NORTH CALDWELL- The sun shined brightly on a very warm Tuesday afternoon on the final day of March with baseball-friendly temperatures more befitting of mid-May when tournament fever is very much in the air, and the end of an always brisk-moving season is well within sight.
The day was much more than a Super Essex Conference season opener between visiting Millburn and host West Essex as Knights’ first-year head coach Anthony Genchi made quite sure that a very special past West Essex diamond edition was remembered before all got started with a fresh, new season.
And, if the current Knights had little or no recognition of the program’s 2006 team being honored during pre-game ceremonies that was quite understandable since none were even born when history was made one memorable night two decades ago at Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium in Newark, although one could see the close attention each and every present-day player paid to what transpired before the first pitch was thrown as former West Essex coach Scott Illiano, who wrote an entertaining book about his memorable 2006 squad, reminisced to the crowd on hand about a team that had shocked the Essex County baseball world with one of the biggest upsets in New Jersey scholastic baseball tournament history.
The former West Essex diamond mentor related several interesting and colorful aspects about his unique 2006 squad, highlighted by its improbable and quite impressive run as the 15th-seeded Knights proceeded all the way to the program’s first Greater Newark Tournament championship capped by an impressive win over top-seeded, national powerhouse Seton Hall Prep, which has remained a mighty force in the GNT since its legendary coach Mike Sheppard, Jr. arrived on the scene nearly four decades ago.
Illiano referred to ‘Decision Time’ which he said was ‘defined as any time from the fifth inning on when the game was either tied or was a 1-run difference either way.’
“That’s when the game the moments got bigger, the lights got brighter and execution separates the good teams from the rest,” he said while providing a capsule summary of what his surprising Knights accomplished. “Decision time was where games and tournaments are won.”
His Knights won four hard-fought games just to reach the GNT final, starting with a preliminary round victory vs. a pesky Barringer team followed by victories against a typically-strong second-seeded Nutley, a pitching-rich 10th-seeded Montclair Kimberley Academy squad, and then an ultra-talented third-seeded Newark East Side team.
Then, it was time to face the mighty Seton Hall Prep Pirates in the 2006 GNT final at Bears Stadium which was home to the professional baseball independent team and also served for a number of years as the site of the GNT final.
“Every game demanded focus, toughness and heart, and every time our guys rose to the moment,” Illiano said. “Then came Seton Hall Prep. Eight scholarship players including future Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello.
“We didn’t have any scholarship players, but we had a mantra, ‘The Bigger the Conflict, the More Glorious the Victory!’”
Speaking of the aforementioned ‘Decision Time,’ those critically-important, late-game moments certainly came into play as West Essex and SHP were tied 2-2 in the fifth inning before the persistent Knights rallied to score three runs in the top of the sixth and wound up winning, 5-2.
One of the stars of the night for the Knights was their reliable senior starting pitcher Dom Raimondo, a crafty right-hander. He was part of an intriguing GNT championship game pitching matchup opposite one of New Jersey’s all-time great high school hurlers with a long major league career on the horizon; yet that didn’t deter the West Essex senior hurler from just being himself on the mound while facing one of the best lineups to be found on any scholastic diamond that spring season.
“I remember we were watching him (Porcello) warm up and I’m thinking, ‘There is no way I’m even coming close to throwing as hard as that guy, and I think that’s why I kind of pitched so well.
“I said to myself, ‘I’m just going to pitch the way I do and that’s it!’
“I was relaxed the whole game because no one expected much.”
