Kozak shines for Middlesex as Blue Jays “walk off” Sayreville 10-0 for fourth straight win

The recipe for the Middlesex baseball team this season has been good hitting and solid pitching.

They got both Tuesday afternoon in a 10-0 Greater Middlesex Conference White Division home win over Sayreville, heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Chris Kozak threw six scoreless innings, scattering four hits and striking out seven, walking just one – only his second base on balls issued in 33 innings pitched this season. He picked up his second win of the year against three losses.

Meanwhile, Middlesex scored early and often, then walked it off with four in the bottom of the sixth to activate the ten-run rule.

The Blue Jays sent eight to the plate in the bottom of the first en route to a 3-0 lead. Dom Parenti led off with a walk, and Dylan Ianiero hit one back to the pitcher to move Parenti to second. After an Owen Reynolds flyout to left, Dominic Long scored him with a single, moving to second when the throw to the plate was in the dirt and went to the backstop. Then there was a Luke Jones walk, and another from Marcus Lavornia to load the bases, before Sean Hughes made it 3-0 with a ground rule double to center field.

In the second, Middlesex sent seven to the plate. Parenti drew a one-out walk, Ianiero singled and Reynolds drove in one with a double. Long did the same with a single, and Jones drove in the third run of the inning with another single, making it 6-0.

That was all for Sayreville starter Logan Kaufman, who was 3-0 with a 1.20 ERA coming in, and just four earned runs allowed all season in 23 1/3 innings entering the game. He took the loss, going just two innings, allowing seven runs on six hits with three walks and one K.

Bryan Girodano came in and threw the next three innings for the Bombers, keeping them in the game and the Jays off the scoreboard. He scattered four hits, walked one and struck out one.

But Middlesex got to Tyler Yan in the sixth. With one out, he walked Long. And after Jones grounded to Yan – who won a foot race to the bag for the second out, he walked Lavornia and Hughes. That’s when Kozak made his excellent day at the mound an even better day at the plate.

He laced a shot to centerfield that Sayreville’s Jimmy Kehoe dove for and missed, allowing the ball to go almost all the way to the outfield wall. By the time left fielder Andrew Provenza got to it and got the ball in, Kozak might have had an in-the-park home run, but he was held at third and settled for a three-RBI triple to make it 9-0.

The finishing touch came from left fielder James Matula, who singled home Kozak with the tenth run, ending the game.