Cranford slays Goliath in LDWS North semis behind 1-hit masterpiece

Loriann Gallagher was a nervous wreck in the stands of TD Bank Ballpark, despite her 16-year-old son in the midst of putting on a show against one of the state’s most elite baseball programs.

“Totally nerve wracking,” she said afterward with a relieved smile. “Exciting. But nerve wracking.”

Her husband, Will Sr., took comfort alongside his wife knowing his son was heeding to essentially the only advice he had prior to him taking the mound against top-seeded Don Bosco Prep in the Last Dance World Series North semifinals.

“I just told him, ‘Throw strikes. Pound the zone. And you’ll be fine,’” Will Sr. said of a pregame exchange. “And, I mean, that was just awesome. He’s awesome. I enjoy everything about watching him play.”

North Jersey better get used to watching him, too.

If Jersey baseball circles didn’t know Will Gallagher before Tuesday afternoon, they’ll certainly know him now.

The rising junior – who did not pitch even one inning during the 2019 season and was expecting to primarily be an infielder this spring – did what several have tried but all have eventually failed this month during the LDWS: completely silence the bats of Don Bosco Prep.

Masterfully listening to his father’s direction, Gallagher kept the dangerous Ironmen bats at bay from start to finish in a 12-0 victory – effectively pounding the zone with a three-pitch arsenal, while flashing the ability to consistently throw any one of those pitches in any count at anytime.

The final result? 

A one-hit, complete game shutout with eight strikeouts – outdueling Don Bosco’s Villanova-bound Devin Rivera – on the biggest stage to date in the LDWS against one of the most stacked lineups in New Jersey, one littered with future Division I talent.

Now, largely thanks to Gallagher’s efforts, it’s public school Cranford foiling the potential Bosco-Bergen party Wednesday night, as it’s the Cougars who will now vie for the North title against Bergen Catholic at Skylands Park in Augusta.

A statement is what the younger Gallagher wanted to make Tuesday – a chance to prove that had the Covid-19 pandemic not denied he and his teammates a spring season that Cranford would have been a major contender for potential league, county, sectional and state titles together.

The Cougars – a North 2, Group 3 quarterfinalist one year ago – were robbed of that opportunity to shine in the spring, but the statement they made on this hot summer day in late July sure felt good, slaying a non-public giant in emphatic fashion.

“It felt great beating a team like Don Bosco – a big powerhouse team,” Gallagher said after his 94-pitch masterpiece, one week after earning a complete game win over reigning Group 4 champion Ridgewood.

“Coming into this game, we had people outside of our team say things like we had no chance. But we knew what kind of team we had. We believed we were going to win and we kept that mentality the whole game. And, look, it’s 12-0 when it’s over.”

Gallagher’s day to remember – which also included two base hits at the plate – started by retiring the first seven Don Bosco batters he faced before running into his only trouble in the third inning.

After Cranford took a 1-0 lead in the top half of the inning, a one-out walk and double from Don Bosco’s Kevin Stefanski had the Ironmen threatening with runners on second and third with one out.

Gallagher, though, did not flinch.

Poised beyond his years, the crafty right-hander escaped the jam like a savvy vet, inducing a 5-2 groundout before registering an inning-ending strikeout. Up against one of the premiere lineups in the tournament, Gallagher faced just four batters over the minimum in a memorable win that certainly had a state tournament-type buzz to it.

Not bad for a kid who received the unexpected start in Cranford’s Last Dance opener three weeks ago – a complete game effort in a 6-3 win over Union – and has run with each opportunity on the mound ever since.

“We knew what Will was capable of doing,” said Cranford coach Dennis McCaffery, whose staff had scouted three of Don Bosco’s games prior to Tuesday in anticipation his team would see the Ironmen in the North Final Four.

“We watched Will pitch all the way from little league through middle school, so what he did today was not a surprise. … This group, they’ve always had success and Will was always right in the middle of it. He comes from a great family, like all the kids do. Cranford is a tight-knit community, a baseball community, and what Will was able to do today was special.”

GAME NOTES: Eleven of Cranford’s 12 runs came in the final three innings. It remained just a 2-0 game into the sixth, before Cranford erupted for six runs, highlighted by a three-run triple from rising sophomore Ryan Jaros, who broke the game open and gave the Cougars a 6-0 lead. Jaros finished with 4 RBIs. … Cranford leadoff hitter Marcus Johnson had five productive plate appearances, going 2-for-2 with two walks and one sac bunt. He scored twice and drove in one. … Cleanup hitter Aiden Plick capped Cranford’s six-run sixth with a mammoth home run to deep right and provided Cranford’s first run of the game with an RBI infield single in the third. … Cranford received production up and down the lineup, with eight of its nine batters scoring at least one run.

JJ Conrad may be reached at jjconrad8@gmail.com