Sayreville softball shuts out East Brunswick behind Fitzsimmons, Brush

SAYREVILLE – Senior Erin Fitzsimmons supplied the pitching and sophomore Ryane Brush came with the power.

Together the two played a big part in guiding the Sayreville softball team to a 4-0 shutout of fifth-seeded East Brunswick in the NJSIAA Central Group IV quarterfinals on Tuesday as Fitzsimmons fired a two-hitter and Brush clubbed two home runs to left field as the fourth-seeded Bombers advanced to the sectional semifinals on Tuesday, May 26 against the winner of Wednesday's game between Hillsborough and South Brunswick.

It's the first time in at least 12 tries Sayreville has beaten the Bears dating back to 2007.

"In my whole career we have never beat them," Fitzsimmons said. "They're kind of our rivals and that's all I wanted before I graduated."

Fitzsimmons was in her groove as she struck out 10, walked three, and allowed only two hits — a fourth inning leadoff single to left field to Brenna Razzano and a seventh inning two-out single up the middle to Megan Kelliher, which ironically, brought the tying run up to the plate for East Brunswick (15-10).

Fitzsimmons though got No. 9 hitter Alyssa Ippolito to hit a grounder back to her as she threw to first for the final out of the game — before the inning, the Bears had only two baserunners, both of whom did not get past first base.

"Last practice Coach (Lynn) Lawson, the assistant coach and I, we worked on getting first pitch strike and second pitch strike so I think that practice really helped me getting set on what I needed to do to beat this East Brunswick team," Fitzsimmons said.

Sayreville (14-5) immediately took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first as Christina Misiur drew a two-out walk and Brush crushed a 3-2 pitch over the left field fence for a two-run blast.

"I've just been practicing a lot and I wait for my pitch," Brush said.

Mary Kate Kersting followed with a double to left and two batters later scored on a Brianna Parisio bloop RBI single to center that made it 3-0.

The only other scoring was Brush's solo home run to lead off the bottom of the third as the Bombers ammassed seven hits, five of which went for extra-bases as Emily Cabrera and Rebecca Wehrle both also doubled.

Kaleigh Dwyer took the loss for East Brunswick, allowing four earned runs, six hits, two strikeouts, and two walks over 52/3 innings.

"I couldn't have been happier with the girls perfomrance," Sayreville coach Christa DeLucia said. "We've been working hard all season to get to this point. We had good practices coming into it."

"This is probably the best game we've played all season so I'm just thrilled and very, very proud of them."

Staff writer Mike Becker: mbecker@GannettNJ.com