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
|
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 |
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