GAME #12 Monroe 9, South Plainfield 5

Connor Hughes/For The Star-Ledger

 

 

By Connor Hughes/For The Star-Ledger
on April 23, 2014 8:20 p.m.

 



As Monroe coach Pat Geroni glanced over his team’s roster prior to the start of the season, he prepared himself for a year that would be filled with questions -- and, he hoped, answers.
After watching five senior players graduate, leaving just as many holes in the field, Geroni knew the replacements were talented, but unproven. One of the biggest questions on his mind was how they would bounce back after a difficult loss.
Just 24 hours after watching a game slip away versus South Plainfield, Geroni got his answer. Monroe won the second of a two-game series, 9-5, yesterday in South Plainfield, to improve to 8-2 on the season.
“This is a huge step,” Geroni said. “We wanted to see what we had today, we wanted to see how we’d come out and we really answered the bell. The energy in the dugout was unbelievable from the start.”
Eric Heatter got the start for Monroe and pitched a complete game. The freshman scattered 10 hits, allowed three earned runs, walked two and struck out six.
“To get this win feels great,” Heatter said. “It was a good way to stay composed and the team gave me a lot of run support, which is good.”
After managing just one run and two hits in its 4-1 loss to South Plainfield, Monroe jumped on top early. In the second inning, the team brought 10 batters to the plate and scored five runs, highlighted by Chris Hernandez’s RBI single.
“Coach has been working with us all in the cage,” said Hernandez, who finished 3-for-4 with a run and two RBI. “We’ve been hitting pretty well lately, just trying to keep it up.”
Monroe would add three more runs in the third off an RBI from Kyle Daly, an error and a wild pitch. Despite the 9-1 deficit, South Plainfield worked to mount a comeback.
In the home half of the third, Aidan McDermott hit a two-run home run that sailed well over the 320-foot sign in left field. Four batters later, Sean Erhardt hit an RBI double to cut the lead to 9-4.
With South Plainfield beginning to gain momentum, Heatter simply took a deep breath and brought the game back to his pace.
“I just needed to stay composed, stay within myself and throw strikes,” Heatter said. “That’s all I gotta do.”
Heatter would allow just one run the remainder of the game.
“I remember his first scrimmage, I said, 'he’s a freshman,' ” Geroni said. “Then he struck out three guys in 10 pitches. This wasn’t his best day, the wind in his face was killing his fastball. He’s been striking out two-plus an inning.”
Geroni admitted that when the season began, he wasn’t entirely sure what he’d have. During his three-year tenure with Monroe, seniors, with an underclassman or two sprinkled in, had always dominated the team.
But what the team lacks in experience, it makes up for in something else, he said.
“This whole year the kids have been real gritty, and grit isn’t something we have had at Monroe in the recent past,” Geroni said. “”We’ve had good teams, great players and kids that work hard, but this team tends to get those little jam-shot singles, they lay out in big situations.
“This team is an outstanding ballclub.”
McDermott finished 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI for South Plainfield. Ryan Jendrus went 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBI for Monroe.

http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news/article/-6797012293772231096/south-plainfield-5-at-monroe-9-baseball/