By: Ken Weingartner
Handicapping this year’s Greater Middlesex Conference baseball tournament is not unlike trying to pick the winner from a 20-horse field in the Kentucky Derby difficult.
And like the fabled horse race, the GMC tourney might come down to equal parts skill and luck.
"It’s wide open," Monroe Township High coach Greg Beyer said. "I would say there are 12 to 15 teams that have a legitimate shot, it just depends whose pitching, who gets hot and who gets a little bit lucky."
The No. 13-seeded Falcons, who opened their GMCT yesterday against Dunellen, could be one of those teams with a shot.
"If we get hot and get a little lucky, we can do some damage," Beyer said. "It all depends which team shows up for us. We’ve been up and down this year. As long as we keep our focus and get good pitching we’ll be all right. The scary part is it’s one and done. Baseball is a game where you can do everything right and still not win. It usually doesn’t work that way, but it does happen."
Monroe went 2-3 over the past week, but the two wins were enough to guarantee a spot in the state tournament at 11-7 heading into yesterday’s game. The Falcons posted wins over North Brunswick and Trenton Catholic and lost to Colonia, Perth Amboy and No. 1 GMCT seed Spotswood.
Ryan Cushman homered in Monroe’s 15-11 loss to Colonia and Matt Kalbach went 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored in the 5-4 setback to Perth Amboy.
"When you look at those losses, it was defense that hurt us," Beyer said. "Against Perth Amboy we were cruising along up 3-0 in the fifth and we made two errors and they scored four runs. If we make those plays, they don’t score; Matt Kalbach didn’t give up an earned run. Against Colonia we made a bunch of errors and that really hurt us. And the pitching needed to be better too; you don’t give up 15 runs just because you didn’t field well."
Rich Feldhan drove in the winning run and Ryan Clark added an insurance RBI single in Monroe’s 4-2 win over North Brunswick. Chris Cirlincione got the victory.
Cushman had a two-run double to key a 5-2 victory over Trenton Catholic while Feldhan had three hits and drove in a run. Andy Sullivan got the win and Kalbach picked up the save.
"A lot has to do with focus," Beyer said. "We have to do that; play good defense, get good pitching. We’ve hit pretty well, with the exception of a couple games, all year. When we focus and come to play we’re a tough team to beat."
Finding a way to ensure that focus every game is the challenge.
"We’ve tried a lot of different things this year," Beyer said. "I’ve coached a bunch of games from the dugout, which I’ve never done before; that’s worked sometimes, and sometimes it hasn’t. You try the calm approach, you try the screaming approach. It comes down to maturity. We’ve matured as a team, but we still have a ways to go with that.
"This is the time of year where being sure of yourself, being confident, is key. And getting a little lucky."
With any luck at all, Monroe will show it has the horses to make a run in tournament play.
