Monroe’s run ends in Central Jersey Group 4 final; Falcons toppled 5-1 at Jackson Memorial

A thrilling run for Monroe in the state tournament – including an upset of GMCT champion Old Bridge in the sectional semifinals – has come to an end.

Despite a tight game early, a four-run 4th inning, clutch defense, and outstanding pitching that propelled the Jackson Memorial Jaguars to a 5-1 victory in the Central Jersey Group 4 Championship game on Monday afternoon down in Ocean County.

In that frame, Jack Osmond walked in a run, Julian Caruso hit a sacrifice fly to center to drive in another, Nick Izzo then singled to center to drive in a third, and Brady Wendell topped it off with a single to right-centerfield to make the score 5-1.

The Jags never looked back.

The game had the vibe from first pitch that it was going to be a 1-0 kind of game featuring a pitchers duel between Javoni Hallihan of the Jags and Zack Wallace of the Falcons. And for a while, it continued to look like that.

Neither team had a hit until the third inning, Wallace struck out five of the first six batters he faced, and both teams couldn’t get that big hit early on.

Then the story of the game changed.

Brady Wendell hit a five-hopper to first base but the ball was bobbled by Falcons’s first baseman Harrison Lollin allowing Julian Caruso to score the game’s first run in the bottom of the third.

But the Falcons played small ball to tie up the score in the top of the fourth, when Zack Wallace bunted towards the mound and Nick Fletcher ran on home to even things up at 1-1.

While the Falcons got runners on base in innings tow, three and four, they were only able to drive in one run, including when they loaded the bases as Hallihan did his best Houdini impression to get out of an inning unscathed.

Wallace recorded seven strikeouts in four innings and allowed five runs, four of them earned before being replaced on the mound by Lucas White.

Monroe was two-hit in the game: a single each by Justin Mangano and Nick Fletcher.

They finish the season 16-10, while Jackson improves to 18-10. They will take on South 4 champion Eastern (24-6) Wednesday in the Group 4 semifinals. The fifth-seeded Vikings were 4-2 winners over seven-seed Egg Harbor Township. The winner of that game will play for the state Group 4 title at 7 pm Saturday in at Veterans’ Park in Hamilton against the winner of the other semifinal between North 2 champion Bridgewater-Raritan and North 1 champ Livingston.

Story by Vin Ebenau.

Click below for postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen: