Mendez a 'strike machine' 



Saturday, May 24, 2003


By Steve Rosenberg 
Journal staff writer 

Senior pitcher Jairo Mendez flirted with perfection, and he and his teammates 
put on a hitting clinic as second-seeded Kearny routed seventh-seed Ferris of 
Jersey City, 12-0, in yesterday's second-round NJSIAA North 1, Group IV 
tournament game at Franklin Field. The game was stopped after five innings. 

The Kardinals (18-2) host the North Bergen-Fair Lawn winner Tuesday at 
Franklin Field. The Bulldogs finished the season at 13-12. 


The game, which was played entirely in the rain, had a 30-minute delay prior 
to the start of the fourth inning, as Kearny coaches scrambled to dry the base 
paths, mound and cutouts. 

But the delay did not deter Mendez (5-1), who picked up right where he left 
off in dominating the Ferris batters. He retired the first 11 batters before 
Izzy Cuadra reached on a questionable call. 

The wet ball rolled off the fingers of second baseman Frank Bifulco on a 
throw to first as the ball sailed down the first base line. That prompted first 
baseman Rob Kelly to leave the bag and lunge to tag Cuadra. It appeared he made 
the tag, but Cuadra was ruled safe at first on the errant throw. 

"The rain delay and losing the perfect game did not bother me at all," said 
Mendez, who settled for the first no-hitter of his career. "I just wanted to 
get the win. My fastball had a lot of movement today." 

Even when Mendez, who struck out nine, fell behind in the count, he was not 
afraid to go right at batters. The count went full only three times and that 
was after the delay. 

"He is a strike machine," said Keanry coach Jim Sickinger. "He is a real cool 
customer. Nothing gets to him. When he is on the mound, you know you are 
going to get a quality performance. 

"We have been concentrating on waiting for our pitch and staying on top of 
the ball. We hit a lot of line drives today. We can be a streaky hitting team, 
but lately we have been consistent. We needed a five-inning game after playing 
nine games in 12 days." 

Kearny scored three quick runs in the first inning. B.J. Josko drew a leadoff 
walk and scored from first on a double to right-center by Joe Socci. Bifulco 
reached on a bunt-single, Hugh MacDonald walked to load the bases and the next 
two runs scored on ground outs by Mendez and Kelly. 

"Once I had the 3-0 lead I felt the game was ours," said Mendez. "The only 
thing that was going to stop us was the rain (prior to the fifth inning)." 

Mendez helped pad the lead with a two-run homer to right, capping a five-run 
outburst that put the Kardinals ahead 8-0. MacDonald had an RBI double. 

"We knew what we were facing," said Ferris coach Mike Hogan. "Kearny is a 
very good team. They pitch well, are a solid hitting team and play well on 
defense. We needed to play a perfect game. You can't afford to give them walks with 
the way they hit the ball. That set the stage the first two innings." 

Socci ripped an RBI-triple in the third inning while Mike Landi and Ryan 
Romer laced RBI singles in a three-run fourth. 

Jonathan Boniquez (4-2) pitched the first two innings and took the loss. 
Giovanni Molina pitched the next two.