South Plainfield baseball advances to GMCT semis in thriller
METUCHEN – One mark of how thrilling South Plainfield’s 7-6 baseball win over Metuchen was – Dom Massaro just about lost his voice by the end of the Jim Muldowney Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament quarterfinal on Tuesday, May 13.
“Screaming all day,” said the South Plainfield center fielder said with a smile.
The pesky and opportunistic Tigers brought energy and seized a lead with pressure on the base paths and held off a late comeback with gutsy pitching and stellar defense.
The No. 5 seed will meet ninth-seeded Monroe – which upset top-seeded Edison – in the semifinal on Saturday, May 16, at East Brunswick Magnet.
“This was a good ball club,” South Plainfield coach Scott Gleichenhaus said. “They were tough. They go down in the first by three and they come right back and tie it up and then it was just a fight. It was tight the whole way through.”
South Plainfield (13-10) scored four runs in the top of the sixth to take a 7-3 advantage against the No. 4-seeded Bulldogs (16-6). In the seventh, the Tigers made three highlight film-like defensive plays to seal the game. First, sophomore shortstop Anthony Cicenia knocked the ball down, got in front and threw out the leadoff hitter.
With one out and two on, Metuchen’s No. 8 hitter Ryan Alessi hit a shot to the outfield. Right fielder Joe Stanzione, who recently came back from a knee injury, dove to snag the ball and likely saved the game with his catch.
South Plainfield then ended it on a potential double-steal attempt, in which it threw the runner out inching off third base. It went pitcher to shortstop to third base to second base, where freshman Gabriel Garcia made a perfect throw to third baseman Alex Pigna, who applied the tag.
Gleichenhaus said the team had been babying Garcia’s arm during the week because he threw over 70 pitches against Red Bank Catholic the previous Saturday.
“That’s what we do,” Gleichenhaus said of the little things. “We practice hard. We never take days off. We work, handle our business and to come out on top just feels that much better.”
The Tigers pitching duo of sophomore starter Andrew Bena and senior reliever Jayden Jimenez kept their team in the game. Bena left having given up four runs in 5 2/3 innings with five strikeouts.
Jimenez came in with two on and two outs in the bottom of the sixth and gave up a two-RBI double to James Fenton that cut South Plainfield’s lead to 7-6. He then got a ground out to get out of the inning and battled in the seventh to get the save.
Metuchen's Fenton lofted a two-run home run that stayed fair in left field in the first inning and finished 2-for-4 with four RBIs. Teammates Matt Jelleme was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Sean Dereka and Mason Messina (two runs) each singled and crossed home. Jon Nugent gave a strong start and settled down after giving up three runs in the first and lasted 4 1/3 innings with six strikeouts.
Bena also did it with his bat going 2-for-5 with an RBI and scored twice. Massaro was 3-for-5 and scored twice. Cicenia and Garcia had two hits apiece and drove in a run. No. 2 hitter Aiden McCarthy walked three times and scored twice as the Tigers just kept coming.
“We put a lot of pressure on them,” Massaro said, “but I told the team before it today, I was like ‘let’s go out there, have fun, play loose.’ As you get older, you go through way more obstacles, you have a lot more pressure on you than a baseball game in high school. So I was like, 'just play loose, have fun, don’t think too much.' That’s what we did. We had a great time – energy was up high. My voice is, like, gone. It was a great win.”
NJ Baseball South Plainfield beats Metuchen in GMCT quarterfinals
South Plainfield holds off Metuchen
(5) South Plainfield 7, (4) Metuchen 6: The Tigers (13-10) saw a 3-0 lead slip away early, and nearly saw a 7-3 lead go by the boards, but hung on in the end to pull off the upset at Metuchen (16-6).
Dom Massaro went 3-for-5, scoring twice, as did Aiden McCarthy and Andrew Bena, and South Plainfield also capitalized on five Bulldog errors. Bena went 5 2/3 innings and got the win, allowing six runs on eight hits, striking out five, while Jayden Jiminez closed it out.
Massaro led off the game with a double, and after a walk to McCarthy, Bena drove in a run with a double. A sac bunt and a strikeout followed, but a single by Anthony Cicenia to center drove in two to make it 3-0.
But Metuchen clawed right back. James Fenton hit a one-out two-run homer in the bottom of the inning to cut it to 3-2, and Matt Jelleme had an RBI single in the second to even things up.
The two played the next three innings scoreless before South Plainfield burst out with four runs in the top of the sixth. Alex Pigna reached on an error, and Dom Massaro replaced him, reaching on a fielder’s choice to second. McCarthy then followed with a single to right to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead.
