Late miscues costly for Piners in opener
BY MIKE WHITE
Staff Writer

LAKEWOOD - Lakewood High School junior pitcher John Sanchez put forth an admirable outing in the season opener Monday afternoon, but it wasn't enough as Neptune scored a pair of runs in the seventh inning to roll to a 4-2 nonconference victory.

Sanchez finished with an impressive line. He scattered two hits and struck out three in five innings. But Neptune took full advantage of two Lakewood errors in the seventh inning to push across the winning runs.

"Johnny had a real nice outing for the first game of the year," LHS assistant coach Vinnie Curio said. "He was around the plate and did a good job of spotting his fastball. We'll take an outing like that anytime. We feel he is going to give us a lot of strong innings this year on the hill."

Neptune scored single runs in both the first and second innings to forge ahead, 2-0. But the Pincers rallied for a run of their own in the fourth to cut the deficit in half.

Dean Sedan singled and moved to second on a sacrifice. Mike Moth delivered the key blow, an RBI single that scored Sedan from second base. Moth, who saw limited innings as a varsity player last year, finished 3-for-3.

"He struck the ball really well," Curio said. "He had half of our hits. He wasn't trying to do too much with the ball. He stayed inside it and just ripped a couple. We're going to need to get contributions like that up and down the lineup this year. We can't afford to finish a game with three or four hits. It's tough to score runs that way."

LHS tied it in the fourth. Justin Rafferty was hit by a pitch and then stole second. After being moved to third, Rafferty scored on a throwing error by Neptune's pitcher in a failed pick-off attempt.

"We scraped to get the game back to even," Curio said. "We felt pretty confident at that point."

Curio admitted the Piners missed on a few scoring opportunities, leaving men stranded in scoring position.

"We had opportunities," Curio said. "We can't leave guys on and not get them across. It's still early in the season, and I expect we'll deliver in those situations."

LHS has a good amount of experience coming back. Seniors Jim Dalai, Charlie Conifer, Joe Curry, Matt Pecorino and Moth. Dalai, slated to be the team's No. 1 starter, injured his rotator cuff and is listed as day to day.

"If he can't pitch this year, that will definitely hurt," Curio said. "He looked very good in the scrimmages. We're still waiting to see what the doctors have to say. Hopefully, we'll get him back."

Junior Jose Colon tossed the last two innings against Neptune and looked sharp, Curio said. Poor fielding in the seventh negated what would have been a solid relief appearance.

"We feel he is going to be one of the guys we go to late in games," Curio said. "He came in and did a fine job. He throws strikes and works ahead in the count."