It’s South Plainfield – fresh off a stunning comeback – vs. Edison, ace Appelman, in second GMCT semifinal Saturday

There have been many really good pitchers in the Greater Middlesex Conference the last several years. They’re guys you don’t want to face in a must-win game. Perhaps none were as scary as Zack Konstantinovsky of North Brunswick.

He’s now at Rutgers, and there are a few hurlers throughout the league who’ve been in that same mold this year. Jaxon Appelman of Edison is one.

He’s not only scary because of what he can do on the mound – he nearly tossed a no-hitter April 18th against Middlesex until it was broken up with two out in the top of the seventh – but also at the plate. Even playing on a home field where the right-center field wall is 440 feet away from home plate due to a dual baseball-soccer configuration, Appelman has six home runs and is hitting .393 on the season.

The latest team to challenge him is South Plainfield. The top-seeded Tigers can never be counted out, especially after what happened Wednesday night in the last quarterfinal game to be played before they turned the lights out at North Brunswick Community Park.

Down 9-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh, South Plainfield scored six times and only made one out – a force play at home on a ball back to the pitcher – to come away with a rousing 10-9 win that had head coach Scott Gleichenhaus referencing the 1986 Mets in the immediate aftermath.

Saturday, in the second game of the GMC Tournament doubleheader at Ray Cipperly Field in East Brunswick, Edison and South Plainfield will square off for a trip to the GMC title game. You can hear both on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with the Eagles and Tigers playing at 2:30 pm, following the noon tilt between Old Bridge and Sayreville.

Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe will call all the play-by-play; click here to listen.

Here’s a closer look at the first semifinal game of the day:

(1) South Plainfield (17-3) vs (5) Edison (13-7)
2:30 pm on Central Jersey Sports Radio (LISTEN LIVE)

PROBABLE PITCHERS:
South Plainfield: Kevin Penny (2-0, 1.22 ERA)
Edison: Jaxon Appelman (4-1, 1.21 ERA)

PREVIEW INTERVIEWS:

South Plainfield head coach Scott Gleichenhaus

Edison head coach Vinnie Abene

HOW THEY GOT HERE:

South Plainfield: The Tigers pretty much cruised through their opener, an 11-1, five-inning, mercy rule win over 17th-seed Perth Amboy. They looked dead in the water Wednesday night; you don’t often win a tournament game when you commit six errors and head into your final at bat down five runs. But that’s exactly what happened in a 10-9 win over the 8th-seed South Brunswick.

Edison: Unlike the Tigers, their first-round win was a little more challenging. They beat 12-seed Piscataway 2-1 behind a stellar outing from Jaxon Appelman, who went the distance in a three-hit, ten strikeout effort. Then, in Wednesday’s semis, Robert Roma did him one better: a complete game, two-hit shutout in a 1-0 Eagles’ win over 13-seed Middlesex. Of course, Appelman still figured in the result; he hit a solo homer in the bottom of the third off Jays’ starter Dominic Long, his only mistake in an otherwise excellent pitching effort as well.

TOP HITTERS:

South Plainfield: Shortstop Zach Robinson is crushing the ball, hitting .469 with 23 runs batted in, the best of any single regular among the four teams playing Saturday afternoon. He’s also got three home runs, but isn’t just a power-hitter. He’s an on-base machine, with 15 walks, and he has 20 stolen bases. Junior Dan Kapsch is hitting almost as well: .435, with a team-best 26 singles and 30 overall hits; he’s also knocked in ten runs.

Edison: Junior Anthony Calantoni – whose dad, Brian, played for Edison, both on the diamond and on the football field – – is swatting it to the tune of a .435 batting average with a team-high 27 hits, along with five triples and 11 stolen bases, also team bests. Appelman is just a few points under .400, hitting .393, with those six dingers and a team-high 13 walks. Robert Roma has a team-high 16 runs batted in.

LAST FINALS BERTH:

South Plainfield won the GMC crown in its most recent appearance, when they became the second-lowest seeded team to win it, in 2018, as a 14-seed, over 12-seed Perth Amboy. That game took 12 innings to come up with a 2-1 Tiger win. South Plainfield had four prior appearances in the title game, their first coming in 1990, but lost all of them.

Edison may have eight championships, and they may be 8-1 all-time in GMC Finals, but their last title came in their most recent appearance, and it wasn’t all that recent: 2001. That was their eighth title in a span of twelve years in which the Eagles dominated Middlesex County baseball. No other team in the GMC era (since 1986) has gone on such a run.