By David Gurney, Sports Writer
Good teams advance in the state tournament.
Head coach Greg Beyer knows this, as does his Monroe Township High School baseball team.
That’s why they were still around, along with Wall, in the semifinals of the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III tournament when the teams met Tuesday.
And though three seeds separated them, it came down to just one bad defensive inning with two outs to separate the two teams.
After tying the game at three, Wall scored five unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth to capture an 8-3 victory over Monroe in the semifinals of the state sectional tournament, ending the Falcons’ season at 17-10.
The loss came a half week after defeating Freehold Borough, 3-1, in the sectional quarterfinals, and days after Colonia tied Perth Amboy, 3-3, in a rain-shortened affair that gave Monroe a co-White Division championship with Colonia at a tally of 10-3-1.
”It was a tough loss, but if you look at this group of seniors, they’re responsible for two division titles the last three years, one short of a school record for wins in a season, and reached the state sectional semifinals,” Beyer said. “They have a lot to hang their hats on. It is an unprecedented stretch. We’ve presented ourselves well, we haven’t been blown out. Both the losses to Old Bridge in the GMC’s and yesterday to Wall were heartbreaking.”
In the defeat to Wall, the Falcons fell behind 1-0 after the first before tying it up on an RBI ground out by freshman Nick Dini to bring in senior Dan Palisay in the third inning.
Wall scored two more in the bottom of the third and Monroe countered with two more to tie, bolstered by hits from senior Marc Magliaro and Zack Batchelor and RBIs from seniors Joe Williams (sacrifice fly) and Matt Lezzo (fielder’s choice).
”When you get into this time of the season, everyone is good and has good pitching,” Beyer said. “I think we did a pretty good job pitching. We only had three hits but made the most of them and scratched out three runs. We were in it. Things just fell apart in the fourth.”
Senior starting pitcher Ryan Clark walked the nine-hitter to lead off the inning, then sophomore reliever Andy Sullivan came in, walked the next batter, then struck out consecutive batters.
An infield single followed, loading the bases with two outs. The next batter popped one up into the outfield, which was misplayed and resulted in several runs.
Then the proverbial floodgates opened up.
”Toward the end of the game our fielding didn’t come through,” senior shortstop Magliaro said. “We hung in after that inning, but we couldn’t catch a break. We should have gotten out of that inning, there were some routine plays we didn’t make. We kept battling, but came up a little short.”
In the team’s win over Freehold, Sullivan pitched a complete-game, five-hitter, striking out seven, walking three and allowing a single unearned run in the first inning for his only blemish.
With the game tied at one, Magliaro connected on a bases-loaded, two-run double in the bottom of the fifth to provide the difference.
”Freehold was a real test for us,” Beyer said. “There were a few big plays in game, a double play in the first inning that held them to one run, some clutch pitching by Sullivan, and a huge hit by Magliaro in the fifth. It allowed us to reach our first ever Central Jersey semifinal in Group III.”
