PENNINGTON - Pennington School pitcher Terry Wells jumps
at the chance to throw against Hightstown High or the Peddie
School.
Wells, an East Windsor resident, does not get the chance
all that often at his small prep school, so when the opportunity
to face Hightstown in the Mercer County Tournament presented
itself, the junior right-hander made his coach aware of his
desire to pitch.
It was not an easy sell since Wells was slated to throw
vs. Princeton Day School in the NJISAA Prep `B' Tournament
tomorrow, but when head coach Jerry Russo made his decision,
Wells could not have been happier.
He and his teammates made their coach just as
happy yesterday when they defeated the 10th-seeded Rams, 6-5,
and advanced to the quarterfinals of the MCT for the first
time in Russo's eight years as head coach.
With the win, the seventh-seeded Red Raiders (9-5) advance
to play second-seeded Notre Dame (10-3) at 3:30 p.m. next
Saturday at Mercer County Park.
"This win is humongous for us," Wells said. "I didn't find
out I was going to pitch until I was on my way home (after
Pennington's 13-3 win over Wardlaw-Hartridge) Friday night.
It was a great surprise."
One thing which did not come as a surprise to the Red Raiders,
but may have to the Rams, was the heavy hitting of sophomore
shortstop Chris Slanina. The 6-foot-3 left-handed hitter got
all of a pitch from Hightstown ace Nick Gates and sent his
third home run in two days soaring deep over the right-field
fence.
"I changed my swing a little bit recently," Slanina said.
"I'm seeing the ball well, and I'm getting better cuts. The
last two homers I hit went pretty high."
Yesterday's blast left the field in a hurry and proved to
be the game-winner.
"I don't mind a shot like that. The kid hit it well," Rams
head coach Ernie Rehr said. "It's the ones we can catch that
we don't which concern me."
For instance, the dropped fly ball with which Mike Millstein
opened the bottom half of the second inning, igniting a four-run
rally by Pennington on back-to-back, two-run doubles by Adam
Spadafora and Dylan Via Cava.
Hightstown (8-8) cut the lead in half when Chris Luberto
homered over the left-field fence with two outs in the top
of the third inning, and looked ready to rally after Anthony
Lobianco gunned down Brandon Smith at the plate later that
inning. Smith was a courtesy runner for Wells, who had doubled
with one out.
A two-run single by Jeff Butler and an RBI single by Steve
Anzuini pulled the Rams within a run in the fifth, but they
could not close the gap after putting two men on base in each
of the last two innings.
