AABC U17 State Tournament Results: South Plainfield 4, South Brunswick 1

South Plainfield Tigers at AABC U17 NJ State Tournament

Game 1 goes to the Tigers.

Another pitchers battle that went into extra innings this time, and South Brunswick blinked first. South Plainfield's Dan Hansen and South Brunswick's Alex Carroll traded innings until the Tigers broke it open in the top of the 9th inning at Nap Torpey Field in Bridgewater.

The first 3 innings were scoreless. Then in the top of the 4th, Dan Hansen led off the inning with a double to left center. Chris Kukich drove Hansen in for the first run with a single to right.

South Brunswick answered right away in the bottom of the 4th. Ariel Torres led off the inning with a triple. Joe Young followed with an infield ground out to score Torres and tie the game at 1.

It stayed that way with both pitchers holding the other team scoreless until the top of the ninth inning. Thats when the Tigers came alive with back to back base hits by Shane O'Connor and Alex Liszewski. Ryan Hutchinson moved both baserunners with a perfect sacrifice bunt. Then with O'Connor on third and Liszewski on second, AJ "Mr Clutch" Celantano did it again, coming up big with a 2 RBI double for the Tigers to take the lead. South Brunswick changed pitchers and Dan Hansen smashed an outside fastball down the right field line for a double, scoring Celantano for run number 4.

Tom Bowden came on in relief in the bottom of the 9th and closed it out for the Tigers.

Mark Tomei, Alex Liszewski and Dan Hansen each had 2 hits on the day. AJ Celantano, Chris Kukich and Shane O'Connor had 1 hit each.

Dan Hansen gave up 1 run on 4 hits, and struck out 7 for the win. Tom Bowden gets the save.

NEXT GAME: Friday July 16th at 5:30 p.m. at Prince Rogers Field in Bridgewater.