By TONY PISCOTTA
For The Trentonian
VOORHEES - Northern Burlington's Paul Madori drove in the winning run with one out in the bottom of the seventh as the District Five runner-ups remained alive in the Southern Jersey Babe Ruth 13-year-old state tournament by defeating Ewing, 7-6.
In a game that many thought would be a high scoring game as both teams had struggled on the mound earlier in the tournament, Northern's Zach Wright and Stephon DeBoskey of Ewing both did a nice job of keeping their team in the game.
The game was not decided until the final pitch, when Madori singled to right. The seventh innings started with a strikeout by DeBoskey for the first out. Zach Fabian followed with a single to center and when the ball was misplayed he ended up on third as the ball rolled all the way to the fence. Ewing then walked John Guzik intentionally and brought in Jimmy Sparano to face Madori. After falling behind 1-2 Miduri made solid contact.
"At first I was going to bunt just to try and get the win but then when the count went to 1-2 I just tried to put the ball in play, It was a fastball that was up a little and I just tried to get a pop up to right," said Madori, who also got the win on the mound - coming in in relief of Wright in the top of the sixth.
Madori's hit made a hard-luck loser of DeBoskey, who came in one pitch into the third inning and pitched three scoreless innings before allowing a run in the sixth and being charged with the winning run in the seventh.
"He came in and gave us three solid innings and gave us a chance to win," said Ewing manager Joe Sparano.
While DeBoskey's pitching over the middle allowed Ewing to take a 6-5 lead late in the game, Sparano felt Wright's ability to recover from the three-run first, and Ewing's inability to capitalize on late opportunities, were keys to the game's outcome.
"I'm looking at the scoreboard and see three "goose eggs" (after the three run first inning)," said Sparano. "And in one inning (the fifth inning), we had runners on second and third with one out and couldn't get them in. We couldn't come through with the clutch hit."
According to Madori, much of that was due to Wright's pitching.
"Zach Wright pitched a great game tonight," said Madori, who was behind the plate catching for Northern Burlington before coming on in relief. "When I went out to the mound I would tell him, 'Just keep throwing strikes'. And that's what he was doing."
That approach worked for Madori on the mound as well.
After a one-out walk to Keiran Zeimet with the game tied at six in the top of the seventh, Madori induced a pair of harmless pop up - setting the stage for his late heroics.
With the win, Northern Burlington advances to face Nottingham in an elimination game tonight at 8:30.
"We knew a lot of those guys because a lot of the guys on this team play on Hamilton A's teams with them," said Madori.
Ewing, after finishing 1-2 in the South Jersey state tournament, will now try to regroup as it hosts the Mid-Atlantic Regional tournament.
Ewing 300 012 0 - 6-9-2
Northern Burlington 050 001 1 - 7 8 2
WP - Paul Madori. LP -  Stephon DeBoskey.
2B - E - Tyray Brecko N- John Guzik. RBI - E - Brecko 3, Jimmy Sparano N - Guzik, Mike Wainright, Madori. SB -  E - Sparano 2 N - Josh Berg, Noah Goldberg