St. Joseph walks off with GMCT quarterfinal win
Greg Tufaro,
Bridgewater Courier News
Published May 5, 2019
As Tom Faggioni stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one away in the bottom of the eighth, the senior catcher felt the world closing in on him.
Not only was the opposing team’s infield now playing on the grass, spectators who were watching another Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament quarterfinal on an adjacent diamond were also crowding around the field.
“The other game is done and everybody came over,” Faggioni said. “I can’t even tell you what I was thinking. It was all emotion. I was just thinking give (pinch runner) Garrett Smith on third base a chance to score. Do anything to put the ball in play.”
After watching consecutive sliders float past him for strikes and taking a third offering for a ball, Faggioni finally got the pitch he wanted and drove a fastball through the left side of the infield as the St. Joseph High School baseball team walked off with a 4-3 comeback victory over defending champion South Plainfield at North Brunswick’s Community Park on Saturday.
The fourth-seeded Falcons advanced to the league tournament semifinals against top-seeded Old Bridge, which was an 8-1 winner over Metuchen in Saturday’s other quarterfinal.
The semifinal, which will be contested on Tuesday at Rutgers University’s Bainton Field at 4:30 p.m., is a rematch of a regular-season meeting between the schools, which Old Bridge won 3-1.
Old Bridge ace Sonny Fauci, a St. John’s University signee, and St. Joseph ace Adam Boucher, a Duke University commit, are the scheduled starters.
Third-seeded South Brunswick and 15th-seeded Piscataway will meet in the other semifinal at 2 p.m. Those schools split their regular-season series. South Brunswick ace Jacob Ciccone, a Lafayette College signee, is expected to face Piscataway ace Jayson Mahmood.
Aiden Drury started the eighth-inning rally with a one-out single off Justin Jones, who relieved South Plainfield starter Jordan Hamberg. Derek Zelesnick beat out a sacrifice bunt and Matt Sot drew a walk to load the bases for Faggioni, whose two-out RBI single in the fourth inning enabled St. Joseph to forge a 3-3 tie.
Faggioni went 3-for-5 with two RBI and Boucher went 3-for-4 as the duo accounted for all but five of St. Joseph's 11 hits. The Falcons stranded nine runners.
St. Joseph starter Jake Hellwig bounced back from a rocky start, giving his teammates a chance to chip away at 2-0 and 3-1 deficits before turning the ball over in the sixth inning to freshman lefthander Donovan Zsak.
Zsak retired all nine batters he faced, six via strikeout. He fanned three hitters on full-count offerings and three more on 2-2 pitches. Zsak struck out the side looking in the top of the eighth.
“I would like to thank the coaches for having confidence in me to go in during that big situation,” said Zsak, a precocious freshman who has already made a nonbinding commitment to the University of Virginia.
“Earlier in the season I struggled a bit with my command and my control. I felt the last couple of games I’ve been out there I’ve been throwing pretty well. I thought today was a real eye-opener for a lot of people that saw me pitch early in the season. Today was the kind of performance I expect from myself.”
Zsak allowed 10 earned runs over four innings of work in early April against Sayreville and Edison. During his last four outings, Zsak has yielded just two earned runs over 15 innings including five frames against perennial state power Seton Hall Prep.
“Through his first couple of outings you saw flashes of it, but he was going real fast trying to show everybody how good he was,” St. Joseph head coach Mike Murray said. “Two weeks ago against Seton Hall Prep, I thought that was his coming out party. He threw the ball great there and has been rolling since. He’s got great stuff. When he’s in the strike zone, he’s really tough to hit.”
South Plainfield took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. TJ Massaro led off with a bunt single and Mike Marrero drew a full-count walk. Hellwig fanned the next two batters before Rob Gonzalez followed with a clutch two-run double. Hellwig whiffed the next hitter to limit the damage.
“Jake’s a perfectionist,” Murray said of his senior righthander, who owns a 19-5 career record. “He came into the dugout feeling like he let us down. There’s nobody in this tournament I feel better having the baseball than Jake Hellwig. He was able to bounce back and keep competing. He kept us in position to tie the game and then go win it.”
