"After the first inning, striking out the side, I was motivated to get after batters and I just felt good today," said Caravella. "After taking the lead, I felt more comfortable and I wasn’t afraid to throw strikes because I knew my defense would pick me up."

In the first four innings, the Golden Knight pitcher faced the minimum 12 batters and was cruising toward a shutout. The key for Caravella was getting ahead in the count, and he threw 14 first-pitch strikes to the 25 batters he faced in the game.

"The reason I was able to get ahead was because one of my strong points is hitting the outside corner and today the umpire was giving it to me," said Caravella.

On offense, in the early going, Old Tappan couldn’t find holes in the infield, as grounders were corralled by the Cowboy defense and gunned to first. That changed in the third, when the Golden Knights scored the first run of the game.

Mike O’Reilly reached on an error, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and to third on a ground out. He scored on a throwing error.

"We got our bunts down, made things happen and put the ball in play, which gives us a chance for the possibility of opposing errors," said designated hitter Chan Park. "Speed and awareness are our strengths."

The Golden Knights struck again the next inning by working the count, taking pitches and drawing an important walk.

"Early in the game we want the pitcher to throw a lot because it gives us a chance to see what he has," said Old Tappan coach Tim Byron. "If his pitch count is high his velocity will drop. We’re not a power hitting team, but we have good speed and rely on bunting runners over."

Park exemplified what Byron said to perfection. He engineered a walk on a full count, stole second and came around to score on a Max Blank RBI single through the shortstop hole.

"We don’t strike out a lot and we put the ball in play," said Blank. "Today everyone seemed flat in warm ups, but once we took the early lead we were energized."

Caravella did the rest, running into trouble only once in the fifth inning when he a hit a batter on an 0-2 pitch. Cowboy left fielder Tim Noe followed by slapping a ground ball by the shortstop, which scored the hustling Rob Sobel.

In the following frame, the Old Tappan defense shined and flashed the leather on a double play to end any chance of a Pascack Hills threat.

"When Alex pitches sometimes our defense gets lazy because no one hits off him," said Blank. "But when we do get an opportunity we make the most of it. When we were up 2-1 we had all the confidence in the world that Alex would close it out."

Caravella did close it out in convincing fashion striking out the last two batters he faced.

"Today was a day where Alex carried us and he was dominant," said Byron. "Today it was our pitching and defense that earned us the win. We’re working hard, paying attention to detail and taking it one game at a time with our best effort."

With the league win, Old Tappan sits atop the NBIL at 5-1 and is hoping their pitching will prevail during the season and in the county and state tournaments. They are ranked No. 2 in The Record poll.

"This win does a lot for our team," said Park. "We’re first in the league and it puts us in a better position for states where home field advantage is big."