Father & Son Juniors off to a perfect start And showing a flair for the dramatic BY SHAWN LAYTON Correspondent EDISON - While the Father & Son Junior American Legion team is off to a 7-0 start to the summer season, the wins have not always come easy. Last week, the team needed two come-from-behind victories in the seventh inning to stay unbeaten heading into this week's action. Father & Son will look to remain unbeaten with a home game today against visiting Monroe before closing the week with contests against Old Bridge and Colonia. In a match-up with Metuchen last week, Father & Son was staring its first defeat in the face down 2-1 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Pinch-hitter Andrew Sporer led off the inning with a base on balls and was replaced by pinch-runner Kyle Paganelli. First baseman David Goodman advanced the runner to second on a sacrifice bunt. With the tying run on second, Andrew Rivera was retired on a fly ball for the second out of the inning. Metuchen intentionally walked right fielder Anthony Caiola to put runners on the corners with shortstop Matt Rohal due up. Walking Caiola to get to Rohal proved to be a mistake, as Rohal's two-out single tied the game. With Rohal on first, Metuchen had to pitch to clean-up man Stephen Nappe. Nappe made the opposition pay with a three-run walk-off homer. For Nappe, it was his team-leading third home run to go with his team-leading 14 RBIs. He enters this week's action hitting .430. "It was a pretty dramatic inning," Father & Son head coach Tom D'Agostino said. "We really struggled the first six innings offensively before we finally got going. We knew Metuchen was a solid team going into the game, and they proved it." Edison High School's Chris Virag tossed a complete game to earn his third victory of the season for Father & Son. Metuchen's Mike Jachim took the loss despite a strong outing. "Chris is the ace of the staff and he wants the ball in the big games," D'Agostino said. "We knew he'd be the ace from the get-go, and he hasn't disappointed us." Virag came through earlier in the week with another complete-game victory that ended in similar fashion to the Metuchen contest. Trailing South Brunswick 2-1 in the seventh, Father & Son put together a five-run rally to earn the 6-2 victory. Pinch-hitter Nick Marics led off the frame with a walk and moved to third off Goodman's one-out double. South Brunswick walked Rivera to load the bags, and it was Caiola's two-run single that put Father & Son ahead 3-2. Rohal doubled to drive in two more before Dan Shymanski reached on an error to knock in the team's sixth run. "Our obvious strength is the way we swing the bats," D'Agostino said. "From top to bottom the team has produced offensively, and I feel very confident going to the bench if I need to at times. Our big concern is if we can pitch consistently. We do a good job of working counts and we feel that our bats will come alive at some point. As long as our pitching can keep us in games, we should be all right." In addition to the two last-inning heroics from last week, Father & Son also scored a big win over St. Joe's by a 25-5 score. "We're getting to good clubs by wearing down the starting pitchers," D'Agostino said. "I really like the make-up of this year's team because they come to play every day. My assistant coaches Brandon Beard and Mark Lewandowski have been instrumental in the success of the team and getting the guys ready to play."