But South Plainfield wanted more, and they got it. Bena hit a ball to second and reached on an error, bringing in McCarthy to make it 5-3. Chris Loniewski reached on an error by the shortstop. After Ed Budzinski struck out, Cicenia hit a ball to third, and yet another error allowed him to reach, scored Bena, and gave the Tigers a 6-3 lead. The seventh run came in on a line drive single to left by Gabriel Garcia.
Now, it was Metuchen’s turn to keep things interesting. After a fly ball out, Sean Dereka walked, Ryan Alessi singled, and Mason Messina was plunked by Bena. Joseph Tamburello popped out to short center, leaving the bases loaded with two outs. Jelleme got hit to cut it to 7-4, then James Fenton drove in two with a single to left to make it 7-6, before Cooper Crawford grounded into a fielder’s choice, with Cicenia tossing to second for the force.
South Plainfield had two on with two out in the top of the seventh, but failed to get an insurance run. Then, Metuchen got back to business. After a ground out, Lucas Malamug and Sean Dereka hit back-to-back singles. A line out to right by Alessi made the second out.
Then, with an 0-2 count on the next hitter, Jiminez – who came on in relief with two out in the sixth – stepped off the rubber. Dereka on first took off, and Jiminez threw to the shortstop covering. Now in a rundown, the Tigers saw Malamug off third base, and they threw to the third-baseman Pigna, who tagged Malamug for the final out.
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METUCHEN, NJ — After three hours of suspenseful momentum shifts, it was only fitting that Wednesday's baseball game between South Plainfield and Metuchen would be punctuated by an ending filled with absolute chaos.
But for all the pandemonium that ensued on the game's final play, South Plainfield executed a situation with lots of moving parts perfectly to close out the game.
Fifth-seeded South Plainfield pulled off a 1-6-3-4-5 pickoff on a double-rundown play to hang on for a 7-6 victory over fourth-seeded Metuchen in the quarterfinal round of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament on Wednesday.
Instead of playing the top seed, South Plainfield (13-10) will be opposed by ninth-seeded Monroe in the GMCT semifinals at East Brunswick Magnet School on Saturday. Monroe upset No. 1 seed Edison, 9-1, on Wednesday.
Wednesday's win over Metuchen (16-6) came down to a first-and-third situation with two outs. South Plainfield right fielder Joe Stanzione had made a diving catch in the alley in right-center for the second out, but the Bulldogs still had the tying run just 90 feet away when Sean Dereka, the runner on first base, broke for second. Tigers reliever Jayden Jimenez stepped off the mound, threw to shortstop Anthony Cicenia, who threw back to first baseman Aiden McCarthy, as Lucas Malamug, the Metuchen runner on third, started making his way down the line for home plate. McCarthy eyed Malamug, threw to second baseman Gabe Garcia, then Garcia fired a seed across the diamond to third baseman Alex Pigna, who applied the tag to Malamug diving back into third for the game's final out.
"Nobody panicked," South Plainfield head coach Scott Gleichenhaus said.
"We practice that a lot, first-and-thirds with people coming off early," said first baseman McCarthy. "I saw him go, and the first thing I yelled was 'Step off'. I wanted him to get rid of it, and he did exactly what he was supposed to do, got it to Anthony, Anthony did exactly what he was supposed to do and run it back to the bag and look at the kid at third. He gave me the ball, I made sure the kid at third stayed toward third base, and then I got rid of the ball, and then we made a nice play at third base. It's exactly what we practice. That's just a testament to how well we prepare and practice and how well we're coached."
"I was just trying to keep the runner at third and make sure he didn't score," Cicenia said. "I was gonna try to run that kid back, but we wanted to end it there. I was shocked. I wasn't expecting that."
Cicenia, a sophomore, had an outstanding game at bat and in the field. South Plainfield scored three runs in the top of the first inning on an RBI single by starting pitcher Andrew Bena and Cicenia's two-out, two-run single beyond the reach of Metuchen's diving right fielder. Cicenia reached base four times on Wednesday, going 2-for-3 with a walk and also reaching on an error.
"The pitch was a fastball outside and I just took it the other way," Cicenia said of his two-run single in the first. "I've just got to find a way to get him in there."
Metuchen got those runs back in short order, though, as James Fenton hit a two-run home run down the left field line in the first inning, then Matt Jeleme's RBI single in the second inning tied the game.
After that, both starting pitchers, Bena and Jon Nugent of Metuchen, settled in and worked their way out of several jams to keep the game tied, 3-3, going into what would turn out to be a very eventful sixth inning.
