By Dan Hirshberg

Hackettstown may not have advanced in the Last Dance baseball tournament last week, but for players who didn’t have the chance to strut their stuff during the COVID-cancelled high school spring season, they were able to come away with some lasting memories as a team.

Hackettstown took 2 of 3 games in the opening round as part of the Flanders Regional.  

The Orange and Black had an uphill battle in looking to advance after losing the opening game to Mount Olive, 11-6. Hackettstown needed somebody to knock off Mount Olive to have a chance, but it didn’t happen as MO went 3-0 to move on.

Hackettstown rebounded from the loss by winning the next two, 7-0 over Mendham and in a thrilling extra inning contest, Kinnelon, 7-6.

The win over Mendham was especially sweet as Hackettstown combined solid hitting with solid pitching for the shutout.

“Everybody’s nerves were running high against Mount Olive,” said Gary Poyer, who coached the team. “After that they seemed to really settle in and responded to the playoff atmosphere.”

Nic Curcio started on the mound and struck out two with no hits but after an inning he wasn’t feeling well. Jon Alitz picked up where Curcio left off, though, pitching six scoreless innings, giving up just one hit in the 7th inning. He walked none.

“It was an outstanding effort,” said Poyer, noting that his team also played errorless ball.

Offensively Tyler Dauchert was 3-3 with a walk, with three singles and scored two times; Ethan Prymak was 1-1 with a single and an RBI; and        Mac Curcio was 1-2 with a single and an RBI.

Hackettstown’s 8-inning win over Kinnelon had plenty of exciting come-from-behind highlights.

“We didn’t have the lead the entire game,” said Poyer. “We were down 2-0 after the first inning.  We tied it 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth. They scored one in the top of the fifth and we answered with one to tie it in the bottom of the 5th.”

The teams traded runs in the sixth and it remained 4-4 into the 8th.

Kinnelon took the lead with a pair of runs in the top half of the inning but Hackettstown came right back to score three in the bottom half of the inning, thanks in part to wildness on the part of Kinnelon pitching, to win it.

Michael D’Aconti led off the bottom half of the inning with a walk. With one out Tyler Kirkpatrick walked and so did Nic Curcio to load the bases. And then it was Alex Freda’s turn. He delivered bigtime, singling to score D’Aconti and Kirkpatrick to tie the game. Throwing errors put runners are on 2nd and 3rd, still with one out.

David D’Olivo was then intentionally walked to load the bases again. That turned out to be a bad move as Charlie Russell walked on four pitches to win the game literally on a walk-off.

Hackettstown used three pitchers in the game. D’Aconti started and hurled the first two innings. Matt Schlegel took the brunt of the pitching throwing into the top of the 8th. He started the 8th but gave up two quick hits and he was replaced by D’Olivo, who was credited with the mound victory.

Russell led the Tiger offense with a pair of singles and three RBIs and Nick Struble added a double and scored a run.

It may have been a Last Dance, but for Hackettstown, it was a nice way to end the “season” with some lasting memories.