South falls to Freehold Township on RBI Single in 7th

Ian MacLean’s RBI single off of Will Schnoor in the bottom of the seventh brought home Chris Ballester and gave Freehold Township a 8-7 A-North victory over Middletown South

Freehold jumped out to an early advantage in the bottom of the first inning, putting up four runs. Rodger Wilmot singled to set up the inning. Then Brian Cooney reaching on an error, a walk of Chase Majewski and a MacLean single all lead to the Pats four runs.

The Eagles got two of those runs back in the top of the second, when Miles Santos hit a double, Craig Sweeney hit a single and Mike Hermann got an RBI on a sacrifice fly.

After the Patriots scored a run in their half of the second inning, they held a 5-3 advantage.

Middletown South took the lead in the fifth with the help of a four run inning. The four runs came around to score and a Mike Farrell base hit knocked starter Matt Grajek out of the game. Grajek pitched four plus innings, and allowed six runs, five earned, on nine hits.

In the bottom of the fifth Ballester led off with a homerun and ended starter Chris Kamna’s day. Kamna had four plus innings of work, surrendering nine hits and six runs, four of which were earned. An error allowed MacLean to reach base and was singled home by Dave Banach.

Ballester’s double set up MacLean’s game-winning hit in the bottom of the seventh, and gave the Patriots their 8th win of the year, bringing them above .500 at 8-7.

Will Schnoor took the loss, pitching two and two thirds, allowing three hits, striking out two and allowing two runs, one earned.

Austin Henderson picked up the victory coming out of the bullpen to throw three innings in which he only gave up three hits, and two runs, only one of which was earned.

Junior Varsity
The JV Eagles finished out their A-North schedule with a 16-5 win over Freehold Township. Chris Bunge started off the game for South by hitting a lead off homerun over the right center field fence. Evan Mitchell had a strong performance over five innings to earn the win. Tyler Cotrell went three for three to lead the Eagles offensively. Jon Altino and Darin Alcolea also ahd strong days at the plate. Eric Hogan hit his third pinch hit homerun of the season in the top of the seventh inning to close out the scoring for the Eagles. Hogan pitched two innings to close out the contest. With a 11-3 overall record, and 11-2 in the conference, Middletown South has won the JV division of the A-North.