Softball: St. Thomas tops Metuchen to win fifth straight GMCT championship
WOODBRIDGE — Rain delayed it. COVID once cancelled it. It appears that only an act of God can prevent St. Thomas Aquinas from winning the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament championship.
The top-seeded Trojans (21-3) made it five titles in a row Monday evening, not including the pandemic-lost 2020 season, with a 5-1 victory over second-seeded Metuchen (18-6).
The contest was quite similar to their last meeting as Metuchen scored a run in the top of the first, then were stymied by St. Thomas ace Hayley Wieczerzak for the remainder of the contest. The Trojans eventually capitalized on Liz Negron’s RBI-single, two throwing errors and two wild pitches to push across five runs over the fifth and sixth innings.
Wieczerzak (19-2) tossed a gem, firing a two-hitter with 16 strikeouts and a leadoff, four-pitch walk, to keep St. Thomas in the contest until it could score some runs.
Abby Kozo led off the contest with the four-pitch walk for Metuchen, Kiara Guzman bunted her to second and, after Wieczerzak’s first strikeout, Brianna De La Fuente crushed a towering double to left to score Kozo.
The Bulldogs would not be heard from again.
Following the double Wieczerzak retired the next 17 batters, all but three by strikeouts, before De La Fuente stroked a one-out single to right in the seventh. The junior struck out 10 in a row during own stretch against one of the area’s most formidable lineups.
“This was Hayley’s best game,” St. Thomas coach Missy Collazo conceded. “It’s up there. Again, with the pressure of it being the finals, all on her, this was one of the best games she’s pitched. She was in the zone there for a little but and they have good hitters. They’re a good hitting team.”
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Metuchen starter Alicia Montalbano did her best to contain the fierce Trojans bats, blanking them for the first four innings as she did in their last meeting, recording four of her six strikeouts in the second and third frames.
St. Thomas squandered a second and third with none out in the fifth, which became a bases-loaded, one-out scenario after Leslie Flaherty’s rocket arm from right field deterred the Trojans from trying to score on a fly ball.
Karmerin Collado led off the fifth with an apparent hard-hit single to right but Leslie Flaherty gunned her out at first. Amya Hill singled but was gunned down by Kozo in center trying to advance to third on a single by Wieczerzak, who took second on the throw.
With first base open Metuchen elected to intentionally walk Mary-Kate Murray, New Jersey’s leading home-run hitter with 14. Liz Negron followed with a single to tie the game and Murray scored the go-ahead run a throwing error. Negron raced home on a wild pitch to make it 3-1.
The Trojans continued to capitalize on Metuchen’s misfortune in the sixth as Haley Krainski singled up the middle and advanced to throw on a throwing error on Collado’s bunt attempt. Both scored on the same wild pitch.
St. Thomas and Wieczerzak are difficult enough to beat without making mistakes. Metuchen made a few too many.
What it means
St. Thomas Aquinas captured its fifth consecutive GMCT title, dating back to 2018 with a year off for Covid in 2020.
Metuchen failed in its first appearance in a GMCT championship game, but have clearly separated itself from everyone else as the area’s second-best team.
Key play
After Murray was intentionally walked in the fifth, Negron stepped to the plate with St. Thomas trailing 1-0 and runners at first and second. She poked a single to right that scored Wieczerzak and a subsequent throwing error on the play enabled a second run to score, putting the Trojans on top to stay.
By the numbers
St. Thomas managed just six hits against Montalbano. Melody Webb was the only Trojans with multiple hits. Wieczerzak struck out every Metuchen batter at least once by the fifth inning.
Game balls
Wieczerzak, for her performance, and snd Liz Negron, for finally getting Str. Thomas on the scoreboard.
De La Fuente had both Metuchen hits, a double in the first and a single in the fourth. Montalbano pitched well, allowing five runs, six hits, four walks and striking out six.
They said it
“I definitely felt that this was going to be a challenge because I know all of these girls and it felt very personal,” Wieczerzak explained. “I’ve played with half of the Metuchen team and I know their ability and I know how amazing all of them are and I knew it was going to be tough for me. Every single game we played against them we never took it lightly, putting a lot of pressure on myself. I just had to breathe. Breathing was my technique. Focus, keep myself composed and do what I do best.I’ve been pitching my whole life and I have the confidence that I know I can do it. The whole game we had that intensity, that energy, and I think that was the reason that we won the game. If we could be like this every time we’d win every game. It was a team effort. It was beautiful.
“It was a bit frustrating but we all kept inching at it every time,” Negron said of the Trojans’ slow start. “Everyone needs to do their part as a team but I think we all did come together at the end. The Metuchen pitcher was a really good pitcher and we eventually came together and we were able to poke the ball and get the base hits that we really needed.” On her fifth-inning at bat: “Hopefully just poking it out there, just trying to get something to the right side to score the runner. We did our job and I think all of us started to really get in to the flow.” On teams walking Murray, who bats before her in the lineup: “I know why they do it because she’s a really good hitter. I understand it that there’s this really strong girl coming up and there’s this little tiny girl coming up, thinking, ‘what is she going to do.’ It’s a little pressuring but I want to do my part for the team no matter if they walk her or not.”
“We always know that starting the season that we have a bull’s eye on our back because you won the year before and you won the previous years,” Collazo said. “There’s expectations and we want to live up to those expectations. It doesn’t matter where you start the year but it matters where you finish the year. When you start the year in first and you stay in first the whole year it puts a lot of pressure on you but they’re up to the task. They work hard, they play hard, they’re there for each other. There’s some pressure but they thrive under the pressure.”
“Like I told them after the game, the cooler heads prevailed,” Metuchen coach Hannah Thomas said. “They didn't have any defensive miscues and we did and, unfortunately, that led to the difference in the game.”
Up next
Metuchen has to put this game behind it quickly as it hosts Holmdel Tuesday in the opening round of the Central Group 2 playoffs. The Bulldogs are the top seed in the section. Fourth-seeded St. Thomas received a bye in Non-Public A South – arguably the state’s toughest section, with six team ranked Top 20 in the state -- and host No. 5 Red Bank Catholic on Thursday.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Softball: St. Thomas tops Metuchen to win fifth straight GMCT title
