ACBL Championship Series: Adams, Law help Margate get back even, force decisive Game 5 vs. Northfield

By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
NORTHFIELD — Momentum is something that baseball teams can spend an entire season trying to capture. After the first two games of the 2019 Atlantic County Baseball League Championship Series, Northfield seemed to have all the momentum. The second-seeded Cardinals had scored a pair of wins over regular-season champion Margate and threatened to close out the best-of-5 series with a sweep for the second straight year. Northfield won its first title under coach Joe Bunting last year by sweeping Hammonton in three games.
But the pendulum has swung 180 degrees in Margate’s favor. Last Thursday, the No. 1 seeded Hurricanes racked up 15 runs in a 15-4 victory in Game 3, and tonight Margate got some big early offense from Charlie Law and some effective pitching from ace Mike Adams in a 9-6 victory that forces a decisive Game 5 on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Margate. Adams fanned 10 in seven innings, and although Northfield got to him for three home runs, the Cardinals couldn’t get within three runs after the first inning.

“Mike’s in the conversation of the best pitchers to ever pick up a ball in this league, in my opinion,” said Law, whose three-run home run in the top of the first off former EHT High star Brandon Riggs got Margate an early lead and set the tone. “He has such electric stuff, he pounds the zone. As a fielder, you’re not sitting there waiting because you know he’s going to throw strikes. We’re happy to give him the ball anytime we can get him out there.”
Riggs dominated the Hurricanes in a Game 2 victory, but this time around Margate seemed to have his number. The Hurricanes sprinted out to a 7-1 lead after two innings, as they rallied for four runs in the top of the second. Monny Strickland, who finished with three hits and has five in the past two games, laced an RBI single to right off his former high school teammate to make it 4-1 and Eric Fitzgerald followed with a two-run double to the gap in right-center. Law added a run-scoring single later in the inning to push the lead to 7-1.
“It was just taking advantage of mistakes, which is tough because he’s usually a mistake-free pitcher. My brother (Jason) said it best, when you’re facing Riggs it’s like a chess match. He has four pitches he can beat you with, so if he makes a mistake you have to take advantage of it, and luckily we were able to. It was more toward the count, whatever I thought he might go with. I was lucky to get something up in the zone and drive it,” Law said. “I still feel like the first couple of games — despite us not scoring many runs — we looked comfortable at the plate. Our swings were still good, it was a matter-of-time type of deal, and that’s how baseball is. Luckily we were hanging in there enough to roll with the punches and get it back to even.”
A six-run lead for Adams was plenty, even though Northfield used home runs by J.J. Swentkowski and Juan Mejia in the third to cut the lead to 7-4. Just as quickly, though, Margate extended its lead to 9-4 in the fourth on an RBI single by Law and a bloop single to center by Dave Housel that scored Law. Adams retired six of the next eight batters after that to keep the Cardinals at bay. A Northfield run scored in the fifth on an infield error and shortstop Justin Epifanio hit a towering solo homer to center in the seventh, but Adams was able to shut the door to pick up the win.

“I think that’s a big win for us. I didn’t have my best stuff today and they played the best possible game they could, and we won, so I think we’re looking good for Game 5. We’re looking forward to tomorrow. We got off to a good start, Charlie hit the three-run home run to give us a boost, and that’s hard to come back from. And our offense tacked on, inning after inning. The offense really picked me up,” Adams said. “(Northfield) was being really aggressive early in the count and I’m a majority fastball pitcher, so I was kind of feeding into what they were trying to do. In the middle (of the game) we settled down and adjusted, and it worked pretty well.”
What once looked like a runaway sweep for the second straight year for Northfield has suddenly turned into a dogfight, and after two straight wins the Hurricanes are feeling confident they can complete the comeback on Tuesday night.
“We didn’t get off to a good start (in this series) but we’ve put it together the last couple of games, especially on offense,” Adams said. “The pitching has been pretty good, so we’re looking forward to getting a shot at winning it tomorrow.”
Added Law, “We’re happy to have it back in Margate, but for any Game 5 we just have to take the approach we had in these last two games — one game at a time, one at-bat at a time, one pitch at a time. We’ll be back at home, we’ll be nice and comfortable, and it’s one game. We’ve won one game before, and we can win one again.”
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
SERIES RECAP (Best-of-5)
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: Tuesday, 7 p.m., Northfield at Margate