St. Joseph-Metuchen falls short, 4-1, in Non-Public South A title game to Red Bank Catholic

It wasn’t exactly David vs. Goliath, but St. Joseph-Metuchen clearly wasn’t the favorite against Red Bank Catholic, the No. 1-ranked team in the state, heading into Saturday’s Non-Public South A title game.

But for most of five innings, with Jimmy Mulvaney puzzling the Caseys hitters, it looked like an upset might be in the making, even after RBC tied the game at one in the fifth inning.

Red Bank Catholic may not have figured out Mulvaney, but they were able to piece enough together to come out with a 4-1 win, and the sectional title, after all, in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

In the decisive sixth inning, Red Bank Catholic got three runs on three hits, all singles, and two errors, including a passed ball, plus a mishandled bunt situation where no one was quite sure whose ball it was t field.

St. Joe’s got its only run in the first inning. Robbie Carvellie doubled with one out, then after a two-ouot walk by Tyler DelVecchio, Matt Kosuda drove him in with a single.

For a while, it looked like that might be the only run of the game. But it wasn’t.

RBC’s Matt Brunner got hit by Mulvaney on the first pitch of the fifth. A sac bunt moved him to second, and an error on a ground ball hit to short by Max Dantoni tied the score.

Then, with the game tied at one in the bottom of the sixth, RBC went ahead in what would be its final at bat of the year at Count Basie Field.

Sean Griggs led with a single, then Frank Scrivanic reached on an error. A passed ball allowed Griggs to score from third, making it 2-1 RBC. Then Brunner flied to center to make it 3-1, and a Brendan Kopec single drove in the fourth run, but he got cut down trying to extend it to a double to end the inning.