St. Joseph (16-7) trimmed the deficit in half in the bottom of the first. Seb Mueller drew a two-out walk on four pitches. Boucher followed with a single and Dave Razzano walked on four pitches, loading the bases for Caleb Carter, who kept his hands back on a curveball and drilled the ball to left field for a clutch run-scoring single. Hamberg fanned the next batter to preserve a 2-1 lead.
South Plainfield (14-8) got the run back in the top of the second. Cooper Smith led off with a single, advanced to second on Chris Born’s sacrifice and scored on Massaro’s two-out single.
The Falcons answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning. Sot and Faggioni reached on consecutive two-out hits before Mueller delivered an RBI single to right, trimming South Plainfield’s lead to 3-2.
Hamberg, who threw a perfect game with 13 strikeouts in his previous outing against Woodbridge, a team St. Joseph needed eight innings to defeat by an identical 4-3 score in the first round of the conference tournament, had excellent command of his breaking ball and confidently pitched the Falcons backwards.
After allowing a leadoff single and a full-count walk in the fifth, Hamberg retired the next three batters in succession to escape the jam and preserve the 3-3 tie.
Jones entered in relief and flummoxed St. Joseph with his slider in the sixth, striking out two batters and giving Faggioni a good idea of what he could expect during his game-winning at-bat in the eighth.
South Plainfield was pesky at the plate for the game’s duration. The Tigers fouled off a total of 14 two-strike offerings, illustrating their tenacity. South Plainfield, however, stranded seven runners, four in scoring position.
“I told them we didn’t do anything wrong to lose the game,” South Plainfield head coach Anthony Guida said. “St. Joe’s won the game. They put big innings together with two outs. Our inability to shut an inning down is what hurt us. I continue to tell them to keep their heads up.
“We played a hell of a good game. They played a little bit better
https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/sports/high-school/baseball/2019/05/11/nj-baseball-st-joseph-walks-off-with-gmct-quarterfinal-win/1180192001/
Faggioni wins it in 8th for St. Joseph (Met.) baseball in GMCT quarters
St. Joseph (Met.) catcher Tom Faggioni in action earlier this season. (Steve Hockstein | For NJ Advance Media)
By
on May 11, 2019 11:54 PM, updated May 12, 2019 1:32 PM
on May 11, 2019 11:54 PM, updated May 12, 2019 1:32 PM
Tom Faggioni sent everyone home Saturday evening.
"I was just trying to do my job and put the ball in play," the senior said.
He sure did, grounding a single through the hole on the left side on a 1-2 pitch to give fourth-seeded St. Joseph of Metuchen a 4-3 win in eight innings over fifth-seeded South Plainfield in the quarterfinals of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament at North Brunswick Community Park.
The teams battled to a 3-3 standoff through seven innings, as South Plainfield starter Jordan Hamberg scattered eight hits while striking out four and walking three in his duel with St. Joseph's Jake Hellwig, who allowed five hits while fanning nine and walking four.
Hellwig gave way to St. Joseph freshman phenom Donovan Zsak, a lefty who entered in the sixth and tossed three perfect innings, striking out six.
Left-hander Justin Jones relieved Hamberg for South Plainfield in the seventh and allowed just one hit in the inning but fell victim to some tough luck in the eighth inning.
With one out, Aidan Drury lined a ball down the first-base line that went off the glove of the first baseman. Derek Zelesnick then reached on a fielding error. After a walk to leadoff man Matt Sot, Faggioni walked it off with a single to left field.
"It was just an unfortunate bounce that opened their inning," South Plainfield coach Anthony Guida said.
It gave the victory to Zsak, who committed to the University of Virgina in November, months before he even played in a high school game.
He has only gotten better since then.
"As the year has been going on, he's really slowed himself down and gotten himself in a good rhythm on the mound," St. Joseph coach Mike Murray Jr. said.
It did not start well for St. Joseph. South Plainfield second baseman Rob Gonzalez ripped a two-out double in the first inning to give South Plainfield a 2-0 lead.
