Morris Hills loses

to Knolls, 10-3

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     ROCKAWAY - Joe Casale and Chris Fleischman were each 1-for-3 with an RBI when Morris Hills lost to sister-school Morris Knolls, 10-3, in a high school baseball game played at Knolls on Wednesday, May 26.
     Morris Hills (14-16) scored a run in the top of the fifth to tie the game at 2-2, but Morris Knolls (17-12) scored five times in the bottom of the inning and added another three runs in the bottom of the sixth to seal the victory.
     Nelson Jimenez, Brandon Ruiz and Matt Hayes each had singles; Fleischman's hit was a double; Doug Juno drove in a run; and Scott Ptazsnysnki, Willie Rzucidlo and Fleischman scored runs for the Knights, who were held to five hits by Knolls starter C.J. Abrahamsen (8-1).

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Seton Hall's 3 HRs, 17 hits too much for Knights

      ROCKAWAY - Seton Hall Prep reached three Morris Hills pitchers for 15 runs on 17 hits as the Pony Pirates defeated the Knights, 15-5, in a five-inning high school baseball game played at Seton Hall on Monday, May 24.
      Seton Hall (22-6) got homers from three different players in winning their ninth straight game and 17th game in their last 19 outings.
      Joe Casale was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored to lead the Knights' seven-hit attack.
      Scott Ptazsnynski was 1-for-3 with two RBIs; Doug Juno and Chris Fleischman each finished 1-for-3 with an RBI; Willie Rzucidlo was 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored; and Brandon Ruiz was 1-for-3 to account for all of Hills' hits.
      Morris Hills slipped a game below .500 at 14-15 with the loss.

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Randolph's 3-run 7th tops Knights, 8-5

      ROCKAWAY - Randolph scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning and then held on for an 8-5 victory over Morris Hills in a high school baseball game played at Morris Hills on Thursday, May 20.
      Morris Hills, trailing 5-2 going into the bottom of the sixth, scored three times to tie the score at 5-5 before Randolph answered with its three-run rally that was sparked by a two-run home run by Nick Kavory.
      Joe Casale was 3-for-4 with two doubles and a single for Morris Hills (14-14).
      The victory, which enabled Randolph to improved to 22-3 on the season, clinched the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference's American Division for the Rams.

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Knights KO'd from states on Old Tappan's 4-run 8th

      ROCKAWAY - Old Tappan scored four runs in the top of the eighth inning to upset Morris Hills in a first-round North 1, Group 3 high school baseball sectional tournament game played at Morris Hills on Monday, May 17.
      Morris Hills, the No. 7 seed in the 16-team field, trailed No. 10 seed Old Tappan by two runs at 3-1 going into the bottom of the fourth inning. The Knights scored a run in each of the fourth and fifth innings to pull even at 3-3.
      When neither team scored in the sixth and seventh innings, the game went into extra innings where Old Tappan finished it quickly with its four-run flurry in the eighth.
      Old Tappan moves on to meet No. 2 seed Pascack Valley in the quarterfinals. Pascack Valley squeaked past No. 15 Bergenfield, 3-2, on Monday.
      Morris Hills is now 14-13 following the loss; Old Tappan improves to 13-9.

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Knights drop split twinbill to Sussex teams

     ROCKAWAY - Morris Hills High School's baseball team's split-doubleheader against two Sussex County foes didn't work out too well for the Knights as they dropped both ends of the morning-afternoon twinbill played at Morris Hills on Saturday, May 15.
     The Knights lost a 13-11 morning-game decision to Lenape Valley and then came back in the afternoon and lost to Pope John, 8-0.
     The double defeat saw the Knights' overall record slip to 14-12 on the season while Lenape Valley improved to 13-9 and Pope John to 19-4.
      In the morning game, Joe Casale led a Morris Hills eight-hit attack by going 3-for-3, all singles. Making the most of four Lenape Valley errors (five of MH's 11 runs were unearned), the Knights led 5-0 after two and then had a three-run seventh-inning rally fall two runs short to end the game.
      In the afternoon game, Morris Hills got only four singles off Mike Liegel, who struck out six and walked three.
      Morris Hills opens play in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional tournament on Monday, May 17, when the No. 7 seeded Knights meet No. 10 seeded Old Tappan in a 4 p.m. game at Morris Hills.

