Baseball’s strong season culminates with county semifinals at TD Bank Park

The legacy of Bernards Baseball led by Coach Falzarano has given this 2015 team more pride than ever before. Their record proves exactly that, 14 and 3 and the three losses were to big time baseball schools, Somerville twice and Warren Hills. This year’s lineup consists of various seniors such as Matt Taylor on third, JP Tantleff at shortstop, Luke Bowerbank at center field, Ryan DeLeon at left field, Danny McDonnell at right field, Trevor Dennis at second base and Kyle Oliver on first or pitching.

On Saturday, May 2nd, Bernards showed up to the first round of counties hosted at their home field with the energy to win. Kyle Oliver almost pitched a perfect game, giving Bernards the win with a final score of 5 to 1. Matt Taylor and JP Tantleff both had great defensive games as well.

Although the baseball team has been thrown several setbacks such as Luke Bowerbank having been out for several weeks because of a hamstring issue or Trevor Dennis also getting hurt in the Autism Awareness game, the two are back on the field and, “excited to see how the rest of the season plays out due to the recent outcomes,” Bernards is now considered to be a, “team with huge momentum,” Trevor Dennis says. The younger boys have really stepped up to prove the potential and fill in the several gaps whether its injured players or missing positions.

Bernards lost their Somerset County semifinal game at TD Bank Park to Watchung Hills in extra innings by a score of 7-5. Watchung Hills scored five runs on four hits in the first inning, but Bernards gradually came back from the 5-0 deficit, scoring once in the first and second innings on two RBI singles. In a three-run fifth inning, senior Kyle Oliver hit a two-run double with the bases loaded to bring Bernards within one. A fielder’s choice scored the equalizing run. The game required extra innings, and Watchung Hills scored twice in the top of the 8th inning, closing it out in the bottom of the same inning.