South Plainfield Wins, 5-0, over JFK-Iselin in State Tournament Opener on McCarthy's 2-Hitter
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ — A fourth-seeded team in a 16-team baseball tournament won't always opt to use its ace pitcher in the first round, but South Plainfield did.
Senior left-hander Aiden McCarthy pitched a two-hitter to lead fourth-seeded South Plainfield to a 5-0 victory over 13th-seeded JFK-Iselin in the opening round of the NJSIAA North 2, Group 3 tournament on Wednesday.
McCarthy struck out 12 batters and walked none in seven innings, and a big reason the Tigers wanted their No. 1 arm out there had a lot to do with who was on the mound for JFK.
Senior right-hander Grant Lorentzen, concluding a remarkable three-sport career in Iselin, meant that the Mustangs, even as a 13th seed, were not a team that could be taken for granted -- pun entirely intended.
One of the biggest differences in the game was that when McCarthy wasn't striking people out, he had an appreciably better defense behind him to make the plays.
"I talked to my coaches (last) weekend, and they wanted me throwing today because they knew Grant was gonna go (for JFK)," McCarthy said. "He has (more than) 200 Ks in his high school career. He's by no means a bad pitcher, so we needed to win this game to move on. He didn't pitch badly at all today. They made some errors and we took advantage of it."
South Plainfield scored single runs in each of the first three innings, and JFK committed five errors in those three innings. The only two hits the Tigers had off Lorentzen in those first three frames were both on balls that some fielders might have been able to turn into outs. McCarthy gave South Plainfield a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly in the first after Dom Massaro led off with a single under an infielder's glove and went around to third on an errant pickoff throw.
Designated hitter Andrew Burns, who went 2-for-3, drove in a run in the second inning with a flyball double to left-center field. The Tigers' run in the third inning came without the aid of a base hit. Lorentzen made the best of the Mustangs' defensive plays himself, when he pounced off the mound to dive and catch a sacrifice bunt attempt in the second inning and then turned to fire a throw to shortstop Max Espejo covering second to double the runner off the base.
Burns led off the fourth inning with a single through the left side, Massaro forced him at second with a grounder to shortstop, then Massaro stole both second and third base. McCarthy drew a two-out walk, took second on indifference, and Andrew Bena's two-run single to left field increased the Tigers' lead to 5-0.
McCarthy established a smooth rhythm after a somewhat rocky first inning. He made a nice play coming off the mound to throw out leadoff batter Lorentzen to open the game. Then, after Espejo's two-out single, Tigers second baseman Gabe Garcia leaped high to snare a line drive off the bat of Myles Ulaky for the third out. McCarthy then struck out five of the next seven batters he faced. He retired 11 in a row from the second inning to the sixth inning.
"I try to get ahead and execute pitches late in counts. That's what I did very well today," said McCarthy, who has allowed three earned runs in his last 28 innings (0.75 ERA). "I get a lot of weak groundballs, and even when they're hard hit, they're typically on the ground as well. I went with a lot of fastballs. Not as many changeups as usual, but a lot of curveballs."
South Plainfield will play at home against fifth-seeded North Plainfield in the quarterfinal round on Friday. The Tigers are the defending champions in the section. They lost to Monroe, 1-0, in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament semifinals two weekends ago, but are primed to go for another title now.
"After we lost that game to Monroe, we put a lot of emphasis on making it far in this tournament," McCarthy said. "With the guys we have, I'm sure we could make a deep run."
JFK-ISELIN (7-19) 000 000 0 - 0 2 1
SOUTH PLAINFIELD (15-11) 111 200 X - 5 7 5
WP-McCarthy (7-2, 2.13 ERA)
LP-Lorentzen (4-5, 2.11 ERA)
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
R |
H |
E |
|
|
Iselin Kennedy (7-19) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
5 |
|
South Plainfield (15-11) |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
7 |
0 |
South Plainfield Batting
|
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
1B |
2B |
BB |
SB |
SF |
SH/B |
ROE |
FC |
AVG |
SLG |
|
|
Dom Massaro #6 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.333 |
.333 |
|
Anthony Cicenia #11 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
Aiden McCarthy #12 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1.000 |
2.000 |
|
Andrew Bena #19 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
.250 |
.250 |
|
Chris Loniewski #15 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.500 |
.500 |
|
Ed Budzinski #3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
Gabriel Garcia #16 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
.333 |
.333 |
|
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
|
Andrew Burns #7 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.667 |
1.000 |
|
Totals: |
25 |
5 |
7 |
4 |
5 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
.280 |
.360 |
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