Championship Knights! Old Bridge takes CJ4 title in thrilling 2-1 win over North Brunswick

The GMC was guaranteed at least one sectional champion Friday, with four teams playing in three championship games.

And in the most thrilling and closest of them all, top-seed Old Bridge wound up as the only winner, beating second-seed North Brunswick 2-1 Friday afternoon at Fred Cole Field to claim its first sectional title since 2015.

The Knights (20-8) now move on to host South Jersey Group 4 winner Eastern – which beat Rancocas Valley 4-0 Friday – at 5 pm, back on their home turf.

North Brunswick ends its season at 21-7.

The old sports saying “Defense wins championships” has lost some meaning in today’s sports world full of high-scoring affairs. But today on a 90-degree scorching hot summer day, Old Bridge and North Brunswick reminded sports fans of how fun pitchers duels can be.

Knights starter Justin Hascup did the majority of the heavy lifting for his team. He earned the win and pitched 5 1/3 innings, struck out two, and allowed one run on four hits, finishing his outing with only 65 pitches thrown.

The scoring started in the top of the second, when cleanup hitter Justin Batts hit a leadoff triple into the left-center field gap. Old Bridge recorded two quick outs, but designated hitter Josh Rodriguez was able to put a ball in play to shortstop and leg out an infield single, scoring Batts to give North Brunswick a 1-0 lead.

Old Bridge responded with a run of its own in the bottom of the second. Mike Villani hit a leadoff double and eventually scored from third on an Alejandro Jabar wild pitch that knotted the game at one.

Neither team could break through until the fifth. That’s when Old Bridge’s Adam Scire, batting in the eighth spot, led off the bottom of the fifth with a walk. He later reached second base after Justin Meyer grounded out to the pitcher. With two outs in the inning and Jabar rolling, the unexpected happened. The eventual game-winning run was scored on a dropped fly ball by Chris Rosario in Right Field that plated Scire from second, who was running on contact.

And yet, it still wasn’t over.

Things got dicey in the top of the seventh for Old Bridge when relief pitcher Justin Meyer had hit Frankie Gabolino of North Brunswick in the head with a pitch, then gave up a single to Josh Rodriguez, which advanced Gabolino to third. All of a sudden, North Brunswick had runners on the corners with one out, down a run in the final frame.

But Meyer bounced back – getting Sammy Berardo to strike out swinging. Then it came down to the nine-hole hitter EJ Accettura, who was 0-2 in the game. It was a hard-fought at bat, but in the end, it was Meyer who was victorious, getting Accettura to ground out to first for the final out of the game.

Meyer earned himself the save in 1.2 innings of work, allowing just one hit.

Click below for postgame reaction with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Dylan Allen: