BY DOUG McKENZIE
Staff Writer
MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Sayreville’s Megan Mazur slides safely into second base during the Bombers’ win over Carteret on May 24 during the GMCTournament in South Plainfield. It’s survive and advance time for high school baseball and softball teams around the state, and the list of local teams still fighting to reach their championship aspirations is shrinking with each passing day.
On the baseball diamond, the Spotswood Chargers will look to capture the Central Jersey Group II title later today when they take on Governor Livingston in the final at Spotswood High School.
The Charger, the top seed, advanced to the final with a hard-fought- 3-2 win over a game Rumson-Fair Haven squad on Tuesday. Spotswood managed just three hits on the day, but made them count, scoring a pair of runs in the second inning on a walk and fielder’s choice, before getting the game-winner in the fifth on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze bunt off the bat of Robby Thuring.
Mike Hohman got the win for the Chargers, allowing no runs over four and two-thirds of an inning, while Will Beard got his fourth save of the year, going the last two and one-third.
South Brunswick’s boys will play for the CJ Group IV title later today when they travel to top-seeded Hamilton East for a 4 p.m. showdown.
The Vikings beat Hunterdon Central, 2-0, in their semifinal on Tuesday, as senior Tyler Chromey pitched brilliantly, allowing just one hit, while striking out four over seven innings.
Offensively, the Vikings got their first run on an RBI double from Michael Mariano, while pinch-runner Cristiano Armenti then scored on a sacrifice fly by Jake Jaskowski.
Bishop Ahr’s baseball team takes on top-seeded CBA in the Non-Public South A semifinal later today after beating Holy Spirit, 3-2 , on Tuesday on an RBI hit from Matt Rodriguez in the bottom of the seventh.
CBA beat Camden Catholic, who earlier knocked off St. Joseph in the first round. But the Falcons are not done yet. They will take on a red-hot South Amboy team in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final tomorrow at East Brunswick Vo-Tech at 2:30 p.m.
It will be all hands on deck for the Falcons, who have not played a game since their loss to Camden Catholic last Friday.
Following a wild weekend of softball at the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament in South Plainfield, a only one local team remains in the chase for a state sectional title.
The St. John Vianney Lancers, who wrapped up the Shore Conference Tournament title on Wednesday night with a 3-2 win over Jackson, entered yesterday’s action still in the hunt for the Non-Public South A crown.
The Lancers, seeded second in the bracket, faced third-seeded Notre Dame for the right to take on Red Bank Catholic in the sectional final on Tuesday. The Caseys beat top-seeded Bishop Ahr 2-1, on Wednesday in their semifinal game when Erica Benn hit a two-out RBI shot off the right-field fence to cap a two-run rally in the top of the seventh inning.
The South Brunswick Vikings saw their hopes of a sectional title end on Tuesday with a 4-0 loss to Hillsborough. With the loss, the Vikings, who knocked off Manalapan in the quarterfinals, finished the year at 20-4.
This past weekend, the Colonia Patriots put on quite a show in winning the GMCT crown, their first since 1990.
The Patriots, coached by Ann Cyrana, won a thrilling, eight-inning Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament semifinal game over Bishop Ahr on Saturday, then came back to knock off top-seeded Sayreville on Monday.
The Bombers were able to survive a tough 1-0 battle over JFK on Saturday, scoring the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning with a walk (by Whitney Zrebiec) and a sacrifice fly by Stephanie Zrebiec.
In the final, Colonia, who trailed by a score of 2-0 until the fifth inning, managed to tie the game in that inning, before scoring two more runs in the sixth inning. What made the two-run rallies most interesting was the fact that all four of the runs were scored with two outs.
What made the Patriots clutch play even more surprising was the fact that Colonia, during the season, was 2-7 in games decided by less than three runs.
But in the end, the Patriots saved their heroics for the perfect time, knocking off the top three seeds in succession to earn the tournament title.
Sayreville finished what was a brilliant season at 21-6.