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on May 28, 2014 9:22 p.m.
Mark Bobko stood at third base and looked across the infield, seeing the bases full of his teammates.
In the bottom of the seventh inning with the bases loaded, one out and St. Joseph locked in a scoreless tie with South Plainfield, Bobko represented the winning run. He just needed to get home, and Reid Miranda was his ticket to do so.
“He has the best eye on the team,” Bobko said.
Miranda watched as a fastball sailed high and out of the strike zone for a five-pitch walk, bringing Bobko home and giving St. Joseph a walk-off 1-0 victory over South Plainfield in the championship game of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament last night at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater.
“This is just a crazy amount of anxiety right now,” Bobko said. “Everything is going through me. It’s a surreal feeling.”
Entering the seventh inning, neither team had been able to register any success offensively, as St. Joseph ace Brandon Bielak pitched a one-hitter to out-duel South Plainfield’s Kyle Moroney, who allowed just four hits.
Both starters turned in a complete game. Bielak finished with nine strikeouts and one walk. Moroney struck out two and walked one.
“I just wanted to get up there in the seventh and start something,” Bobko said. “I just wanted to put the ball in play.”
Bobko led off the seventh with a line-drive single into right field, advanced to second when Bielak singled up the middle and went to third when J.T. Shorter was hit by a pitch.
That sent Miranda to the plate and he managed to bring home Bobko with the only run.
“I waited my entire life for this,” Bobko said. “It’s the greatest feeling in the world.”
http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news/article/-8678341191030165684/south-plainfield-0-at-st-joseph-met-1-greater-middlesex-conference-tournament-final-round-baseball/
St. Joseph walks off with GMC baseball title
Greg Tufaro, @GregTufaro
Moroney issued a bases-loaded walk to Reid Miranda with one away in the bottom of the seventh as St. Joseph snapped a scoreless deadlock for a dramatic 1-0 victory over the Tigers in Wednesday’s Greater Middlesex Conference Baseball Tournament final before a crowd of more than 1,000 at TD Bank Ballpark.
The championship was the first for the Falcons (21-9) since 2009 and their fifth in the last decade.
Senior right-hander Brandon Bielak, headed to the University of Notre Dame on a full baseball scholarship, was near flawless in outdueling Moroney (7-1), who entered the game having allowed just two earned runs in 44 innings.
Bielak struck out nine, walked one and allowed one hit (a second-inning single to Nick Polizzano) on a brilliant 83-pitch effort. He retired the last 15 batters after working out of a second-and-third jam with none away in the third inning.
“That’s why he’s our guy,” St. Joseph coach Steve Bucchignano said of Bielak, who improved his record to 8-1 and lowered his ERA to 0.60.
“I bet there were a lot of people here who thought he was going to break (in the third inning). I’ve watched that movie 100 times and 100 times I’ve watched him escape and not give up anything. He bended and he didn’t break. Notre Dame is getting a real good one. We are going to miss the heck out of that kid because of his competitiveness and what he does for us out on the field.”
After Mark Bobko (2-for-3) led off the seventh with his team-leading 42nd hit of the season, Bielak followed with a single of his own.
“Before the inning started I said (to Bobko), ‘You get on, I’ll get on,’ and that’s how it went,” Bielak said. “As soon as that happened, I knew we were going to win that game.”
Pat Geiger struck out when he failed to sacrifice with two strikes, sending JT Shorter to the plate with one away. Moroney hit Shorter in the left arm with his initial offering to load the bases. The South Plainfield coaching staff protested that Shorter, who wears a protective guard over his elbow and forearm, made no effort to move out of the way of the pitch.
Moroney, whose pinpoint accuracy resulted in just seven walks through 51 innings this season, uncharacteristically worked the count to 3-0 to Miranda (it marked only the second time that Moroney threw more than two balls to any batter in the entire game). Miranda took a called strike before Moroney’s next fastball was high and outside, forcing Bobko home with the game’s only run as one of the best pitchers’ duels in GMCT history came to an unfitting end.
“Going down 3-0 (in the count) I was shaken,” Moroney said. “I knew that my season was coming to its end. I looked at my teammates and they had all the trust in the world in me. That wasn’t an issue. I think I might have been trying a little too hard and it (the 3-1 pitch) just got away from me. As soon as I let it go, I just started walking away. I knew it wasn’t going to end well and I didn’t want to look at that.”
As Miranda casually walked to first base after tossing his bat toward the St. Joseph dugout, Bobko sprinted home to be mobbed by teammates after touching the plate. Moroney immediately walked off the back of the mound, removed his cap and knelt to the ground as the raucous celebration behind him ensued.
“To be honest,” Miranda said of his final at-bat, “I was nervous but I knew there were three runners on base. It was a team effort from everybody. I wouldn’t have done it (delivered the game-winning RBI) without Bielak’s pitching.”
Miranda was robbed of an extra-base hit in his previous at-bat by right fielder Nick Polizzano’s spectacular diving catch. Miranda became St. Joseph’s starting outfielder after teammate Brandon Ciambruschini was felled by an injury.
“It came down to the last pitch and I had faith in Reid,” Bielak said. “He didn’t start in the beginning of the year but when (Ciambruschini) went down, he took a spot and did really well this year. I’m proud of him.”
Until the seventh inning, St. Joseph did not advance a runner past first base as Moroney took a two-hitter into the final frame.
Catcher Justin Marks erased Bobko on an attempted steal of second following an infield single to end the first, and Dan Iannaccone was doubled off first after singling to lead off the sixth when Nick Johnson lined back to Moroney on an attempted sacrifice.
South Plainfield’s only chance to score came in the third. Chris Graves fouled off two two-strike offerings to work the count full and earn an eight-pitch walk. Mike Polizzano reached on an infield error when freshman second baseman Justin Willis threw the ball away attempting to force Graves at second on a hard-hit grounder. With runners on second and third, L.J. Scarpitto was retired on a comebacker. Bielak fanned leadoff batter Kyle Dickerson on three pitches, the last a nasty curveball. Willis redeemed himself, snaring a line drive off the bat of Bryan Gillen to end the inning.
“I’ve been in plenty of those spots,” Bielak said of the third-inning jam. “I just went out there and bulldogged it. I did my best out there for the guys.”
Moroney did his best as well, but in the end, the South Plainfield ace, who entered the seventh having thrown just 59 pitches, said “the pressure” just snowballed after he allowed those back-to-back singles.
“It was the one time he really wasn’t locating (pitches the entire game),” South Plainfield coach Anthony Guida said. “Maybe the pressure of the game got to him for the first time all year.
“It definitely wasn’t a fitting way to lose on a bases-loaded walk as well as he pitched.”
