Softball: South Brunswick outlasts East Brunswick in wild game

SOUTH BRUNSWICK — On a night that featured more treacherous twists and turns than the roiling surf at Nazare, South Brunswick eventually found a fitting way to celebrate senior night.

Freshman Brooke Tarvin’s two-out, eighth-inning single travelled all of 14 feet, but it was more than enough to score pinch-runner Sienna Mayo and provide the Vikings with a 10-9 decision over East Brunswick on Thursday.

Tarvin’s swinging bunt created the fifth and final lead change on a wacky evening, best exemplified by East Brunswick (9-3) scoring six runs in the top of the seventh and South Brunswick (5-8) answering with three to sends the contest into extra innings.

Tarvin’s hit not only gave the seniors reason to celebrate, it made a winner of her sister, Cameron, in her second relief stint in the contest.

More: Softball roundup: Results, analysis, links for Skyland, GMC and area Union County

South Brunswick scored an old-fashioned run in the first inning as Ella Squaires led off by beating out a bunt, stole second, and advanced on a pair of grounders to the right side, the latter by Brooke Allen, who had a four-RBI evening.

Allen made it 2-0 in the third with the first of her four singles, scoring on a wild pitch.

East Brunswick (9-3) struggled early against Viking starter Morgan Indyk, managing one infield hit and striking out four times over the first four innings. The Bears broke through in the fifth for three runs, one scoring on an error, another on a wild pitch and the third coming home on the first of starter Jocelyn Nazario’s three singles.

Allen led off the bottom of the fifth with a single and scored on Cameron Tarvin’s two-run double, as the Vikings regained the edge at 4-3. South Brunswick tacked on two more runs in the fifth to claim a 6-3 advantage, as Brooke Tarvin led off with a walk and scored on an error,and Allen drove in the second run.

Indyk returned to the mound in the seventh and the first four batters she faced all scored, the big hit being a three-run double by pinch-hitter Rebbeca Post.

East Brunswick led 9-6 and promptly retired the first two batters in the bottom of the seventh. The Tarvin sisters stood in the way of the victory, however, and Cameron singled to right and Brooke worked a walk. Squaires followed with a single, her third hit of the evening, to score Cameron, and Allen battled through a full count for a two-run single to send the game into extra innings.

Nazario and Samantha Motusesky led off the eighth with singles for East Brunswick but Cameron Tarvin retired the next three batters, the last on a hard-hit line drive to short that Squaires corralled.

The winning rally began with one out in the seventh as Alyssa Lauri worked a full count walk and took second on Cameron Tarvin’s grounder to short. Mayo, running for Lauri, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and raced home with the winning run on Brooke Tarvin’s lnubber up the third base line.

What it means

With South Brunswick in the GMC Red Division and East Brunswick in the White, this game does not affect any of the divisional races. It does snap a four-game losing streak for South Brunswick and is its biggest win since a season-opening divisional win over J.P. Stevens and may provide the lift the Vikings are seeking heading into the post season. This is East Brunswick’s second loss in three games after an 8-1 start.

Key play

Allen stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh trailing 9-7 with two out and the bases loaded. She battled to a full count, fouled off a pitch, then drilled a two-run single up the middle to extend the contest.

“Brooke’s been on fire all season,” South Brunswick coach Heather Wells noted. “There’s no one else we’d rather up in that situation to get the game tied.”

By the numbers

Allen was 4-for-5 with four RBIs and scored twice. Squaires had three hits and scored twice. Nazario had three hits for East Brunswick while Carmela DeMaio, batting ninth, had a triple, a single and scored twice.

Game balls

Allen’s offensive contributions are documented above. Cameron Tarvin delivered a single, a two-run double and struck out four in her two relief stints, totaling 3 1/3 innings, to earn the victory.

They said it

“Oh my God, I was so scared. All I was training was ‘don’t strike out, don’t hit it in the air,” Brooke Tarvin said of her game-ending at bat. “We had to just keep the energy up and keep each other up, make sure no one was a getting down.” On the importance of winning on Senior Night: “I feel like it was really important for them because this is their last year of high school and this is the game for them. We needed this. We were down a lot and this win brought us up.”

“We’re having a tough season and we’re really young, rebuilding,” Wells explained. “We do some great things, then we do some really bad things. Tonight, we really stuck it out, we utilized every single player we could off the bench and they all fought for each other. They came out to win today.”

“Obviously, there were a lot of swings and turns in the late innings of that game,” said East Brunswick coach Kevin Brady. “But we’ve been a resilient team this season and we need to bounce back tomorrow. What I like to see is we struggled to hit the ball in the first four or five innings and, as the game went on we got a lot stronger. We saw a lot of line drives late and that’s what we need to build off of.”

Up next

East Brunswick hosts Spotswood on Friday in a game that could determine the White Division title. Spotswood, which defeated the Bears on Monday, 6-0, has two losses in the division, while East Brunswick has one. South Brunswick is scheduled to host No. 1 St. Tomas Aquinas on Saturday, weather permitting.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ softball: South Brunswick outlasts East Brunswick in extras