Four-run seventh gives Liedtka ‘Last Dance’ win over Irish and trip to Lakewood for South Elite 8 game

Fish 4 Scores Sports
Connor Luckie and Kiefer Goss celebrate while airborne after the Dirty Boyz(Hamilton West) took a four-run lead over Lawrence Road Irish (Notre Dame) in the South Section Sweet 16 game at Arm & Hammer Park. Photo by Michael A. Sabo.

By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com

July 21: Once Liedtka Trucking survived the nutty part of the game, it used good old fashioned Dirty Boyz baseball to stage the winning rally.

That is to say, they got a runner on, moved him up, brought him home and stole a base to set up more runs.

Liedtka (Hamilton West) scored four runs in the top of the seventh to take a 6-2 win over the Lawrence Road (Notre Dame) Irish in a Last Dance South section Sweet 16 game at Arm & Hammer Park tonight.

The win advances the Boyz to a South Elite 8 game, 11:30 Wednesday, against Brooklawn at FirstEnergy Park in Lakewood.

With the game tied 2-2, Zac Brown rapped a leadoff single and was sacrificed to second by Connor Luckie. Kiefer Goss was hit by a pitch and Brown scored on David Zamora’s single.

Goss stole third and scored on Nate Rodriguez’s single, and Mike Nielson capped the rally with a two-out, two-run double.

Tyler Solymosi pitched a clean seventh to save it for Nick Diaz, who allowed five hits and two walks (one intentional) while striking out four in six innings.

The game started in crazy fashion. The Dirty Boyz scored a run without getting the ball out of the infield before Nick Feretic struck out three straight with the bases loaded.

In the bottom of the frame, Diaz got the first two outs before Feretic singled, Gavin Martin doubled and both scored on a throwing error. It could have been worse had Brown not made a nice diving catch in rightfield for the inning’s second out.

Dirty Boyz vs Lawrence Road Irish-July 21, 2020

Photos by Michael A. Sabo and Dan Danko III

In the third, the Irish had runners on first and third with two outs before Kiefer Goss made an incredible, diving, backhanded catch to rob Ryan Mignogna of an RBI hit (and possibly more had the ball gotten past him).

The Boyz looked ready to go down meekly in the fourth with two strikeouts to open the inning. Noel Olavarria walked and stole second and third without a throw as the Irish conceded the bases. Olavarria then scored on a passed ball before Feretic got a strikeout on the next pitch.

The defense came up big in the sixth, as Liedtka turned a 4-6-3 double play, and Brown then threw a runner out at first from right field after he hit what appeared to be a single.

The Dirty Boyz then went to work in the seventh to secure their trip to Lakewood.

Brooklawn advanced with a 1-0 win over Middletown North this morning. The team representing Gloucester County did not even qualify for the round of 32 after going 2-1 in pool play, but got a second life when two teams had to drop out over the weekend because several players were exposed to COVID 19.

About The Author


Rich Fisher has been around the Hamilton Township sports scene for so long that he actually got Rich Giallella’s autograph when Giallella was still a player! Proud product of Hamilton YMCA and Lou Gehrig baseball leagues and former teammate of Jim Maher on a very average Barton & Cooney rec basketball team, Fish graduated from Nottingham Junior High and Steinert High school and has covered township sports since 1980. His goal in life is to convince Maria Prato that Jersey tomatoes are at least 100 times better than California tomatoes.