With Red Division title in its pocket, South Plainfield needs one more to rule GMC

 

Baseball Notebook

May 17, 2024 by Mike Pavlichko

Every year, the top teams in every sport set three main goals: win their division, win the county, win a state title.

For South Plainfield, it’s one down, two to go.

They can’t get to that third one yet. In fact, the state tournament seedings don’t even come out until next Monday. But this Saturday, the Tigers will get their crack at the GMC Tournament championship, when they take on Old Bridge at Ray Cipperly Field in East Brunswick.

Game time is 2 pm, and you can hear it live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe on the call. Pregame begins at 1:30; click here to listen.

Top-seeded South Plainfield is 19-3-1 – ahead of today’s non-conference game with Notre Dame – ranked 11th in the state. But third-seed Old Bridge is no slouch. They’re new to the statewide rankings this week, checking in at No. 18, and are 17-7 overall. and they have a good deal of last year’s Central Jersey Group 4 championship team back, and the experience of going all the way to the state Group 4 final.

Everyone had pegged Old Bridge and Monroe as the favorites to win the Red Division, and considered them serious contenders to win the county tournament. South Plainfield had other ideas from the start, but it was a home-and-home sweep of the Knights two weeks before the GMC seeding that catapulted them into first place. And they cemented that with a sweep of St. Joseph-Metuchen the following werk to make it official.

They’re a team that can hit, and score runs in bunches. They’ve scored 29 runs in the tournament, and were tops among the four semifinalists in that department coming into last weekend’s final four.

They’re a team that can pitch, and play defense. And they can never be counted out.

Their win in the GMC Tournament quarterfinals a week-and-a-half ago was the stuff of legend. They came from five runs down in the seventh to beat South Brunswick 10-9.

Just call it another day at the office.

Click below to hear South Plainfield head coach Scott Glecihenhaus talk about the Tigers as they head into Saturday’s GMC Tournament championship:

https://cjsportsradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/5-16-24-SCOTT-GLEICHENHAUS-for-web.mp3

With Red Division title in its pocket, South Plainfield needs one more to rule GMC – Central Jersey Sports Radio (cjsportsradio.com)