BASEBALL

Middlesex baseball wins 13th sectional title in dramatic fashion

Greg Tufaro
Courier News and Home News Tribune

Junior lefthander Kyle Nepton, who was trying to protect a one-run lead, said his heart was racing and the adrenalin was pumping after the Metuchen High School baseball team loaded the bases on an error and two hit batsmen with two away in the top of the seventh inning.

Nepton struck out dangerous leadoff hitter Kyle Harry, a four-year letterwinner with more than 100 career hits and a .410 career batting average, on three pitches to preserve a 3-2 victory for Middlesex in Friday’s Central Group I championship game.

“I was trying to keep my cool there and do what I’ve been doing all season,” Nepton said. “Just throw strikes. I’m just happy I was able to pull through.”

The sectional title was the 13th for the Blue Jays (24-5), who advance to Tuesday’s state semifinal against Audubon, a 4-3 winner over Pennsville for the South Jersey title, at Cumberland County College. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.

Kyle Nepton

“I don’t even know how he got there,” Middlesex head coach Justin Nastasi said about Nepton loading the bases in the seventh. “That was the most nervous I’ve ever been. He’s been our guy all year and I knew Kyle would find his way out of that. He showed heart. He’s a guy that holds himself accountable. He didn’t want to let those guys down. He said, ‘I’m going to get out of this.’ ”

Nepton took a 3-0 lead into the sixth inning. After No. 9 batter Sam Johnson singled and Harry reached on an infield error, Mike Lapczynski laced a two-run double with one away to left-center field, closing the deficit to a single run. Nepton retired Matt Volpe, who leads the Bulldogs with a .526 batting average and 30 RBI, on a groundout and fanned cleanup hitter Will Hronich on a 2-2 pitch to leave a pinch runner for Lapczynski stranded at second as he worked out of the jam. Lapczynski’s double – his team-leading ninth of the season – was one of only four pitches Metuchen launched out of the infield for the entire game.

Until that sixth inning, Nepton faced just one batter over the minimum, retiring 14 of 15 batters at one stretch with Harry’s younger brother Jay, a freshman shortstop, being the only hitter to reach safely with a fifth-inning single. The only other hit Metuchen registered over the first five innings was Volpe’s two-out single in the first.

Nepton, who improved his personal record to 8-1 and saw his ERA actually rise infinitesimally to 1.35, recorded 12 groundball outs and four strikeouts against a team that entered the contest with a .356 batting average.

Matt Volpe

Despite playing one of the toughest schedules of any school in the league and boasting three starters with gaudy offensive statistics from a team that finished second to Spotswood in the Blue Division, Middlesex did not land a single player on the 2017 All-Greater Middlesex Conference team, which the league’s head coaches selected earlier this week. Metuchen, which split its regular-season series with the Blue Jays, had more All-Conference selections than any league member with Kyle Harry (C), Lapczynski (INF) and Volpe (1B) earning All-Conference recognition at their respective positions.

“I think they are a great team with a lot of talent,” Nastasi said of Metuchen. “We don’t care about that stuff (individual postseason awards). I think when we lost in the Group I final two years ago, a lot of these guys were there, and all they care about is getting a ring. If we make All-Conference that’s great, but we really don’t care about that stuff. It’s all about getting that championship.”

Middlesex, the only GMC school to claim a sectional title this year, took a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Justin May led off with a walk and took second on Quincy West’s single to right. Volpe cleanly fielded Jack Hnylycia’s sacrifice bunt attempt to the third-base side of the mound, but threw the ball away up the right-field line, allowing May to cross home and West to reach third. West scored the second run on a wild pitch. Volpe fanned the final three batters of the inning – all looking at third strikes – to limit the damage.

Quincy West crosses the plate after hitting a home run.

West led off the fourth inning with a solo homer over the left-field fence on an inside 0-1 fastball, delivering what was a paramount insurance run at the time but what proved to be the game-winning run.

“It’s prepared us well,” West said of Middlesex’s challenging out-of-division schedule which included a 3-0 record against nonconference Group IV schools, a 3-0 mark against Red Division foes and a 2-3 record against White Division teams with those losses by a total of four runs including setbacks to two sectional finalists.

“We face better pitching,” West said, “so it helps us when we face smaller schools because we have more confidence in ourselves.”

Volpe limited the Blue Jays to five hits including two in the first inning. Mike Salerno, who certainly posted All-Conference worthy numbers (.442 average, 42 hits, 29 RBI, 36 runs), singled with two away and took third on a double from cleanup batter Matt Carovillano, who is hitting .360 this season with 15 career homers and recently attracted the attention of a Cleveland Indians scout. Right fielder John Szpara made a nice diving catch on a sinking line drive off the bat of Nick DiMaggio (.368 BA) to end the threat.

After Volpe issued consecutive walks on borderline full-count offerings to start the third, second baseman Sam Johnson converted a tag-out and throw-out double play on a hard-hit groundball before Jarrett May was retired on a groundout as the Bulldogs escaped another jam.

Carovillano, in his first full season of catching, erased a runner attempting to steal in the first inning, sending a message to would-be base stealers that his arm can rival that of Kyle Harry, one of the league’s best defensive catchers who also threw out a runner attempting to steal.

“He’s matured a lot back there,” Nastasi said of Carovillano. “If we don’t have him back there we are not going to have exactly what’s going on here. He’s our backbone.”

Middlesex has won five in a row and eight of its last nine. The Blue Jays are vying for their fourth state title.

“We can hit one through nine,” Nastasi said. “We are not going to be an easy out with these kids. I don’t want (the season) to end. I just hope we keep going.”

Staff writer Greg Tufaro: gtufaro@gannett.com