Written by
Greg Tufaro
@MyCJ_Sports
MIDDLESEX — The problem opponents have when facing the Middlesex High School baseball team is there is almost no way to pitch around its potent lineup.
South Plainfield discovered that the hard way, squandering a sixth-inning lead en route to a 13-5 defeat on Thursday in which the Blue Jays racked up 16 hits, seven of which came when Middlesex batted around in the decisive final frame.
“With this lineup everybody can hit,” said cleanup batter Brennan Price, who raised his season RBI total to 14 with a three-run homer that produced the final margin. “There’s not really a weak spot to our lineup. Everybody is driving the ball. We really just feed off each other. We pick each other up.”
The first sight opponents witness when the team bus pulls into the Middlesex baseball complex is a batting cage erected in front of the field. Some Blue Jays are taking BP inside the cage. Others are hitting soft toss.
The steady ping of aluminum bats crushing balls reflects the team’s commitment to offense and ominously forebodes the sound opposing pitchers will soon hear.
The Middlesex hitting stars vary from day to day. Against South Plainfield, it was senior third baseman Walter Byleckie’s turn to shine.
After intentionally walking the previous batter to load the bases for Byleckie in the sixth, South Plainfield employed the same strategy in the seventh.
Both times, Byleckie made the Tigers pay dearly, accounting for a total of five RBI to turn the tide while leading Middlesex, ranked No. 1 in the Home News Tribune Top 10, to a resounding comeback.
“At first it’s almost like, “Wow! You really think I can’t hit?’ ” Byleckie said of stepping into the box following an intentional walk. “But then once you are up there, you’re like, now it’s time to bear down and see what you can do with men on base.”
After intentionally walking leadoff batter Tyler Heisch to set up a force at any base with two away in the sixth, Byleckie drilled a 1-0 fastball down the left field line for a bases-clearing triple that gave the Blue Jays a 6-5 lead.
In the top of the seventh, Heisch received another free pass to load the bases with one away. Byleckie responded yet again, this time with a two-run single to left that gave Middlesex a 10-5 cushion.
“I know Byleckie can hit but he’s 0-for-3 (in the game),” South Plainfield coach Anthony Guida said. “We had first base open again (in the seventh) and he’s 1-for-4 so we said “Let’s try it again” and it didn’t work.”
Unlike its two meetings against South Plainfield last season, during which Middlesex hurlers threw a mere 144 total pitches and yielded just one run, the Tigers proved to be more formidable Thursday at the plate.
South Plainfield registered 15 hits but stranded 12 runners – five in scoring position – and had three runners picked off.
The Tigers similarly received production throughout their lineup and chased starter Kris Fellin, forcing Middlesex to use Heisch, who was Friday’s scheduled starter.
South Plainfield rallied for three runs in the fifth to take a 5-3 lead. No. 8 batter Sal Esposito and No. 9 hitter Jeff Pellegrino, who left the bases loaded with one away in the second, would not be denied when an identical scenario presented itself in the fifth.
Esposito knotted the contest at 3-3 with an RBI single. Pellegrino, who botched a suicide squeeze earlier in his at-bat, redeemed himself three pitches later with a two-run double to left center.
South Plainfield’s lead, however, was short-lived thanks to the Byleckie’s heroics.
“For him to do it twice, you’ve got to give him a lot of credit,” Middlesex coach Mike O’Donnell said of Byleckie’s at-bats following the intentional walks. “That’s clutch. I’m proud of him.”
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20130404/NJSPORTS0130/304040066/Middlesex-hammers-16-hits-beat-S-Plainfield
“I know Byleckie can hit but he’s 0-for-3 (in the game),” South Plainfield coach Anthony Guida said. “We had first base open again (in the seventh) and he’s 1-for-4 so we said “Let’s try it again” and it didn’t work.”
Unlike its two meetings against South Plainfield last season, during which Middlesex hurlers threw a mere 144 total pitches and yielded just one run, the Tigers proved to be more formidable Thursday at the plate.
South Plainfield registered 15 hits but stranded 12 runners – five in scoring position – and had three runners picked off.
The Tigers similarly received production throughout their lineup and chased starter Kris Fellin, forcing Middlesex to use Heisch, who was Friday’s scheduled starter.
South Plainfield rallied for three runs in the fifth to take a 5-3 lead. No. 8 batter Sal Esposito and No. 9 hitter Jeff Pellegrino, who left the bases loaded with one away in the second, would not be denied when an identical scenario presented itself in the fifth.
Esposito knotted the contest at 3-3 with an RBI single. Pellegrino, who botched a suicide squeeze earlier in his at-bat, redeemed himself three pitches later with a two-run double to left center.
South Plainfield’s lead, however, was short-lived thanks to the Byleckie’s heroics.
“For him to do it twice, you’ve got to give him a lot of credit,” Middlesex coach Mike O’Donnell said of Byleckie’s at-bats following the intentional walks. “That’s clutch. I’m proud of him.”
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20130404/NJSPORTS0130/304040066/Middlesex-hammers-16-hits-beat-S-Plainfield
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Trailing 5-3 after five innings, Byleckie hit a bases-clearing triple in the top of the sixth to take the lead. Middlesex then scored seven in the seventh to seal the victory. Brennan Price drilled a three-run home run in the seventh to cap a 3-for-5, four RBI day for Middlesex. Jeff Pellegrino went 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI for South Plainfield.
http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news/article/-5146195904648943485/middlesex-13-at-south-plainfield-5-
baseball/
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