Baseball: Governor Livingston stays hot behind Schmidt's return to the mound
BERKELEY HEIGHTS – The Governor Livingston High School baseball team is getting some key players back at the right time. Senior righty Johnny Schmidt is a very big one.
He made his first pitching appearance of the season Monday afternoon, throwing 4 2/3 innings in the Highlanders eighth-straight win, a 5-1 victory over New Providence in a Union County Conference Watchung Division game.
Schmidt struck out nine, allowed three hits, three walks and an earned run before being relieved by Mike Lilioa in the fifth with two outs. Schmidt hadn’t pitched because of a sore elbow that orthopedics said required rest. He looked healthy in an 85-pitch effort.
“He has been a key to our rotation the last couple of years,” said GL coach Chris Roof, adding that Schmidt had been playing in the outfield. “We need him, we need his senior leadership and he gave it his all. He lost some command a little bit, but that’s normal being the first time out. He’s only going to be better,”
Roof said he would talk to his staff about when Schmidt would pitch again. The Union County Tournament was scheduled to be seeded Monday night.
“We’ll see who we get … maybe Saturday, maybe the quarterfinals,” Roof said.
Governor Livingston’s key plays
The Highlanders (10-3) scored four runs in the fourth to break a 1-1 tie. Anthony Denora and John Schmidt led off with singles and Matt Diskin singled for a 2-1 lead. Jon Schmidt sacrificed and Zac Geerstma had an RBI single before Dom Labisi doubled to left for a 4-1 lead.
“The GL way is to always pick up your teammates,” Labisi said. “I was looking to drive someone in and extend the lead. I was thinking line drive, line drive. He threw me a second slider and stepped back and went to left.”
New Providence’s key plays
The Pioneers (4-9) tied the game in the third on Jake Monaco’s RBI single. Monaco, who went four innings on the mound, had three of his team’s four hits.
The Pioneers were without center fielder Andrew Kowantz who was under the weather.
Locale Change
The game was moved to Snyder Avenue park in Berkeley Heights because of the wet grounds at Governor Livingston High School.
They said it
New Providence coach Chris Brodeur said, “Right now, it’s growing pains for us. We’re not hitting in timely situations. We graduated a strong core from last year, we have a couple of guys back, but we have a lot of inexperience and we are working through it.”
What’s Next
Both teams were both eager to find out their seeds for the Union County Tournament that begins Wednesday. GL has a division game with Westfield at home Thursday. New Providence was scheduled to play Madison Tuesday at 4:15 at Union High School.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Baseball: Governor Livingston wins eighth-straight game
