Published: August 12, 2009 11:41 pm      

Martella’s suffers first tourney loss

New Brunswick built a big lead in the early innings on Wednesday with broken-bat singles, bloops and bleeders.

But when they needed it most, Steve Nappe supplied the blast that carried the Matrix to a 12-9 victory over Johnstown’s Martella’s Pharmacy in an afternoon AAABA Tournament game at Point Stadium.

New Brunswick is the only

3-0 team in the tournament.

After giving up five runs in the top of the seventh, New Brunswick answered with four in the bottom half of the inning, with three runs coming on Nappe’s homer over the screen in left-center field.

“It’s our responsibility to answer that,” Glenn Fredricks said of Martella’s outburst. “To see a six-run lead vanish to a one-run cushion almost instantaneously, you have to come back out on offense. And you have to answer them right away, just to let them know that you’re still here.”

Nappe, who had two hits and scored twice, did that on a 1-1 pitch from reliever Zach Satira.

“He hung me a curveball,” Nappe said. “I just happened to hit it. I sat back and hit it.”

New Brunswick had scored a run earlier in the inning on an error by Tom Burkett.

“You’ve got to give them credit,” Martella’s manager Chris Pfeil said. “They came out and hit the ball, but ultimately what hurt us is that we got sloppy defensively and gave them some runs. It’s very uncharacteristic. That’s what’s frustrating.”

New Brunswick jumped out to a 6-0 lead after three innings.

Elijah Yarborough, the Matrix’s No. 9 hitter, had a two-run triple in the second and an RBI single in the third.

Pat Sweeney had a bloop single that scored two runs and Dylan Laguna dropped another one in for an RBI single.

Chris Grimes had a two-run single in the fourth that chased Martella’s starter Matt Gehret.

The right-hander gave up eight runs – all earned – on

10 hits in three innings. He walked two and struck out two.

“He hit his spots with some pitches, and they stuck the bats out and got some bleeders together,” Pfeil said. “To their credit, they got a bat on those balls and got them in play. We stood there and took strike 3.”

Mark Saxman kept Martella’s in the game with three scoreless innings before New Brunswick got to him for three runs in the fourth.

Chris Rasky, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles and a triple, got Martella’s going in the fourth. He doubled off the wall and scored on a single by Sam Watkins, who later scored on an error.

Down 8-2 in the seventh, Martella’s mounted a comeback. The first five batters in the inning reached, with Rasky’s double driving in two. Burkett had an RBI single while Watkins doubled in another run.

“When you play a team like that, with that much talent and that much heart, you have to put them away,” Fredricks said.

New Brunswick effectively did that in the bottom half of the inning, although Martella’s tacked on two more runs in the eighth. Kaufman had an RBI triple and scored on a passed ball.

Connor Henderson pitched six innings for the victory, giving up five runs on seven hits.

He struck out eight and walked two.

Brian Schroeder and Dan Avella each had three hits for New Brunswick