Alex Pigna led off the top of the sixth by reaching on the first of three Bulldogs' errors that inning. Dom Massaro, who finished the game 3-for-5 with two runs and two stolen bases, hit into a force play, then stole second base. The left-handed hitting McCarthy followed with a tiebreaking RBI single through the right side to give South Plainfield a 4-3 lead.
"The past couple games I haven't been hitting the best," McCarthy said. "That at-bat, I wasn't trying to do too much, I was just trying to get a good pitch, and it was right in my sweet spot and I hit it very well. I was really hyped when I got to first base and I knew that he had scored. A lot of the time when we don't have the best hitting game, we're popping up pitches, so I say a lot to the guys, hard line drives, hard groundballs, they've got to make plays on those. When you do that, teams make errors. They made at least three or four errors that cost them runs. When you hit it hard on the ground that's when stuff happens."
Bena's hard groundball caromed off the chest of Metuchen's second baseman and McCarthy, who'd taken second on a wild pitch, came around to score on the play to make it 5-3. Chris Loniewski followed by beating out a slow roller to shortstop and, after a passed ball, Cicenia reached on an infield error with two out that allowed Bena to score for a 6-3 Tiger lead. Garcia capped the four-run uprising with an RBI single to left. He was 2-for-4 in the game.
Metuchen, though, scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth on a hit batsman with the bases loaded and a two-out, two-run single by Fenton (who was 2-for-4 with four RBI). South Plainfield reliever Jimenez got a groundball to shortstop and Cicenia's flip to second baseman Garcia was just in time to beat Fenton to the base to end the inning.
"I told the guys it's the first time in my coaching career in a high-stakes game that it ended the way that it did," Gleichenhaus said. "I wasn't shocked that he did it because I've known (Metuchen) coach (Leo) Danik for years, and I knew it was in his pocket, but to try to pull it off in that spot, that just shows the kind of guts that he has and why he's been a legendary coach since he started. We had the right guy on the mound with Jay, we practice it; we always stress, 'Do not panic with the baseball,' even on a boot. Like you saw with Cicenia on a ball that was hit to him. The ball hit off his chest. No panic, he picked it up and got the out at first. It's Stanzione making the diving play in right. Not panicking in big spots. When you practice those mundane things that may not happen all season long, and then it happens in a quarterfinal game with two outs and the game on the line.
"Cicenia has been awesome all year. It's been a trial by fire for him and Gabe Garcia, the second baseman who made that throw across, and Alex Pigna, our third baseman, had the sense to stay there, hang, hang and not get lost in the chaos, which was huge. Nobody panicked. I thought the play was over, the guy was dancing a little bit, and then it was just chaos, and we held and we got the out call."
South Plainfield will be appearing in the GMC Tournament semifinals for the second time in the last three years, having reached the semis in 2024 after a wild quarterfinal comeback against South Brunswick that Wednesday's win over Metuchen might have matched for thrill-a-minute excitement.
McCarthy (6-1, 2.67 ERA) will get the start on the mound for South Plainfield, probably opposed by junior left-handed Rutgers University commit Ben Faigin (5-1, 1.55 ERA) of Monroe.
SOUTH PLAINFIELD (13-10) 300 004 0 - 7 13 1
METUCHEN (16-6) 210 003 0 - 6 11 3
WP-Bena
SV-Jimenez
LP-Nugent
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
R |
H |
E |
|
|
South Plainfield (13-10) |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
7 |
12 |
1 |
|
Metuchen (16-6) |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
6 |
11 |
5 |
South Plainfield Batting
|
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
1B |
2B |
3B |
HR |
BB |
HBP |
SB |
AVG |
SLG |
|
|
Dom Massaro #6 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.600 |
.800 |
|
Aiden McCarthy #12 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
Andrew Bena #19 |
5 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.400 |
.400 |
|
Chris Loniewski #15 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
Ed Budzinski #3 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
Anthony Cicenia #11 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.667 |
.667 |
|
Gabriel Garcia #16 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.500 |
.500 |
|
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
|
Andrew Burns #7 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1.000 |
1.000 |
|
Alex Pigna #10 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.250 |
.250 |
|
Totals: |
33 |
7 |
11 |
3 |
10 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
.333 |
.364 |
South Plainfield Pitching
|
W |
L |
PIT |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
K |
HB |
PO |
ERA |
|
|
Andrew Bena #19 (WP) |
0 |
0 |
98 |
5.2 |
8 |
6 |
6 |
0 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
7.41 |
|
Jayden Jimenez #23 |
0 |
0 |
23 |
1.1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Totals: |
0 |
0 |
121 |
7 |
8 |
6 |
6 |
0 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
6.00 |
