Baseball: Old Bridge jumps to lead, hangs on for GMCT championship

EAST BRUNSWICK – This is way one to sum up Old Bridge’s 6-5 win over South Plainfield in Saturday’s Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament baseball final.

“I mean, it was just a good old-fashioned brawl between two good teams, you know,” Old Bridge coach Matt Donaghue said.

Sometimes, it’s that eloquent simplicity which says it all.

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The Knights jumped to an early lead. South Plainfield came back. Old Bridge added insurance runs. South Plainfield cut it closer and the Knights held off a seventh-inning rally highlighted by a slick double play at host East Brunswick Magnet.

It added up to Old Bridge’s third GMCT crown, with championships in 2011 and 2019. (Old Bridge Township schools Cedar Ridge in 1987 and Madison Central in 1989 also won titles before the merger.)

“Huge win,” Knights shortstop John Smith said. “Huge win. I mean, we worked hard all season for this and it’s well deserved.”

The third-seeded Knights (18-7) avenged two regular-season defeats to top-seeded South Plainfield (19-5-1). Old Bridge used its winning formula of nothing fancy, just contagious hitting and getting on base combined with stellar pitching.

Frank Papeo earned the victory by pitching a gritty four innings, JT Meyer went 2 2/3 innings in relief and Justin Hascup got the final out via a groundout and the celebration was on.

All three have been excellent this spring, but Papeo got the start and the senior lefty delivered.

“I wasn’t too worried about strikeouts today, just pitched to contact,” said Papeo, noting he cut down on walks. “My infield and outfield did a good job.”

In the top of the first, Old Bridge opened a 4-0 lead via four singles, two walks and a hit batter with 10 up to bat.

“We’re not a home run-hitting team,” Donaghue said. “We’re just trying to get good at-bats together one after another and they did. We put up four runs in the first inning but even with that, you knew the game was not going to be over at that point. It’s a long baseball game.”

He was right.

South Plainfield cut it to 4-3 after the second inning, but the Knights got two key insurances runs in the sixth inning.

The Tigers threatened in the bottom of the seventh with Dan Kapsch singling past the diving shortstop to open the frame. Meyer then got a double play from second baseman Chris Crosta to shortstop John Smith, who threw it to first baseman Noah Balbuena.

Jayden Smith doubled and Nick Irizarry got an infield single, but the Tigers couldn’t get closer. Alvarez and Irizarry each went 2-for-4 and Zach Robinson had a two-RBI single. Dom Massaro and Brandon Bickunas each singled, drove in a run and scored.

“You got to play a complete game,” South Plainfield coach Scott Gleichenhaus said. “We gave them opportunities, they took advantage of the opportunities we gave them and they won the game as a result.

“… We’re never out. We battled to the end, just came up short here. Obviously wish things would have worked out a little different in certain situations. I’m going to look back on it, kick myself why didn’t I do this. Why didn’t I do that.”

But that’s just baseball, coach.

Saturday, Old Bridge got the more timely hits. Akhil Penkala went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a walk. Also having a hit – all singles – were Papeo (run), John Smith (run), Hascup (RBI), MJ Altman (RBI, run) and Evan Smith (RBI). Meyer also had an RBI.

With the win, Old Bridge’s Donaghue earned his 100th career victory in the sixth season as head coach. Yeah, it’s a nice milestone, but …

“To me that’s just a number,” he said. “Championships are more important. That’s more important to me.”

Saturday, he got both.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Baseball: Old Bridge tops South Plainfield in GMCT final