UCT baseball semis: Governor Livingston jumps to lead; Westfield wins in extras
CLARK – The first semifinal of Saturday’s Union County Tournament doubleheader was a taut, extra-inning drama that pushed back the nightcap between Governor Livingston and Scotch Plains-Fanwood more than an hour.
The Highlanders showed how eager they were to swing their bats.
No. 2 seed GL scored two runs in the first inning and four more in the third and beat No. 3 Scotch Plains-Fanwood 10-0 in a 4 1/2 inning mercy-rule game.
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The Highlanders (18-3) will play top seed Westfield (16-3) at 6 p.m. Monday night at Kean University for the title. GL has won three county titles in nine final appearances, its last title in 2021. Westfield has 15 championships in 26 finals, with its last crown in 2017.
The Blue Devils (16-3) beat two-time defending champ Cranford 8-7 in nine innings in the first game. Westfield led 3-0, fell behind 5-3 in the sixth, rallied to tie the game 5-5 in the seventh, fell behind again 7-5 in the ninth before winning it with three in its ninth.
Tomas Cestero went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs for Westfield and Braedan Trajkovski (two RBIs) and Randy Davis (RBI) each added two hits in the win.
Governor Livingston’s win couldn’t have been more different.
Sophomore righty Keith Mann had one serious threat to navigate in the SP-F third. Jaden Carpien was hit by a pitch and Ryan Quinones and CJ Bates singled to load the bases with no outs. Mann got a comebacker and force at home for one out, a strikeout looking and a line drive out to left fielder Matthew Kosuda. All three batters forced full counts.
The Highlanders led 6-0 at the time, and an extra-base hit might have changed the entire atmosphere. SP-F coach Joe Higgins said his team had a ‘handful’ of hard outs, but he complimented Mann for getting the outs needed.
“If I could pick out of a hat of what I would have wanted to happen, happened,” GL coach Chris Roof said. “Keith threw a great game; he made great pitches in that bases-loaded inning, and our guys had great at-bats up and down our lineup. It was perfect.”
Kosuda had three RBIs, two doubles and two runs scored.
“We have faced very good arms all across the board and take it as a challenge,” said Kosuda. “I felt super confident and just wanted to produce for my team. That last time up I told the guys, ‘Keep it going. I wanna another at-bat.”
His two-run double made it 8-0 in the fourth. Junior Alex Adornato followed with another two-run double to make it 10-0.
“They can all hit, and they can all run, they have a reputation up and down the lineup, but they also have speed up and down the lineup,” said Higgins. “We needed our best game to beat them, and we didn’t have it.”
SP-F won the last of its five county titles in 2019. The Raiders fell to 15-7, much better than last season’s 9-16. The Raiders are also in a race for the Union County Conference Watchung Division title along with Westfield and Governor Livingston. They have division games left with GL, Westfield, New Providence and A.L. Johnson.
“That’s what the kids will be focused on now,” Higgins said.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Baseball: Governor Livingston, Westfield win UCT semifinals
