MCT (Continued from previous page)
game and he doesn’t shy away.”
Neither does Atchison (7-1), who pitched one of the best games in MCT history last week when he fanned 16 Randolph hitters—11 in a row—and walked only one.
Hanover Park’s 3-1 semifinal victory was just the final domination. Shatel said, “He was in complete control. He had a rough inning (in the sixth), but you have to give him credit for gutting it through.”
“Atchison’s ball is heavy,” Ogilvie said. “He throws hard, but not that hard. Al (Shatel) has talked about the weight of the ball. Atchison’s real smart and he knows to deal with it.”
Not many hitters have been able to deal with Atchison this year. He’s having one of the best seasons of any pitcher in New Jersey. He has allowed 51 hits in 81 innings, struck out 97 and walked 13. His earned run average is 0.96 and hitters are batting .160 against him.
“Atchison is a fierce competitor with a lot of natural and self-developed talent,” Hanover Park coach Dave Minsavage said. “He’s been here before.”
And he has excelled. In his varsity debut under the lights at Lurker Park two years ago, Atchison pitched 3 1/3 innings of no-hit ball against Morristown. He wrapped up pitching the Hornets to the state Group two championship.
But the senior lefty is far from being a one-man team. Hanover Park has gotten a lot of hitting out of Novalis (.542, 15 doubles, 31 RBIs), second baseman Paul Block (.446, 32 RBIs), outfielder Chris Romeo (.424, nine doubles) and first baseman Steve Dubell (.324, 30 RBIs).
“They hit the ball well, we do okay,” Ogilvie said. “I watched the video after we played them earlier in the year (a 9-8 Hanover Park win) and they all hit the ball well. They hit the ball to all fields. I have to find their weak spots, what they don’t like and go after them. But that won’t be easy, because from one through nine they hit the ball.”
The same can be said of the Colonials, particularly center fielder Peter Curower (.534, 37 runs, 39 RBIs, 13 stolen bases), Tom Olivo (.414, 34 RBIs), Evan Ogilvie (.435) and DH Evan Davis (.438, 34 RBIs).
With that kind of production and Ogilvie pitching, it certainly seems tough enough to produce a Morristown victory.
“They obviously have an outstanding pitcher in Ogilvie,” Minsavage said. “He’s got great pop, he mixes his curve, he has control and he has poise.”
The two teams know each other well. In mid-April, Hanover Park jumped all over Morristown in the first three innings but needed to hang on in the extra victory.
“It definitely won’t be that way this time,” Novalis said. “It’ll be 1-0 or 2-1 just like last year with Ogilvie and Atchison.”
In the MCT quarterfinals last year, Morristown earned a 3-1 victory in eight innings in a battle between those two. The Colonials tied it in the bottom of the seventh on a double steal. In the eighth inning, Morristown’s Todd Friedman singled home the winning run off Atchison. Friedman is now attending Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., which is where Atchison will be next fall.
“After we played them the first game this year, I kind of thought we’d see them again,” Novalis said. “It’ll be a challenge for all of us.”
