Baseball: St. Joseph rallies late to reach the GMCT final
EAST BRUNSWICK – Jimmy Mulvaney knew his mission – keep it close. Really, that’s all you could do in a pitching duel. So after South Plainfield scored in the fourth inning, the St. Joseph right-hander went back to work.
“I’m beating myself up, but at that point you just got to put it behind you,” the senior said. “Keep it there and trust the bats.”
And why wouldn’t he believe? The Falcons have been rolling in all facets after a slow start.
Saturday, St. Joseph scored twice in the bottom of the sixth to take the lead and held on for the 2-1 win in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament semifinal.
The rally didn’t have a dramatic extra base hit. Rather, constant pressure and composed at-bats with two singles and three walks to bring home the two runs.
Matthew Kosuda’s RBI single tied it and Bobby Christensen’s walk with the bases loaded gave St. Joseph the 2-1 lead.
Mulvaney went 6 2/3 innings and left with two outs and runners on first and second after 102 pitches. Senior reliever Bryan Rios got a fly out to right field on his first pitch to seal the win at host East Brunswick Magnet School.
The Falcons have now won eight in a row and 11 of their last 12.
“I was confident today we were going to win even when we were down,” Mulvaney said. “I know our lineup. I knew we were going to score. And once we got those two runs across, I knew I had a job to do. I got those two outs. I was tired there at the end. Lost it a little, but Bryan came in, got those last two outs for me. It was huge.”
What does it mean
The third-seeded Falcons (15-7) reached their third-straight GMCT final and will have a rematch with top-seeded North Brunswick in next Saturday’s 2 p.m. final at EB Magnet School. St. Joseph won the title in 2021.
Seventh-seeded South Plainfield (11-11) had a nice run to reach the semifinals highlighted by an 11-4 upset over second-seeded Old Bridge in the quarterfinals last Wednesday. The Tigers also beat 10th-seeded Middlesex 6-4 last Monday.
Key plays for St. Joseph
In the sixth down 1-0, the Falcons went to work. Josiah Brown led off with a single up the middle. Tyler Delvecchio walked and Kosuda ripped a single into left field that scored Brown to tie it 1-1.
Joseph Zammitti walked to load the bases. The Tigers' Aldo Pigna got two outs, but faced sophomore No. 9 hitter Bobby Christensen., who drew a walk on four pitches for the lead.
Key plays for South Plainfield
South Plainfield junior lefty Aldo Pigna battled on the mound, going the distance. St. Joseph coach Mike Murray Jr. said, “Aldo was great.”
The Tigers seized a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on two swings. Jay Alvarez doubled on a 2-2 count over the left fielder’s head. Ashton Donovan followed by dropping a single into center field on the first pitch that scored Alvarez.
St. Joseph seemed to have a rally going in the second when Kosuda’s single fell in center field with one out. Joseph Zammitti followed up with a single to left.
South Plainfield catcher Brian Potts threw Kosuda out at third base trying to steal for the second out. Pigna allowed a walk to Christian Azcona. However, he got a strikeout to end the inning as the scored remained 0-0.
In the top of the seventh, Donovan led off with a single to left center and Kevin Penny singled in the hole past the shortstop with one out. South Plainfield, though, couldn’t get any closer.
Nightcap for South Plainfield
The Tigers packed up after the game and boarded the bus, but they weren’t done playing baseball on the day.
They were slated to play Dayton High School at TD Bank Ballpark for a 6 p.m. contest
The game supported Ava Theresa Dercole’s fight against cancer and remember the lives of Matteo Anthony Nappe and Laney Grace Stoeckel.
Some of the proceeds of each ticket sale went to a $5 donation toward providing gift cards, meal tickets and support to the families at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.
Ava Theresa Dercole is the daughter of a member of Dayton’s coaching staff.
Matteo Anthony Nappe passed away on Oct. 21, 2022, at 19 months with a congenital heart defect.
Laney Grace Stoeckel was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and had two open-heart surgeries and an experimental procedure. She passed away in October 2020, shortly she turned five months old. Laney’s parents Dave and Jenn Stoeckel of South Plainfield, started Team Laney Bug, a charity that supports families of cardiac patients.
“We do whatever we can,” said South Plainfield coach Scott Gleichenhaus, whose family is good friends with the Stoeckels. “Even though it pales in comparison to what they went through, we just try to provide them with a support system constantly and just be there for them and help out anyway we can.”
They said it
Mulvaney pitching in the elimination game atmosphere, “Anytime it’s a GMC game, it feels like a playoff game we always say during the regular season. Especially once you get on this field, it’s real and pressure’s on every pitch. It’s stressful, but we were able to get a dub today. I’m super happy.”
Bobby Christensen on his game-winning walk, “It was a 2-0 and I got the take sign because he threw a lot of balls in a row and he was kind of getting later into his outing. So it was just like, make him come to me first. And once I got to 3-0, obviously that’s auto take. We weren’t going to swing. It ended up working out and I’m glad I got it done for the team.”
St. Joseph coach Mike Murray Jr. noted a key in the comeback was having the hitters not try to do too much offensively and “having those simple at-bats and stacking those together is better than trying to hit the three-run homer. So we were able to do that at the end. We just needed a couple baserunners and something good to happen.”
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Baseball: St. Joseph rallies for win to reach the GMCT final