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Moran pitching, Hayes hitting stop Mo-Beard, 4-0

   ROCKAWAY - Morris Hills hurler Joe Moran got all the runs he needed when Matt Hayes hit a bases-empty homer and the Knights went on to beat Morristown-Beard, 4-0, in a high school baseball game played at Morris Hills on Thursday, May 13.
     Moran got the win by throwing five innings of three-hit ball with seven strikeouts.
     Hayes finished 3-for-3 for the game for the Knights (14-10).
     Morris Hills was awarded the No. 7 seed in 16-team North 1, Group 3 state sectional tournament and is scheduled to face No. 10 Old Tappan in a first-round game at Morris Hills that has been scheduled for Monday, May 17, at 4 p.m.

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Parsippany big innings beat Knights, 10-6

     ROCKAWAY - Morris Hills' 4-1 lead going into the bottom of the fourth was short-lived as Parsippany answered with four runs of its own in its half of the inning and then added three more in the bottom of the fifth to defeat Morris Hills, 10-6, in a high school baseball game played under the lights at Parsippany's Smith Field on Tuesday, May 11.
     Doug Juno and Joey Casale led the Knights' seven-hit attack as Casale finished 2-for-4 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored and Juno was 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored.
     The loss saw Morris Hills' record slip to 13-10; Parsippany improved to 11-9.

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Morristown KOs Knights from MCT on 2-run 7th

     ROCKAWAY - For a team that wasn't supposed to have reached the semifinal round, the Morris Hills Knights did pretty well for themselves in the 2010 Morris County Baseball Tournament.
     Seeded No. 12 in the 25-team field, the Knights held on to beat No. 21 Jefferson, 7-6, in a preliminary game; beat No. 8 Morristown-Beard, 7-2, in a and then had an MCT upset doubleheader weekend two weekends ago when they beat No. 5 Morris Catholic, 15-3, on Saturday, May 1, and then came back the next day to upset No. 4 Pequannock, 9-5, in a quarterfinal.
     The Knights' victory over Pequannock kept the tournament from having all four top seeds advance to the semifinal round.
     On Saturday, May 8, however, the Knights' spoiler-role ride in the MCT came to an end when top-seed and defending champion Morristown - in spite of the fact the Colonials made six errors - eliminated Morris Hills, 6-5, scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh and final inning to do it in the second game of an MCT semifinal doubleheader played at Delbarton School in Morris Township.
     Morristown will play No. 3 seed and last year's runnerup Delbarton, which beat No. 2 seed Randolph, 10-2, in the first game of Saturday's semifinal doubleheader. The championship game will be held at Brundage Park in Randolph Township on Saturday, May 15, at 7 p.m.
     While two Morristown pitchers held Morris Hills to four singles and combined for 12 strikeouts, the Morristown defense made six errors that led to led to four of the five runs scored by Morris Hills being unearned.
     Morris Hills (13-9) to a 1-0 lead when Chris Fleischman reached on an error and eventually score on a passed ball.
     Morristown (15-7) came back with four runs in the bottom of the third - two of them were unearned - and knocked out Knights' starter Nelson Jimenez, Morris Hills making the switch to Joe Moran.
     The Knights answered with three runs of their own in the top of the fourth inning to tie the score at 4-4. Joe Casale scored the first run on a balk; Moran drove in a run when he grounded out to first; and Fleischman scored the tying run on a passed ball.
     Morris Hills greeted  reliever and winner P.J. Jennings (6-0) with the go-ahead run in the top of the sixth when Brandon Ruiz walked, stole second and scored on a single by Willie Rzucidlo.
     Morristown opened the bottom of the seventh with a walk by Brandon Theriault. A Morris Hills error on an attempted sacrifice bunty by Brandon Gonnella put runners on first and second.
     Morristown elected to sacrifice again - this time with cleanup hitter Jennings, but Moran fielded Jennings' bunt and got the force at third for the first out of the inning.
     Ian Wukitsch followed with a double to right-center than brought in Gonnella with the tying run but Jennings was cut down at the plate by a strong relay throw from second baseman Scott Ptaszynski.
     Alex Ramirez followed by drilling a one-hop double to the right-center wall and Morristown was on its way to its second straight MCT title game.
     Notes: Jimenez gave up four hits and four runs (two earned) with one strikeout and three walks in his three-plus innings of work ... Moran threw the final four innings and allowed two runs (one earend) on three hits while striking out three and walking two ... Gonnell struck out nine in his five innings, allowing four runs (none earned) on three hits and two walks ... Jenning gave up one earned run while striking out three and walking one. ... Casale,  Jimenez,  Doug Juno and Rzucidlo singled for Hills while Moran and Rzucidlo finished with an RBI as only one of the Knights' runs was earned ... Morris Hills and Morristown met two days earlier with Morris Hill winning, 3-2 ...

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