ACBL Championship Series: Margate beats Northfield in Game 5 slugfest, captures 23rd league title

By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
MARGATE — The Margate Hurricanes of the Atlantic County Baseball League are much like the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball. All the Canes are missing is the pinstripes.
On Tuesday night Margate completed a stunning comeback, winning its third straight game over Northfield after being down two-games-to-none in the best-of-5 Championship Series. The Hurricanes won Game 5 in a back-and-forth slugfest, 17-13, eventually having to turn to Game 4 starter Mike Adams in the seventh inning to finally close things out against the scrappy Cardinals and secure the 23rd league title in program history.
As it did in previous games, the long ball played a big role for both sides. Northfield jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the second on a solo home run by Jack Loefflad, but Margate answered right back in its half of the inning with a two-run shot from recent Holy Spirit graduate Jimmy Pasquale, an Iona commit. Pasquale is one of the younger players on the Margate roster and said he has learned a lot about hitting during his two years on the team from veterans such as Charlie and Jason Law, Eric Fitzgerald, Chris Knott and Dave Housel.

“It’s definitely really fun, and for me, personally, guys who have been through college and played high level baseball — being able to learn from them helps me tremendously. We take BP before the games, and little things I hear them talk about just help me so much. It’s awesome playing with these guys. It feels awesome (to contribute). We have different ages up and down the lineup and we all do our thing,” Pasquale said. “It looked like a football score tonight. It was definitely fun as a hitter, and Mike did a great job coming in and closing it out.”
After Margate took a 3-1 lead in the third, Northfield answered back with a huge three-run double by Nick Ezzi to forge a 4-3 lead. But again the Hurricanes answered right back, scoring five runs in their half of the fourth to sprint out to an 8-4 lead. Northfield fought all the way back to tie the game, 8-8, before Margate raced ahead 13-8 with the help of a two-run homer from Monny Strickland, who also added a three-run shot in the sixth to give Margate a 16-8 lead. Strickland had seven hits during the final three games of the series and helped spark an offense that put up 41 runs in the Hurricanes’ three wins after Northfield had won the first two games of the series. But even heading into the seventh inning trailing 17-8, the Cardinals refused to give up and tacked on five runs — including a three-run home run from second baseman Mike Descenzo — before Adams, who had thrown more than 100 pitches in a Game 4 victory, came out of the bullpen to get the final three outs.
“It’s not the first time we’ve seen this from Monny. It’s a little messed up because we almost expect it at this point, that’s the level of player he is. He’s one of the best players in this league, and (his performance) was much needed,” said Charlie Law, who finished with four hits and four RBIs and was one of the leading hitters in the Championship Series. “I’ll tell you what, I really am astonished with Northfield’s comeback ability. They just never die. Their at-bats got better the more they were down. We were putting up these big innings and they would just keep coming back, and they were doing it against some very good pitchers. So, hats off to them, they played an incredible series. You talk to our pitchers and they’ll tell you, straight up, that those guys are a pain in the neck and it’s tough to get outs. Even when they are down in the count they are battling.”
Law said it was only a matter of time until the Hurricanes’ offense broke out, and once Margate won Game 3 it was going to be tough on Northfield’s pitching staff.
“It was a long time coming. I felt like we were going to have to battle, battle, battle like we did the first two games, and eventually, the law of averages turned around,” he said. “There are too many good hitters in this lineup, up and down. You get to our No. 8 hitter (Jimmy Pasquale) and the guy is a stud who is going to play in college. Up and down, you expect guys to do well, and eventually they do.”
“In the first few games I was trying to do too much. I have a lot of great hitters behind me, so I was like, you know what? Just go up there and do your job, pass the stick, base hit, walk, whatever it may be, just get on base. I have Fitz hitting behind me, Chris — a slew of great hitters — so I had to stop trying to do too much and I found some success in the last three games,” added Strickland, a former EHT High star who also had a solid career at Rowan University. “We kept saying that we beat them four times in the regular season, and those games weren’t close contests, so we had seen that when we got ahead of them (we could win easily). But not this time around, I tip my cap to them, they have a lot of heart. They were down by eight runs and still didn’t give up and brought it to within four. They are a great bunch over there. They just kept fighting, you could hear them telling each other to just keep at it, and hitting is contagious. When one guy gets a hit then the next guy does and it keeps rolling. We kept saying in the dugout, we might be up by X amount of runs, but we can’t be satisfied because they’ve shown they can come back and they’ll fight.”

Game 5 was all about offense as the teams combined for 30 runs, 29 hits and 12 walks, and Margate scored 14 runs in the fourth-through-sixth innings. Juan Mejia was a juggernaut for Northfield during the series, going 11-for-15 with four home runs, and Charlie Law led the way for Margate as he went 2-for-3 with a home run in Game 3, 3-for-3 with a homer and five RBIs in Game 4, and had four hits and four RBIs in the decisive Game 5.
“Winning is the best thing ever, but it’s more of the camaraderie. We have a really tight group. We felt like we let ourselves down last year against these guys (in the semifinals), so it’s extra sweet to get a little revenge on Northfield, but also just to come together and win again,” Charlie Law said. “(Being the best team in the league) was our mentality, and that’s the mentality you have to have. When you look up and down the lineup, where are the outs? There aren’t many of them. You have to have that mentality, and that’s what can put 17 runs on the board.”
Strickland is now one of the guys who is no longer playing high school or college ball, and said he enjoyed this series just as much as the New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament during his days at Rowan.
“Now, being on the other side, I’m more appreciative of it. Playing collegiately is gone, so this is what we have now. It’s still a great league and I feel like I was in my conference tournament playing in these games,” he said. “Being out of school now and being on the other side, I have a lot more love for the game. Yeah, it’s a men’s league and there is a slew of ages that play in it, but it’s still good baseball. Even though some of these guys are older, they haven’t lost a beat. Jason, (Jared) Lenko, guys like that, Fitz. They are older, but they still have it.”
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com
CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES RECAP
GAME 1: Northfield 5, Margate 4
GAME 2: Northfield 8, Margate 5
GAME 3: Margate 15, Northfield 4
GAME 4: Margate 9, Northfield 6
GAME 5: Margate 17, Northfield 13
NOTE: The title was the 23rd overall for Margate, and 22nd in 42 years as the Hurricanes. Margate won a title in 1968 before becoming what are the Hurricanes of today.