South Plainfield's Jake Alba pitched seven shutout innings against North Hunterdon for his first career varsity victory on Saturday. (Keith A. Muccilli/For The Star-Ledger)
South Plainfield edges North Hunterdon, 1-0, in extra innings
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on April 05, 2014 7 p.m.
on April 05, 2014 7 p.m.
One team was going to make a mistake, and the other would take advantage to score the day's first run and then parlay it into a victory.
South Plainfield ended up being the team that caught the break, as Justin Marks scored from third base on an infield error in the eighth inning to lift the Tigers to a 1-0 triumph over North Hunterdon in Annandale.
"We walked on the field saying, 'Let's make them make the mistake,'" South Plainfield coach Anthony Guida said. "I think they made one mistake, and that mistake helped us."
With the game scoreless in the eighth, Marks singled with two outs and stole second. South Plainfield's Aidan McDermott, a St. John's signee, then hit a slow ground ball to the right side that was mishandled, allowing Marks to score the decisive run.
"It was an absolutely brutal day to hit the baseball," North Hunterdon coach Mike Kane said. "And unfortunately, it was the kind of day that comes down to who is going to make a mistake. We made one, and they capitalized. That's pretty much what it came down to."
Both teams received sensational pitching. South Plainfield sophomore Jake Alba threw seven scoreless innings to earn his first career varsity victory, allowing three hits with seven strikeouts, two walks and a hit batter. RobEggert threw a perfect eighth inning for the save.
North Hunterdon received five strong innings from starter Kurt Thompson, who struck out three and walked two while yielding two hits. Reliever Griffin Hatton was the hard-luck losing pitcher after allowing an unearned run on two hits with a strikeout and a walk over the final three innings.
South Plainfield (2-1) had chances to score in the third and sixth innings, loading the bases in both frames. But each time, North Hunterdon (1-2) found a way to escape unscathed. Thompson got two outs to close out the third and Hatton got a 1-2-3 double play, plus a flyout, to end the sixth after coming on in relief of Thompson.
"We had a lot of guys on," Alba said, "but we just couldn't get them in."
North Hunterdon left four runners on and nearly took the lead in the sixth. With runners on first and third and two outs, North Hunterdon opted to send the runner toward second prior to Alba beginning his motion in order to try and get the runner on third home. But Alba stepped off and threw out the runner trying to get back to first for the final out, much to the chagrin of North Hunterdon, which felt the runner had safely returned to the bag.
Andrew Meiners was 2-for-3 for North Hunterdon. Jon Scott had a hit and a stolen base for the Lions in the loss. Kyle Dickerson, Sean Erhardt and Bryan Gillen each had a hit for South Plainfield.
"Our pitching kept us in the game and our defense kept us in the game," Guida said. "This was a great win for us."
(Keith A. Muccilli/For The Star-Ledger)
http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news/article/7649722779920320464/south-plainfield-1-at-north-hunterdon-0-baseball/
Sophomore righty Jake Alba, making his first varsity start, pitched seven innings for the victory. He struck out eight and allowed four hits – two by catcher Andrew Meiners. Senior righty Rob Eggerts got the save with a 1-2-3 eighth.
South Plainfield is 2-1; North Hunterdon 1-2.
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20140405/NJSPORTS0130/304050012/Baseball-roundup
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