Brandon Piacenza is greeted by head coach Mike Policastro after hitting a home run in the 9-0 win over Nutley in the Greater Newark Tournament semifinals on May 14 in Verona.
BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The 11th-seeded Bloomfield High School baseball team dropped a heartbreaking 4-3 decision to sixth-seeded Columbia in the first round of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 1, Group 4, tournament on Wednesday, June 1, at Underhill Field in Maplewood.
After Columbia scored a run in the bottom of the third inning, Bloomfield answered with a run in the top of the fourth and two runs in the fifth for a 3-1 lead.
Columbia scored a run in the bottom of the fifth to cut it to 3-2 and won the game on a two-run, walk-off double in the bottom of the seventh.
Junior Tyler Bell went 2-for-4 with a single, a double and two RBIs to lead the Bengals. Juniors Daniel Murawinski and Christopher Sanchez both went 2-for-4 with two singles. Sophomore Evan Freid went 1-for-3 with a single and an RBI. Junior Brandon Piacenza, senior Jackson Laub and senior Nico Ong each went 1-for-3 with a single.
The Bengals, who finished the season with a 9-19 overall record, were runner-up in the Greater Newark Tournament, falling to Seton Hall Prep, 15-0, in the final on May 21 at Yogi Berra Stadium on the campus of Montclair State University. They advanced to the GNT final for the first time since 1997.
Photo Courtesy of Jerry Simon.
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