Baseball: Summit Survives New Providence Threat in Seventh to Win, 5-4, in Union County Tournament

NEW PROVIDENCE, NJ — Although they still trailed, the New Providence baseball team appeared to have Summit right where they wanted them in the bottom of the seventh inning.The first two batters were on base and the Pioneers, trailing by a run, had their No. 2 and No. 3 batters coming up.But then, the kind of play that might only happen to a team once all season, and sometimes not even once, bit New Providence.No. 2 hitter Devin Cumiskey drilled a line drive on a full count right back up the middle, seemingly ticketed for center field, to at least load the bases, or maybe drive in the tying run. But Summit relief pitcher Javy Bonfante stuck out his glove, caught the heat-seeking comebacker on the fly, then turned and doubled the runner off first base for an unlikely play.One out later, ninth-seeded Summit came away with a 5-4 victory over eighth-seeded New Providence in the first round of the Union County Tournament on Saturday morning. The Hilltoppers' reward is a date in the quarterfinals against top-seeded Gov. Livingston on Wednesday.Summit (7-11-1) rallied from deficits of 2-0 after three innings and 4-2 after four innings against a New Providence team that played a fairly solid game, getting good pitching, making most of the plays in the field and squaring up plenty of pitches and hitting them well. But the Pioneers made four outs on the bases, and the middle of the Summit batting order did enough damage to win the game.Matt Santacross was on base four times for New Providence (8-10), scoring twice after drawing walks in the first and third innings. Both times, he was driven in by Michael Schmidt, who lined an RBI double off the glove of the diving center fielder in the first inning and then cracked an RBI triple to right-center in the third to give the Pioneers a 2-0 lead.New Providence starting pitcher Andrew Kruep, despite moderate trouble in the opening inning, sailed through the first 3 1/3 innings before allowing Summit's first hit. But the Hilltoppers bunched a single by their pitcher, Ben Cohen, a triple by Matt McKeever and a single by Connor Moon to score two runs and tie the game.New Providence got those runs right back in the home half of the fourth for a 4-2 lead. James Keneally led off with an infield single, Christian Benward doubled inside the third-base line, Alex Chomiak hit a sacrifice fly and Kruep's squibbing grounder resulted in an error that brought Benward in from third for a 4-2 lead. Benward finished 2-for-3 in the game.Summit went ahead with three runs in the fifth on an RBI single by Cohen and a two-run double to left field by McKeever, who was 2-for-4 with three RBI in the game.In five innings, Kruep allowed six hits and two walks, struck out three and give up five runs, but only two of those runs were earned. Schmidt pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief and Luke Cifarelli came on to get a strikeout with two runners on to end the top of the seventh."Kruep gives us everything he's got. They got a couple of hits when they needed to. That's as simple as it gets," New Providence head coach Chris Brodeur said. "Michael and Luke both did a great job (in relief). I just talked to them and I said, 'Guys, I can't point at one thing and say 'Well we've got to get better at this thing.' We're better now than we were in April, and we've just got to keep growing and get ready for the post-season."Cohen allowed seven hits and four runs — three earned — in six innings for Summit. He struck out two and walked two.In the bottom of the seventh, Luke Askins worked a walk and Santacross beat out a bunt to put Pioneers on first and second and set the table for Cumiskey's hard-luck hard line drive."Devin hit the ball hard. He was on time," Brodeur said. "That's exactly what it was. Their pitcher made a good play."New Providence has a regular-season game against Summit on the schedule on May 20."I think that we are playing decent baseball. The kids are gonna find their rhythm and we're gonna be okay," Brodeur said. "That's an 8-vs.-9 game there today. That's exactly what it's supposed to be."SUMMIT (7-11-1) 000 230 0 -- 5 8 2NEW PROVIDENCE (8-10) 101 200 0 -- 4 8 2WP-CohenSV-BonfanteLP-Kruep