Vikings stunned in GMCT opener

By: James McKeever
   South Brunswick High’s quest to win the Greater Middlesex Conference baseball tournament ended before it ever got going the way the Vikings had envisioned.
   Third-seeded SBHS squandered several scoring opportunities and ended up losing a 4-1 decision to 14th-seeded J.F. Kennedy at home last Saturday.
   Had the Vikings won, they would have played in the quarterfinals Wednesday night at Sondek Park in South Brunswick.
   "We had things set up nicely for us," South Brunswick coach Leo Danik said. "We were seeded high and had our ace on the mound. If we won we would have played right in our backyard, under the lights and probably in front of a nice crowd. But we didn’t hold up our end of the bargain."
   Vikings left-hander Kyle Breese took a 4-0 record into the game and found himself in a 1-1 tie going into the seventh. J.F. Kennedy broke the deadlock with three runs — aided by two errors — and South Brunswick had no answer in the bottom of the inning.
   Breese gave up eight hits and two of the four runs were unearned. He walked four and struck out six.
   "He pitched well enough to win, but you have to score more than one run for your ace," Danik said. "We left too many guys on base."
   John Haas drove in the South Brunswick run with a triple in the second. Haas left the game later with a hand injury. Kennedy tied the game in the third. The Vikings produced five hits off two Kennedy pitchers, Jamie Flecha and Isaias Rodriguez.
   "We hit a lot of balls on the nose but we ran ourselves out of innings and couldn’t get that key hit when we really needed it," Danik said. "You have to tip your hat to Kennedy. They made the plays when they had to and got the timely hits and we didn’t. We didn’t overlook them or look ahead to the quarterfinals. We knew they were a quality team."
   Leading up to Saturday’s GMCT game the Vikings’ bats were producing big numbers. Last Wednesday they beat Colonia 10-0, then belted 25 hits in a 22-10 victory over Franklin on Friday.
   In the six-inning win over Colonia, Tyler Chromey improved to 3-2 with a one-hit shutout. He walked two and struck out six. Russ Grimes helped power a 10-hit attack by going 2-for-3 with three RBI, Jake Jaskowski went 2-for-4 with two RBI and Travis Smart added a 2-for-4 game with one RBI.
   Smart had a big game against Franklin. He went 4-for-4 with two doubles and four RBI. The list of offensive stars was long: Tim Barnshaw had three hits and three RBI; Brad Barksdale collected three hits and two RBI; Rob Kohutanycz knocked in four runs with the help of three hits, including a double and a triple; Matt Forthun, Chromey and Russ Grimes had two hits and two RBI each.
   South Brunswick returned to action this week and lost an 8-6 decision to Bishop Ahr in eight innings on Tuesday, dropping their record to 14-7. The Vikings showed resiliency, rallying from a 5-0 deficit with five runs in the fifth and scoring a run in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings. Barnshaw (2-for-3) singled in two runs and Jaskowski doubled home a run in the five-run inning.
   The Vikings play at Sayreville today (Thursday) and await their opponent for the state tournament, which starts on Monday. If South doesn’t have a state game Monday it will play at Carteret in a regular season game. The Vikes are also scheduled to host Linden on Tuesday.
   "Our job now is to get back the intensity we had a couple of weeks ago (during an eight-game winning streak)," said Danik.