South Plainfield 2 Freehold Township 1 (8 Innings)
Another thrilling pitchers duel today as South Plainfield's Dan Hansen faced off against Freehold's Kevin Litus. Both pitchers threw scoreless baseball for 7 innings. Litus had a no-hitter for the first 7 innings. Hansen gave up a few hits early but held Freehold scoreless until the 8th.
Litus helped his own cause by leading off the 8th inning with a single up the middle. He moved to 3rd on an overthrow during a sacrifice bunt making it a first and third situation. A 6-4-3 double play then allowed Litus to score giving Freehold a 1-0 lead.
Litus had held the Tigers hitless for 7 innings, allowing only one baserunner during that time. (Alex Liszewski reaching on an E-6 in the 3rd inning). It was in the 8th inning that the Tigers came alive. Dan Hansen led off the inning with a double to left-center, ending the no-hitter. Chris Kukich came up next looking to sacrifice bunt, but was safe at first due to a wild throw by Litus. Hansen came around to score from second on the play. Kukich hustled to second on the over-throw. With the score now tied at one, Ryan Marcoux put down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Kukich to third. Ryan Hughes and Alex Liszewski were then intentionally walked, loading the bases, to try to set up a force at any base. Quinn Cochrane then walked up to the plate with one out and bases loaded. With the Freehold infield in, Cochrane hit a hard grounder right at a shallow shortstop who couldn't handle it, driving in Kukich for the winning run.
Tigers win a walk-off, 2-1.
Hansen went the distance for the win, yielding 5 hits, 1 walk, 8 strike outs, and picking off 2 baserunners. He also had the only hit for South Plainfield.
A lot of credit goes to Freehold's Kevin Litus, who threw a fantastic 1-hit game for the loss.
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