St. Joseph (15-7) would answer in the bottom of the first. The first two hitters of the inning were retired, but the next three reached safely, which set up an RBI single from third baseman Caleb Carter. Hamberg would do a good job limiting the damage, striking out the next batter.
South Plainfield (14-8) answered in the top of the second. With two out and a runner on second base, TJ Massaro hit an RBI single that gave South Plainfield a 3-1 lead.
St. Joseph wasted no time answering. After the first two hitters of the inning were retired, Matt Sot and Faggioni reached on singles. That brought up Sebastian Mueller, who singled to bring St. Joseph within one run.
St. Joseph struck again in the fourth inning on a Faggioni RBI single with two out, set up by a single and a steal of second by shortstop Derek Zelesnick two batters earlier.
St. Joseph defeated South Plainfield for the third time this season.
"Early in the week in our round of 16 game, we weren't strong in the situational hitting department, so we were focused on it a lot," Murray said.
St. Joseph will face top-seeded Old Bridge on Tuesday in the semifinals.
"St. Joe's had a lot of their big innings with two outs and nobody on. Our inability to shut down an inning with two outs is what hurt us," Guida said.
http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news/article/8072263900138638290/south-plainfield-3-at-st-joseph-met-4-gmc-championship-tournament-quarterfinals-baseball/
"I was just trying to do my job and put the ball in play," the senior said.
He sure did, grounding a single through the hole on the left side on a 1-2 pitch to give fourth-seeded St. Joseph of Metuchen a 4-3 win in eight innings over fifth-seeded South Plainfield in the quarterfinals of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament at North Brunswick Community Park.
The teams battled to a 3-3 standoff through seven innings, as South Plainfield starter Jordan Hamberg scattered eight hits while striking out four and walking three in his duel with St. Joseph's Jake Hellwig, who allowed five hits while fanning nine and walking four.
Hellwig gave way to St. Joseph freshman phenom Donovan Zsak, a lefty who entered in the sixth and tossed three perfect innings, striking out six.
Left-hander Justin Jones relieved Hamberg for South Plainfield in the seventh and allowed just one hit in the inning but fell victim to some tough luck in the eighth inning.
With one out, Aidan Drury lined a ball down the first-base line that went off the glove of the first baseman. Derek Zelesnick then reached on a fielding error. After a walk to leadoff man Matt Sot, Faggioni walked it off with a single to left field.
"It was just an unfortunate bounce that opened their inning," South Plainfield coach Anthony Guida said.
It gave the victory to Zsak, who committed to the University of Virgina in November, months before he even played in a high school game.
He has only gotten better since then.
"As the year has been going on, he's really slowed himself down and gotten himself in a good rhythm on the mound," St. Joseph coach Mike Murray Jr. said.
It did not start well for St. Joseph. South Plainfield second baseman Rob Gonzalez ripped a two-out double in the first inning to give South Plainfield a 2-0 lead.
St. Joseph (15-7) would answer in the bottom of the first. The first two hitters of the inning were retired, but the next three reached safely, which set up an RBI single from third baseman Caleb Carter. Hamberg would do a good job limiting the damage, striking out the next batter.
South Plainfield (14-8) answered in the top of the second. With two out and a runner on second base, TJ Massaro hit an RBI single that gave South Plainfield a 3-1 lead.
St. Joseph wasted no time answering. After the first two hitters of the inning were retired, Matt Sot and Faggioni reached on singles. That brought up Sebastian Mueller, who singled to bring St. Joseph within one run.
St. Joseph struck again in the fourth inning on a Faggioni RBI single with two out, set up by a single and a steal of second by shortstop Derek Zelesnick two batters earlier.
St. Joseph defeated South Plainfield for the third time this season.
"Early in the week in our round of 16 game, we weren't strong in the situational hitting department, so we were focused on it a lot," Murray said.
St. Joseph will face top-seeded Old Bridge on Tuesday in the semifinals.
"St. Joe's had a lot of their big innings with two outs and nobody on. Our inability to shut down an inning with two outs is what hurt us," Guida said.
http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news/article/8072263900138638290/south-plainfield-3-at-st-joseph-met-4-gmc-championship-tournament-quarterfinals-baseball/
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