Massaro powers South Plainfield to win against Woodbridge
Dom Massaro belted a pair of doubles while driving in two runs as South Plainfield overcame an early deficit to take down Woodbridge, 8-5, in Woodbridge.
South Plainfield scored a run in the top of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. Woodbridge (1-5) answered back in the bottom half of the inning with a pair of runs to take control, 2-1.
Woodbridge stretched its lead further after tallying three runs in the bottom of the third inning to take a 5-1 advantage.
In the top of the fifth inning, South Plainfield (4-3) rallied for six runs to regain the lead, 7-5. South Plainfield added one more run in the top of the sixth inning to help seal its victory.
Anthony Cicenia went 3-for-4 with a trio of singles for South Plainfield and scored a run. Chris Loniewski and Andrew Bena each collected two RBI while Bena knocked a double. Ed Budzinski went 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Jayden Jimenez went the distance for South Plainfield, striking out four while allowing six hits and two walks on five earned runs. Jimenez also hit one batter.
For Woodbridge, Xavier Diaz socked a home run and collected three RBI while going 2-for-4. Nick Lukachyk doubled and had two RBI while going 2-for-2.
Massaro powers South Plainfield to win against Woodbridge - Baseball recap (PHOTOS) - nj.com
3 years later, state Rookie of the Year comes up big to sweep league rival
South Plainfield can exhale.
The team allowed five unanswered runs and was nine outs away from dropping their third game in five days.
Then came the fifth inning.
South Plainfield sent 12 batters to the plate and scored six runs, highlighted by a two-run double by Dom Massaro, to turn the tables and ultimately pace to an 8-5 win over Woodbridge in Woodbridge.
“We started the week off 0-2,” said Massaro, who was NJ.com’s Newcomer of the Year in 2023. “So, winning yesterday and today to start the weekend is amazing. We really needed that.”
Those two losses came against Cranford and Edison and it stretched a losing streak to three games.
The pitching staff had been taxed, which made Jayden Jimenez’s performance that much more important.
It was shaky early with Jimenez allowing five earned runs on five hits, including a two-run homer to Xavier Diaz in the first inning. South Plainfield head coach Scott Gleichenhaus stuck with him and it paid dividends.
“He started pitching to contact. After that one big inning, he got some quick innings there. That was huge,” Gleichenhaus said. “That just meant that he was going to be able to go pretty far, go deep into the game. He got the complete game, which is a rarity, but especially with a low pitch count. So we couldn’t be any prouder of him.”
Jimenez finished with just 84 pitches.
Woodbridge’s top three batters, Gavin Slicner, Diaz and Nick Lukachyk did a bulk of the damage, going a combined 5-for-9 with five RBIs and four runs.
Jimenez shut down the rest of the lineup and Woodbridge’s bottom six went a combined 1-for-16 with four strikeouts. He retired 15 of his last 17 batters.
“Woodbridge was hitting good and Jay bounced back,” Massaro said. “He absolutely shoved from the fifth inning to the seventh and we backed him up with the hits starting in the fifth inning.”
Facing a four-run deficit, South Plainfield got seven straight runners on base to start the fifth inning with Joe Stanzione’s RBI single cutting the gap. Massaro’s two-run double pulled South Plainfield to within a run and Chris Loniewski tied it with a sacrifice fly moments later.
Andrew Bena continued the rally with a go-ahead RBI single and Ed Budzinski capped a six-run inning with an RBI single of his own.
“Alex Pigna, third baseman, made a bunch of plays today. (Aiden) McCarthy had like three scoops at first short,” Massaro said. “(Anthony Cicenia) made a bunch of nice plays, and yet (Budzinski) and left field made a nice play on the left field line. Everyone had each other’s backs today and yeah, it was a good one.”
Massaro added a second double in the sixth inning to cap a three-hit performance. It’s the 12th time in his career he’s recorded at least three hits in a game.
This isn’t the last time South Plainfield will have a busy schedule like this. The Tigers will play four times in five days next week and the week after.
The hope is that these wins can snowball into a lengthy streak as the thick of the GMC schedule approaches.
“I think we’re right there with anyone. We had two tough losses against Edison,” oo said. “They’re top in the county. Lost to a walk off and by two runs. I think we’re right there with anyone. We could compete with anyone.”
3 years later, state Rookie of the Year comes up big to sweep league rival - nj.com
TAPinto South Plainfield
South Plainfield Rallies to Defeat Woodbridge, 8-5
WOODBRIDGE, NJ — After losing its third game in a row to Edison on Tuesday, South Plainfield was a baseball team in need of a turnaround.
The Tigers turned their game Friday against Woodbridge around in much the same manner that they have reversed the fortunes of their busy week.
And now Woodbridge is the team in need of a turnaround.
Dom Massaro and Anthony Cicenia collected three hits apiece and Jayden Jimenez retired 15 of the final 17 batters he faced to pitch an unlikely complete game as South Plainfield rallied from a four-run deficit for an 8-5 victory over Woodbridge.
