Baseball: Konstantinovsky's walk-off home run, strong pitching leads North Brunswick

NORTH BRUNSWICK – Zack Konstantinovsky the pitcher placed a strike three on the outside corner with the bases loaded in the top of the seventh to preserve in a 3-3 tie in Tuesday’s NJSIAA Central Group 4 semifinal.

Zack Konstantinovsky the hitter quickly got his helmet and bat and soon blasted a shot over the left field fence for a walk-off home run to lead-off the bottom of the seventh.

With that, North Brunswick topped Monroe 4-3 as the Raiders faithful danced around. A handful of Monroe players later sat on the bench, staring straight ahead.

Did fans expect there would be anything less than a dramatic ending either way?

North Brunswick had so many of these thrilling moments the last two seasons and it was the fourth time the Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division opponents were meeting this spring.

The Raiders prevailed 2-1 in the GMCT semifinals and had wins of 1-0 and 10-0 in the regular season.

Tuesday’s meeting featured Round 3 of an Ace vs. Ace matchup in Konstantinovsky and Monroe’s Harrison Lollin. Either one was capable of throwing a complete game shutout.

However, each made their presence felt at the plate. Lollin homered in the first inning to right field for a 1-0 Monroe lead and the Falcons took a 3-1 lead after the second inning.

Konstantinovsky tied it with a two-run blast in the fifth inning and went 4-for-4 with all four of his team’s RBI.

North Brunswick can’t quite clone the senior, but they could sure use him whenever possible.

“You can’t say enough about his mental makeup,” Raiders coach Mark Blevins said. “His ability to bounce back after tough times. Nothing really shakes him, but it’s not even a matter of shaking him. His confidence is next level and his ability to execute in crunch time just shows how much he really prepares for the game of baseball.”

What does it mean

The second-seeded Raiders (21-6) will play at top-seeded Old Bridge (19-8) in Friday’s Central Group 4 final. The Knights beat East Brunswick in Tuesday’s other semifinal.

Monroe (14-11) surpassed its sixth-seed and got to the semifinals by upsetting third-seeded Jackson Memorial in last Thursday's quarterfinals.

Game balls

Both pitchers got out of trouble at times. Konstantinovsky allowed eight hits and three walks in the seven innings with nine strikeouts. Lollin scattered 10 hits and three walks with six strikeouts in six innings.

North Brunswick leadoff hitter Yomar Carreras went 4-for-4 and scored and EJ Accettura also scored from Konstantinovsky’s RBI after he walked.

North Brunswick key plays

Catcher Omar Carreras threw out a Monroe runner trying to steal third with one out in the fourth inning to prevent damage.

Monroe key plays

Monroe scored twice in the second inning to take a 3-1 lead. Kyle McCauley walked to leadoff the inning and No. 8 hitter Michael Ortiz doubled with one out to make it second and third. Jake Lobue, who went 2-for-3, brought McCauley in with a single. Leadoff hitter Nick Sellari later drove in a run on a fielder’s choice.

Also credit Monroe’s defense.

In the sixth inning, center fielder McCauley cut down a North Brunswick runner trying to score with a throw to catcher Larry Casey to end the inning and keep it 3-3.

At the end of the second, McCauley threw to cutoff man, shortstop Nick Sellari, who fired to third baseman Trevor Wallace to get the runner out advancing from first.

In the fifth, right fielder Lobue threw home to Casey to get the runner trying to score.

They said it

Konstantinovsky on settling down after the first inning. He also gave up a run in the first inning in his team’s 2-1 win over Monroe in the GMCT semifinal on May 13, “The first inning has kind of been my arch-nemesis through high school, but I’m confident our offense is going to do something nice and put some runs on the board. After that, it’s just kind of settling down, forgetting about what happened in the past, move on to the next play and just keep grinding.”

Konstantinovsky on whether he was going for a game-winning home run on the 0-2 count, “Absolutely not. Two strikes, my approach is to put the ball in play, make something happen. But he was living outside today and he left one over the middle of the plate. I was able to get my hands out and drive the ball.”

North Brunswick’s coach Mark Blevins on coming back, “You try to get one run at a time and have good at-bats and just keep on finding positive things throughout the game to keep you going and we did that today. We put pressure on the defense. We got thrown out at home plate twice, but still putting pressure on the defense I feel is paramount. They did a good job of it today putting the ball in play, hitting ground balls and bunting the ball, putting pressure on us and that’s how they got their three runs. Down 3-0, we know it’s only one inning away or a few good at-bats away. So we always have that hope and that faith.”

Blevins on the teams playing each other four times this season, “Seeing them enough times obviously gives our hitters extra at-bats against Harrison and hat’s off to him – he’s a great pitcher. I think the more times that you see a pitcher, the more comfortable you feel and you can even see it for Monroe, as well. They were putting the ball in play hard off of Zack."

Monroe coach Sean Field said, “We threw our best punch. We played as good as we could defensively. We battled all day. We went in there with a game plan and it just doesn’t work out sometimes. Sometimes you don’t get rewarded for it, but I’m proud of them. I’m proud of our seniors and how hard they (played) the past four years and I have no doubt that we’re going to learn from this and we’ll be back.”

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Baseball: North Brunswick advances to Central Group 4 final