South Plainfield GMC Preview

South Plainfield's Dan Hansen on the mound during his team's game against Perth Amboy on April 15. (Staff Photo: Mark R. Sullivan)

South Plainfield closer brings closure to team's closing woes

By GREG TUFARO STAFF WRITER - May 13, 2011

One of the most intriguing story lines entering the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament, which begins tomorrow, is the play of the South Plainfield High School baseball team.

The Tigers, despite a 13-7 overall record, could garner the No.2  seed for the GMCT, which will be seeded today at St. Joseph.  The tournament opens with six preliminary games tomorrow, six first-­round games Monday and eight  second-round games Tuesday. Those rounds will be contested at the site of the highest seed. The quarterfinals will be played at North Brunswick's Community Park on Thursday and the semifinals will be played at East Brunswick Tech on May 21. The GMCT final will be contested· June 4 at East Brunswick Tech.

After getting off to a 4-1 start, the Tigers dropped five of their next six games before rebounding to win eight of their last 10, including a recent four-game winning streak.  During its rough patches, South Plainfield had an inability to hold onto leads. 

The Tigers have out­scored opponents 51-19 over the first two innings of games, but have been outscored 36-31 over the final two innings. It wasn't until Nick DeMarco emerged as a closer and South Plainfield's defense solidified itself that the Tigers were able to right their ship.  South Plainfield has committed 43 errors on the year.

"We were able to minimize our mistakes," said South Plainfield coach Anthony Guida, who graduated his entire starting infield at the end of last season. "We've been able to cut down our errors.

 "The biggest thing is we are now able to close games. Most of our runs (in April) have been given up in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. We scored a bunch of runs (early in games) and couldn't hold the lead."

Perth Amboy, which will likely garner the No. 1 seed for the GMCT, rebounded from large deficits to sweep the regular-season series from South Plainfield. They trailed 7-1 in the initial meeting before posting a 10-8 win. The Panthers trailed 5-0 in the second game before posting a 10-9 win in 10 innings.

DeMarco owns a 2-0 record with two saves and a 1.62 ERA in 13 innings pitched and eight appearances. Opponents are batting just .222 against the junior right-hander. "He's been fantastic," Guida said of DeMarco. "He's just been shutting the door. He loves the role. He's accepted it and we rally around him."

No team in the GMC has played a more difficult nonconference schedule.  The Tigers have beaten Montgomery and Immaculata by a run, while losing 5-4 to Cranford and 5-0 to Westfield. Those games prepared them for the post­season.

South Plainfield recently sandwiched a regular-season sweep of then White Division-leading Monroe around a victory over defending Non-Public A South champion St. Joseph. Seven of the Tigers' wins have come by two runs or less.

"I told them we have to start hitting on all cylinders and we need to start doing that once May comes around," Guida said. "And true to form, that's exactly what we started doing." South Plainfield is batting .313 as a team. Mark Tomei (.480), Brandon Downes (.359), Stephen Petriello (.323) and Dan Hansen (.323) have been the top hitters.

Hansen (5-1, 4.89 ERA) is the ace of a staff on which four other pitchers have two wins apiece.