South Plainfield's #21 Chris Marrero gets St.Joseph's #22 Pat Geiger out on a force play at home plate. GMC baseball Tournament game, St. Joseph versus South Plainfield, North Brunswick, NJ May 14 2015.
Mary Iuvone/For The Home News
St. Joseph baseball advances to GMC semifinal
Daniel LoGiudice, @danny_logiudice
8:21 p.m. EDT May 14, 2015
NORTH BRUNSWICK – A nice mixture of veteran experience and underclassmen talent helped the St. Joseph baseball team claim a win on Thursday afternoon.
St. Joseph defeated South Plainfield 8-7 in the GMC Tournament quarterfinal. The Falcons (17-8) will play the winner of J.P. Stevens and Sayerville on Saturday in the semifinal.
“This matchup is always tough for me because they’re my alma mater, so I don’t want to root against them, but I want to beat them,” St. Joseph coach Steve Bucchignano said. “That’s a good team over there and we did a good job of battling and sticking to our approach.”
Sophomore Nick Loffredo led the Falcons, going 2-3 with five RBI’s on the day. Freshman Jon Sot was also a table setter at the top of the lineup, going 2-4 with a stolen base, a RBI and a run scored.
“With each of the underclassmen, each one has stepped up somewhere along the way,” Bucchignano said. “It was nice to see Nicky have a real good game.”
Loffredo got the Falcons on the board early with a sac fly in the top of the second inning and gave his team a 1-0 lead.
After an RBI single by Jack Gillis tied the score at one in the bottom half of the second, the Falcon bats came alive in the third inning.
With the bases loaded, Pat Geiger grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored one run. Loffredo then hit a bases-clearing double to dead center off South Plainfield starter Jake Alba, giving the Falcons a 5-1 lead.
“He threw me a fastball in the second pitch of every at-bat,” Loffredo said. “He threw me a fastball down the middle and I had to take that and hit it as hard as I possibly could.”
In the bottom half of the inning, the Tigers (16-8) rallied with four runs of their own to tie the game, including a double by Tommy Dunn off Falcon starter Mike Farr that brought in two runs. Junior Connor Dolan came in with one out and limited the bleeding for the Falcons.
After Dolan shut down the Tigers in the bottom of the fourth, Loffredo reclaimed the lead again with an RBI infield single, putting the Falcons ahead 6-5. After Ross Maertz scored on a wild pitch and Jon Sot brought in a run with a bloop single, the Falcons had a 8-5 lead after 5 ½ innings, a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Dolan pitched superbly in relief, going 4 2/3 innings and giving up only two runs, a two-run home run from Kyle Dickerson in the bottom of the sixth.
“We wanted someone with experience in the backend to keep things calm when things got rough,” Bucchignano said. “Connor settled in and kept his composure.”
Staff writer Daniel LoGiudice: dlogiudice@njpressmedia.com
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/sports/high-school/baseball/2015/05/14/st-joseph-baseball-advances-gmc-semifinal/27339615/
St. Joseph (Met.) (8) at South Plainfield (7), Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament, Quarterfinal Round - Baseball
By The Star Ledger
on May 14, 2015 9:40 PM
Nick Loffredo went 1-for-4 with a double and two RBI for fifth-seeded St. Joseph (Met.) in its 8-7 victory over fourth-seeded South Plainfield in the quarterfinal round of The Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament in South Plainfield.
Travis Adams and Jon Snot each had a multi-hit game for St. Joseph (Met.), which scored three runs in the fifth inning to break a 5-5 tie.
Kyle Dickerson finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored, a home run and two RBI to lead the way for South Plainfield.
http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news/article/7559579797192023583/st-joseph-met-8-at-south-plainfield-7-greater-middlesex-conference-tournament-quarterfinal-round-baseball/
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