With lost HS season in the rearview, Lodi’s Geisler makes good on ‘making a memory’ in Last Dance
Chase Geisler was angry.
He was disappointed.
He was upset.
This was supposed to be the year, he believed, that he and his lifelong Lodi baseball teammates took down Rutherford for the NJIC division title.
This was supposed to be the year Geisler – a pitcher who will continue his career next year at Bergen County Community College – followed the family lineage of earning All-Bergen County honors, just as his father and older brother had done before him.
“We were all geared up,” said his father, Kurt, who also serves as the head coach of the high school team. “We had six seniors and they were all geared up and ready to go out and compete.
“They were ready to create some kind of memories.”
The opportunity to even make those memories never came to be, though, as the outbreak of Covid-19 throughout the world denied more than a handful of Lodi seniors their final high school baseball seasons.
Still, for at least one summer night on Wednesday, Lodi baseball made a memory – with Geisler front and center.
Taking on rival Rutherford on Day 2 of the Last Dance World Series Tournament, in need of a win to at least still have an opportunity to advance out of pool play and into the North Round of 16 next week, Geisler took a perfect game into the fifth inning, ended with a 102-pitch, complete game with six strikeouts and carried Lodi to an 8-2 victory on the team’s home turf.
It was a gutsy, bounceback performance from Geisler and the Rams after the team let a lead slip away in Tuesday’s opener against Nutley in an eventual 13-7 loss.
“It was Chase’s opportunity to go out there today and he was fired up to go the whole game against a good team over there,” the elder Geisler said of his son, who also went 1-for-2 with two walks at the plate Wednesday. “I said to them, ‘We didn’t have our season this year, so this is your redemption right here.’ So we went out against the defending champs and treated this game as a championship game.”
There will be no banners raised or trophies earned from Wednesday’s win – nor will any performance this week generate All-County honors.
And depending how things play out Thursday on Day 3 of pool play, all that may be left for Lodi (1-1) is one final game together against Elmwood Park (0-2). To advance, Lodi will need, at minimum, a win of its own and a Rutherford (1-1) win over Nutley (2-0) before any potential tiebreakers get involved.
But, at the very least, whether Lodi advances out of pool play or not, pride was on the line Wednesday – and the Rams made good on making that memory.
“Losing the [high school] season affected me a lot, but when I saw what was going on with this Last Dance, everyone just wanted to come out and play again – no matter what,” Chase Geisler said. “We wanted to play again because it’s family here in Lodi. And beating Rutherford here, that feels amazing to be a part of no matter what else happens.”
GAME NOTES: Lodi took an early 4-0 lead in the second with just one hit. Three runs came in on bases loaded walks and another via a sacrifice fly from Marco Suarez. … Geisler retired the first 12 batters he faced, but lost his bid for a perfect game after an infield error started the fifth. Rutherford later plated two runs in the inning to cut the 4-0 deficit in half and threatened to tie the game with two more runners on before Geisler ended the threat with a strikeout and fly ball to left. … Lodi tacked on three insurance runs immediately after Rutherford got on the board, highlighted by a two-run single from Vinny Vartolone. … Lodi, which generated just five hits, had a combined 14 batters reach base by walk or hit by pitch.
JJ Conrad may be reached at jjconrad8@gmail.com