TAPinto South Plainfield
South Plainfield Breaks it Open Late to Beat Summit, 10-4
Published April 16, 2025 at 8:42 PM
SUMMIT, NJ -- It took awhile for the breaks to start going the way of the South Plainfield baseball team against Summit on Wednesday.
First, Summit gave the Tigers a break of sorts. Then, they started making a bunch of their own breaks.
South Plainfield scored all of its runs in the fifth and sixth innings and went on to beat Summit, 10-4, at Summit's famously uphill, lopsided baseball diamond at Memorial Park.
Right-hander Gio D'Agostino had a one-hit shutout going for Summit through four innings, but, after just 58 pitches, Summit coach Kevin Zaleski decided to replace D'Agostino on the mound with a 1-0 lead in the non-conference matchup.
Senior Ryan Balent was keeping South Plainfield in the game even though the Tigers' bats were quiet until the fifth. Even in the top of the fifth against a new pitcher, South Plainfield scored its five runs that inning on only two hits, but they drew four walks and ran the bases with the kind of aggressiveness that's a trademark of coach Scott Gleichenhaus' team.
Dave Butrico led off the fifth inning with a walk. He stole second, took third on a wild pitch and Lorenzo Fuscoletti walked and stole second. With one out, Steve Studlack beat out a slow grounder to the left side, then advanced to second on a wild throw past the first baseman as Butrico and Fuscoletti both scored to give South Plainfield a 2-1 lead.
Dom Massaro, the leadoff man in the order, beat out a grounder to third for a single. He and courtesy runner Jayden Jimenez moved up on a passed ball, Dan Kapsch walked and then Kevin Penny drew a bases-loaded walk against Summit's third pitcher of the game to make it 3-1. Another passed ball made it 4-1, and Nick Irizarry's sacrifice fly to right field gave South Plainfield a 5-1 lead.
"We were a little rusty at first. The weather was chilly but we got used to it," said Massaro, South Plainfield's center fielder. "Once the fourth inning came around, the lineup started doing its thing, what we usually do. The bats started going. We've got a couple of guys in the lineup that, once they get on base it's like an automatic steal and that's very helpful for us because it's easier for us to score more runs quickly like that."
Balent, who was consistently throwing his 12-to-6 curve for strikes, had escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth inning with a strikeout and a groundout in the fourth inning. Summit scored two runs against him in the fifth on a two-run single by Ben Cohen with two out, but Balent got a groundout to third baseman Chris Loniewski to end the inning with a 5-3 lead.
"Balent pitched really good today, especially in the cold," Massaro said. "He was throwing a lot of strikes, and that's what we needed."
In the top of the sixth, South Plainfield finally started making the loud contact its hitters are capable of, with Massaro, Kapsch and Penny stringing together three consecutive hard-hit doubles after one run had scored on yet another passed ball. Irizarry followed Penny's long RBI double to right-center with an RBI single to right-center for a 10-3 Tiger lead.
Balent got the win with five innings pitched, allowing six hits and one walk, striking out six and allowing two earned runs. Two South Plainfield juniors made successful varsity mound debuts in relief in the sixth and seventh innings: Right-hander Aidan Kaplan (1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB) and left-hander Ed Budzinski (1 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K).
South Plainfield gets back to Red Division play in the Greater Middlesex Conference on Thursday with a home game against the Monroe team that defeated the Tigers, 6-4, on Tuesday.
Andy Mendlowitz
MyCentralJersey.com
South Plainfield 10, Summit 4: The Tigers scored five runs in the fifth and sixth innings for the road non-conference win.
Kevin Penny (double) and Nick Irizarry (2 hits) each had two RBIs for South Plainfield (5-3). Dom Massaro was 2-for-4 (double, RBI) and Dan Kapsch (double) and Steve Studlack each had a hit and an RBI.
NJ Baseball April roundup for GMC and area Skyland and Union teams
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
R |
H |
E |
|
|
South Plainfield (5-3) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
5 |
0 |
10 |
6 |
1 |
|
Summit (2-6) |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
7 |
2 |
WP: Ryan Balent
LP: Javier Bonfante
South Plainfield Batting
|
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
1B |
2B |
3B |
HR |
BB |
HBP |
SB |
AVG |
SLG |
|
|
4 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.500 |
.750 |
|
|
4 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.250 |
.500 |
|
|
3 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
.667 |
|
|
3 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.667 |
.667 |
|
|
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
|
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
|
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
|
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
|
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
.333 |
|
|
Totals: |
26 |
10 |
7 |
7 |
4 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
7 |
.269 |
.385 |
South Plainfield Pitching
|
PIT |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
K |
HB |
ERA |
|
|
Ryan Balent (WP) |
82 |
5 |
6 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
0 |
2.80 |
|
17 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
7.00 |
|
|
11 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
|
Totals: |
110 |
7 |
7 |
4 |
3 |
1 |
6 |
0 |
3.00 |
South Plainfield Wins Going Away Against Summit
South Plainfield barely beat Summit the last time the pair played, but that sure wasn't the case this time around. The Tigers put the hurt on the Hilltoppers with a sharp 10-4 win on Wednesday. That result was just more of the same for these two, as the Tigers also won the last time the pair played back in May of 2016.
South Plainfield's victory bumped their record up to 5-3. As for Summit, they dropped their record down to 1-6 with the defeat, which was their third straight at home.
Coming up, South Plainfield will take on Monroe Township at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. The Falcons' pitching crew has only allowed four runs per game this season, so the Tigers' hitters will have their work cut out for them. As for Summit, they will square off against Union at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Baseball Recap: South Plainfield Wins Going Away Against Summit
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