Brett Carroll
Staff Writer
Pitching and defense have been the ingredients for the formula of success this spring for the Old Bridge High School baseball team.
“We played great defense,” Old Bridge coach Matt Donaghue said. “[Junior] Sonny [Fauci] pitched a gem. And, we were confident and aggressive.”
“We played solid defense all around,” senior first baseman Ryan Perez said. “Our pitcher threw a gem, and we got some timely hitting.”
Those comments came after a crucial victory in the quarterfinals of the Greater Middlkesex Conference Tournament.
Old Bridge rung up a 1-0 victory over Saint Joseph Regional High School of Metuchen, 1-0, on May 17 in Old Bridge. That victory sent Old Bridge to the tournament’s semifinal round of the GMC.
The GMC semifinals were played….. The championship game is scheduled for May 26 at East Brunswick Vocational Technical High School.
The Knights are also focusing on the Central Jersey, Group 4 state sectional tournament that opened this week.
Perez scored the only run of the game in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Pitching an defense were key elements in the victory over Saint Joseph, but Old Bridge knows that the bats must start to swing.
“We had a couple of runners in scoring positions with less than two outs,” Donaghue said. “You can’t leave runners in scoring positions. We just need to be more confidence to get those runners in.”
“I thought we hit the ball really well today,” Perez said. “We just need to have more timely hits, and like the coach said, not leave runners on the bases.”
Old Bridge is prepared to stick with its game plan.
“Just play our game,” Donaghue said. “Let the baseball cards work themselves out. We play defense and pitch, we’re in a good spot. So, just keep playing our game.”
“To win more games,” Perez said.
Donaghue believes that his pitching staff will be the key to the team’s postseason hopes.
“Our pitching staff is solid,” Donaghue said. “[Seniors] Connor Freel, Paul Tannucilli. Sonny as well. We don’t really have star players. We have a bunch of really good players that all work together to make this work.”
