Brett Carroll
Staff Writer
The baseball tournaments are looming, so it is time for the Saint Joseph Regional High School baseball team to start clicking.
That is the opinion of the Metuchen school’s coach, Michael Murray.
“We’re still two weeks away from the postseason,” Murray said. “We just want to execute things better. Want to go and execute so we can win these games and try to win the division.”
That plan took a bit of a snag on April 26 when the visiting Falcons lost by a score of 3-2 in eight innings to Old Bridge High School.
Saint Joseph entered the bottom of the seventh with a 2-1 lead but Old Bridge sent the contest into the eighth on a sacrifice fly.
Old Bridge sealed the victory with an RBI single in the eighth, a result that dropped Saint Joseph to 8-6 om the season.
“Kyle Subers, our starting pitcher, had another great game today,” Murray said. “We didn’t tack on enough runs to get him the win. He’s a had a lot of great games this year, that, unfortunately, we haven’t been able to capitalize on much. It seems like every time he pitches, it’s against another top team. But, he’s been great. We just have to help him out a lot more offensively.”
Despite the loss, Murray is optimistic about Saint Joseph’s chances to finish the year strong.
“I think we had some big wins and some tough losses so far this year,” Murray said. “We want to finish strong here to get ourselves ready for the postseason. We want to play into those first few weeks in June. That’s the goal. If we do what we need to do, we give ourselves a chance to compete in June for a title.”
Murray has liked what he’s seen from some of his upperclassmen.
“[Senior] Nick Estes has been throwing the ball well,” Murray said. “Johnny Sot, our senior captain, got his 100th hit this year, so that was special. He’s been on the team all four years. Our catcher, [junior] Tom Faggioni has had a great year as well.”
The Falcons will continue to prepare for the state and Greater Middlesex Conference tournaments when they play at home in Metuchen on May 3 against Sayreville War Memorial High School. Game time is 4 p.m.
