'We like to fight': Pesky Old Bridge chips away at bat, Meyer throws gem in GMCT semis
EAST BRUNSWICK – They had plenty of foul balls with “heads up” calls to fans. A base hit dropped in. Another was a high, looping shot the outfielder lost in the sun.
Yeah, Old Bridge added some big blasts, but the Knights mostly had a pesky approach in their 10-0, five-inning win over Sayreville in Saturday’s Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament baseball semifinals.
Exhibit A – the third-seeded Knights laced six singles in a four-run first inning that set the stage. No pitch was conceded.
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“We like to fight,” left fielder Evan Smith said. “We don’t like to go down looking. I mean, we’re good up there. We’re tough, we’re definitely going to battle. We don’t want to go down easy. So, we’re definitely going to put up a fight once we step in that batter’s box and that’s what we did today and then we hit. We felt good.”
And they got the pitching. JT Meyer threw a five-hitter with no walks and seven strikeouts against the 10th-seeded Bombers (10-8), who upset second-seeded Woodbridge in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
Next up, Old Bridge plays top-seeded South Plainfield in the 2:30 p.m. final on May 18 at host East Brunswick Magnet. South Plainfield beat fifth-seeded Edison, 8-3 in the other semifinal.
For the Knights, Smith put an exclamation on the win with a three-run home run in the third inning and he finished 2-for-3 with four RBIs.
In Wednesday’s quarterfinals, Old Bridge had to rally twice and scored four times in the sixth inning to pull out an 8-5 win.
“A quarterfinal brings a little bit of more nervousness to it,” Old Bridge coach Matt Donaghue said. “I think (today) the guys were ready to go. The nerves were over with at that point. They just swung. They were playing loose. They were having fun. They were ready to win.”
The players seemed to bottle up the spirit of that quarterfinal rally and released it Saturday.
“It almost sparked a fire in us knowing that we’re a better team than how we played,” Smith said. “We made errors, like we were sloppy. So we were like, all right, we really need to bring it up today and like play how we know how we could play.
“We cleaned it up today and we looked a lot better and now we’re ready to go off and play in the championship game.”
Old Bridge had four others with multi-hits in Akhil Penkala (3-for-3, 3 runs, RBI), MJ Altman (2-for-2, double, 2 RBIs), Justin Hascup (2-for-3, 2 RBIs) and Christian Cavanaugh (2-for-3, RBI). The No. 9 hitter Cavanaugh’s at-bat in the first inning seemed to exemplify Old Bridge’s day at the plate. The catcher saw double-digit pitches before getting an RBI single to make it 4-0.
That gave Meyer a nice lead and he delivered. The senior righty said his curveball was working and with the lead, “you don’t have to pitch with any pressure so it’s easier.”
It all added up to the big win and the Knights’ first GMCT finals appearance since they won in 2019 with their tough hitting.
“The approach today was just be aggressive and attack the ball over the plate,” Donaghue said. “And they did that.”
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Baseball: Old Bridge tops Sayreville in GMCT semifinals