It was the fourth game in five days and the fifth in seven days for South Plainfield. It was Woodbridge's third game in four days, and its second loss in a row to South Plainfield, which won, 4-3, over the Barrons on Thursday.
Jimenez was trailing, 2-1, after he'd thrown three pitches in the bottom of the first after Gavin Slicner singled and Xavier Diaz hit a two-run home run over the center field fence. The next time he came up in the third inning, Diaz drilled an RBI single off Jimenez' foot, and Nick Lukachyk followed with a two-run double to left-center to give Woodbridge a 5-1 lead.
At that point, Jimenez, hobbled and with Woodbridge dialed in to his pitches, seemed a very unlikely candidate to throw a complete game. But that's exactly what the senior right-hander ended up doing. Jimenez was never in trouble again, and he retired the last seven batters he faced to close out and 84-pitch six-hitter with two walks and four strikeouts, as Woodbridge encountered a lot of trouble handling Jimenez' curveball in the second half of the game.
"Things did not look good for us in that inning," South Plainfield head coach Scott Gleichenhaus said. "These guys (Woodbridge) probably thought we had one foot on the bus at that point, the way they were swinging the bats. The ball was finding open ground for them."
But Jimenez' foot withstood Diaz' line drive, and South Plainfield's players never did have their feet on the bus, as they rallied with six runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 7-5 lead.
"We just had to believe that if we continued to stick to our game plan, make our pitches, everybody do their jobs and get each other's backs, good things would happen," Gleichenhaus said.
The Tigers came to bat trailing, 5-1, in the top of the fifth when Cicenia led off with a sharp single to center and Ed Budzinski -- who had the game-winning hit in Thursday's game -- singled hard to right field. Gabe Garcia drew a walk, and Joe Stanzione followed with an apparent single to left field, but because Budzinski had to hold up between second and third thinking the ball might be caught, he was forced at third as Cicenia scored. Alex Pigna, who had a fine defensive game at third base, drew a walk to re-load the bases.
Massaro came up and rocketed a two-run double to the gap in left-center field to cut Woodbridge's lead to 5-4. After an intentional walk of Aiden McCarthy, Chris Loniewski hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game. Andrew Bena -- who had doubled in South Plainfield's first run in the top of the first -- drilled an RBI single to center field to give the Tigers a 6-5 lead. Cicenia -- who was celebrating a birthday -- then beat out an infield grounder for his second hit of the inning, and Budzinski's groundball to the right side resulted in an RBI single for a 7-5 lead. That was Budzinski's second hit of the fifth inning.
Massaro, who went hitless in South Plainfield's victory over Woodbridge on Thursday, said, "Yesterday I didn't have my best day, so I was coming today prepared, ready first pitch to start it off. In the fifth inning, the bottom of the order rallied up for us. I came up with the bases loaded and, on an 0-2 count, I was just looking for anything close. I was not striking out there, no chance. I got a change-up down the middle and took it to the left-center gap. I try not to guess pitches, and just go up there, anything close, bat to ball."
Massaro also helped set up South Plainfield's final run of the game in the sixth inning when, after Pigna walked, Massaro doubled over the center fielder's head and then over the wall on a bounce for a ground-rule double. After another intentional pass to McCarthy, Loniewski's fielder's choice grounder to shortstop scored Pigna to make it 8-5. That was enough of a cushion for South Plainfield's rejuvenated starting pitcher.
"He was our best closer last year and he's stepping up this year to start," Massaro said of Jimenez. "He's doing an amazing job. We backed him up with the bats and we gave him his own momentum to go out there and do his thing."
"Jay took one off the foot, or ankle, threw a couple of warmup pitches and said he was fine. The biggest thing there was not letting the game get out of hand," Gleichenhaus said of the third inning. "We weren't having bat at-bats, it just wasn't falling for us. It was a combination of Jay bulldogging it and toughening up, doing what he's capable of doing, and the rest of the guys feeding off what Jayden was able to do. We put together a great string of at-bats in the fifth inning and, the next thing you know, we flipped the game."
Five of the six Woodbridge hits came from the top three men in its batting order -- Slicner, Diaz and Lukachyk, who left the game after his two-run double in the third inning after he hurt his leg between first and second base.
South Plainfield (4-3) had lost a pair of GMC Red Division games to Edison last Saturday and then on Tuesday, with a non-conference loss to Cranford in between on Monday. Woodbridge (1-5), which plays exclusively Red Division games in March and April, has lost four in a row, but Friday's defeat was the first loss by more than a two-run margin for the Barrons. Woodbridge won the Red Division title last season.
SOUTH PLAINFIELD (4-3) 100 610 0–8 11 0
WOODBRIDGE (1-5) 203 000 0–5 6 0
WP-Jimenez
LP-Gurovich
No comments:
Post a Comment