Despite a 13-7 record, the Monroe Township High School baseball team is the second seed in the Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC) Tournament.
The majority of the Falcons’ losses have been to quality opponents outside the conference with only two defeats coming against conference teams. Monroe and South Plainfield High School are atop the GMC White Division standings with 8-2 records.
Another reason Monroe received the second seed is because it owns one of the deepest pitching staffs in the GMC. A statistic that jumps out is that all three regulars — junior Robbie Peto, sophomore Eric Heatter and senior Alex Hyman — have yielded only three earned runs each. Peto, who is committed to the University of North Carolina, owns a 3-2 record with 59 strikeouts, Heatter is 5-0 with 48 strikeouts and Hyman is 3-0 with 30 strikeouts.
Senior captain Chris Hernandez’s average is .300, which is low compared to other regulars. But head coach Pat Geroni said it doesn’t reflect the outfielder’s value to the team.
“Chris has come up with huge hits, especially against premium pitching,” he said. “He went 3 for 3 against South Brunswick’s top pitcher and was 2-2 against Marist’s best hurler.”
Junior Rico Viani is hitting .415 with 22 hits and 14 stolen bases, junior Steve Cornish is batting .438 with 14 hits, junior Anthony Tagliaferro averages .370 with 17 hits and a team-leading 14 runs batted in, senior Mike Perotta is averaging .323 and sophomore Chris Perdoni is hitting .317 with 13 hits.
The Falcons hosted No. 15-seed South River High School May 12 in the first round. The quarterfinals are slated for May 14 at Community Park in North Brunswick, the semifinals are May 16 at East Brunswick Vocational Technical High School and the finals are May 20 at TD Bank Park in Bridgewater.
“Success will come if our players come together and play as a complete team,” Geroni said. “So far, we haven’t played the kind of baseball I know we are capable of.”
Geroni agrees with other GMC coaches that there is a tremendous amount of parity and that any team can win on any given day. “I’m not making any predictions,” he said, “But I know we will be ready.
South River eliminated No. 18-seed Perth Amboy High School, 6-5, May 11. No. 17-seed Spotswood High School played No. 16-seed East Brunswick Vo-Tech High School May 11, with the winner moving on to face top-seed J.P. Stevens High School May 12. No. 23-seed Metuchen High School played a preliminary game May 11 against No. 10-seed North Brunswick Township High School, and the winner faced No. 7-seed East Brunswick High School the following day.
The final NJSIAA power point rankings for the upcoming state tournament were released May 11. Monroe (373 points) is ranked third and East Brunswick (315 points) is seeded 10th in Central Jersey Group IV; Spotswood (337 points) is seeded fourth in Central Jersey Group II; and South River (258 points) is seeded fourth in Central Jersey Group I.
The state softball tournament power points were also announced. In Central Jersey Group IV, Monroe (401 points) is the second seed and East Brunswick (326 points) is the fifth seed; Spotswood (384 points) is the fourth seed in Central Jersey Group II; and South River (277 points) is the fifth seed in Central Jersey Group I.
The GMC Softball Tournament started May 11 with play-in games. No. 20-seed South River edged No. 29-seed New Brunswick High School, 3-2, to advance to a preliminary-round game May 13 at No. 13-seed Old Bridge High School.
On May 16, South Plainfield High School will host Super Saturday with the remaining area teams playing their first-round games. Second-seed Monroe (15-1) faces the winner of No. 15-seed Metuchen and No. 18-seed Middlesex High School. No. 5- seed East Brunswick High School (12-9) plays the winner of No. 12-seed Cardinal McCarrick High School vs. No. 21-seed North Brunswick, and No. 7-seed Spotswood (15-1) meets the winner of No. 10-seed Piscataway Township High School and No. 23-seed South Amboy High School.
All remaining games will also be played at South Plainfield, which include the quarterfinals May 21, the semifinals May 23 and the finals May 25.