lions shortstop Matt Tietz in the ninth and 11th innings after Tietz collected hits in his first four at-bats against Ciavarella, the 'Liners ace who finished with 10 K's -- his fourth of five starts this season with double-digit strikeout totals.
Woscek, nicknamed "Hot Wheels" by his teammates due to his lack of speed, delivered one of the gutsiest and most clutch performances I've ever witnessed in high school sports. Moments after the victory, I'm not sure it even set in yet in the right-hander's mind as to what he just pulled off.
"No, not at all," Woscek said when asked if he could've ever imagined this scenario when he entered the game in the eighth inning. "[Pope John] is a good team. We're happy to win and move on."
The head-scratching thing is that the only trouble Woscek ran into was of his own doing. He incredibly worked around six free passes, including three that loaded the bases with one out in the 11th. Shortstop Matt McAnally caught a fly ball behind third in shallow left for the second out, then cleanly fielded Sam Redwood's grounder and stepped on second for the force to end the inning and PJ's last threat.
Woscek fanned the first two in the 12th before issuing a walk to PJ catcher Zach Leach. But Jay Sanford went down swinging for the second straight inning to end the marathon affair, which lasted nearly three hours and 20 minutes.
Here are some other odds and ends from this incredible game:
* Both teams combined for 20 fly-ball outs and 21 strikeouts. P'burg pitchers combined for 16 K's.
* Pope John missed a golden opportunity in that seventh-inning uprising when a runner's interference call on Lions' No. 2 hitter Glenn Gavan couldn't get out of the way of Tietz's single through the right hole. The ball hit Gavan on the left foot as he was caught halfway between first and second. Instead of bases loaded and none out, PJ had first and second with one out. Leadoff man Mike Young had to retreat back to second on the play because a runner can not advance more than one base on an interference. Ryan McNally followed with a walk, which could have forced in another run. Sanders' hit could have very well been a walk-off instead of the tying blow.
* Gavan endured a rough day all-around as he struck out four times at the plate and committed a throwing error in the 12th that led to Bryan Gardner's winning RBI on a fielder's choice. The right-hander did provide three perfect innings of relief -- retiring the first nine 'Liners he faced until running into trouble in the final two innings.
* P'burg coach Dave Hinkle would have been on the hook had Phillipsburg lost this one for a judgment error as the third-base coach in the 11th. McAnally belted a triple to right field, which was misplayed a bit before Redwood and Sanford executed perfect relay throws to the plate to nail McAnally by a wide margin. Hinkle waived McAnally in with the potential go-ahead run, but the right decision would have been to hold the runner with none out. Naturally, Chris Trent, who had three hits on the day, singled with one out and would have given P'burg the lead.
* Pope John reliever Axel D'Addario is becoming quite a rock out of the bullpen for coach Vin Bello. The hard-throwing righty entered the game in the fourth after starter Dan Cunico gave up back-to-back hits to start the frame. D'Addario retired three in a row to end the threat and sent down 12 of the 15 batters he faced -- hitting one, walking another and giving up his lone hit Trent in the sixth. In addition to the four scoreless in this one, D'Addario came on against High Point on Tuesday and worked 2 1/3 scoreless to help preserve a 4-0 win.
* Ciavarella gave the kind of work-horse effort you'd expect from an ace pitcher. The lefty three 133 pitches after laboring early in the game. He faced eight batters in the first, giving up two runs on three hits. From that point on, Ciavarella retired 14 of the next 19, yielding only three hits and striking out the side in the bottom of the sixth, until his final inning. He showed no signs of fatigue before the Lions jumped on him in the seventh.
"You can tell with Ciav when he's tired," Hinkle said. "He paced himself and he's in midseason form. He gave [Sanders] too good of a pitch to hit 0-2 and he barreled up on it."
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