NUTLEY, NJ – Marty Higgins hit a go-ahead two-run single to lift the Nutley High School varsity baseball team to a 4-2 win over winless Bloomfield on Monday, April 10, at the Park Oval.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak and improved the Raiders’ record to 3-2.
With Nutley trailing 2-1, Higgins, a sophomore, singled off Manny Corporan in the bottom of the fifth inning to drive in two runs to put Nutley up 3-2. NHS added another run in the inning.
In the first inning, Dan Caraballo hit a 2-1 pitch for a solo homer to give Nutley a 1-0 lead.
Bloomfield answered with two runs in the top of the third for a 2-1 lead.
Sophomore Josh O’Neill pitched six innings, allowing two runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out six for the win.
Caraballo, junior center fielder Peter Lopez, Higgins, and O’Neill each had one hit for the Raiders. Bloomfield fell to 0-5.
In earlier action, O’Neill went 3-for-4 with a triple and pitched six innings of four-hit ball with 11 strikeouts in the 8-1 win at West Essex on April 5. Freshman Kevin Hogan hit a three-run homer; senior Sean Bernardo had two hits with a double and an RBI; Lopez had two hits with a double and two RBI: and junior second baseman Seth Antonicello and senior catcher Mark Charles each had an RBI.
The Raiders then lost at Seton Hall Prep, 4-0, April 7, as SHP pitcher Kevin Young pitched a perfect game on April 7 at Porcello Field in West Orange. Ironically, the other perfect game in SHP’s history was thrown by Rick Porcello in the 2007 Greater Newark Tournament semifinals against Newark Academy. Porcello won the American League Cy Young Award last season for the Boston Red Sox.
The next day, the Raiders fell to Columbia, 7-2, at the Park Oval.
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