Kozak logs 200th career K as No. 2 Middlesex “steals” one at “home” from St. Joseph-Metuchen in 8-7 walkoff victory

Where to begin?

We could start at the beginning, when the first of multiple Middlesex errors in the field led, in part, to the second-ranked Blue Jays trailing 3-0 before ever stepping to the plate Thursday afternoon at Mountainview Park in Middlesex.

Or, we could talk about Middlesex chipping away with a run in the fourth, and a run in the fifth to cut a three-run deficit to two, sandwiched around senior Chris Kozak picking up the 200th strikeout of his four-year varsity career, ending the top of the fifth and stranding a Falcon on first.

What about St. Joe’s seemingly pulling away, breaking the game open in the sixth, scoring four runs on one hit, a hit batter, and four errors – including two on one play – to take a 7-2 lead?

Or the five runs Middlesex got in their half of the sixth to tie the game at seven, on just three hits and three walks?

In the end, it came down to the bottom of the seventh. With pinch-runner Lucas Blanco on third and Diego Marcano on second, with two outs after a sacrifice bunt by Nomar Almonte moved them over, and Kozak popped out to first, Daniel Ianiero came to the plate.

He took ball one, and Marcano got way off the bag at second. His decoy worked, drawing a throw from St. Joe’s catcher A.J. Huber. Blanco took off from third, beat the throw home, and sent Middlesex off with its 16th win of the year against just two losses.

Playing up and beating a Red Division team – albeit one now 5-13 – is what the committee will look at when the GMC seeds its county tournament this Friday. That, coupled with Edison’s 6-5 loss at Metuchen Monday – Edison is in the Red, Metuchen in the White with Middlesex – could give the Blue Jays an even stronger argument that they should be the No. 1 seed in the Jim Muldowney Championship Tournament.

Middlesex has one loss in the conference, to South Brunswick, while the Eagles’ league losses have come to Monroe, Woodbridge, St. Thomas Aquinas and now Metuchen. Still, Edison is the GMC Red Champion at 10-3, and there’s something to be said for that as well.

Friday could get interesting.

Joe’s got on the board first in this one, and it all started with leadoff hitter Nick Yacykewych, whose ground ball on a 3-1 pitch stayed in the infield, but the throw from third baseman Diego Marcano sailed into foul territory. He came home on single by Luke Palermo, who then got caught stealing, but the decoy allowed Davis Labno to score from third. Logan Ring doubled to drive in another run, and the Jays were down 3-0.

They got on the board with a run in the third, when Daniel Ianiero walked, moved to second on a bad pickoff move, then scored on a single by Marcus Lavornia. They got another in the fourth, when Marcano led off with a double, and a Kozak bunt led to a throwing error by third baseman Owen Krulikowski, allowing Marcano to score, making it 3-2 Joe’s.

And things were relatively calm until the sixth inning, when the Falcons exploded for four runs. Palermo singled to lead it off. Luke Baranauskas reached on a dropped throw to first. Ring laid down a bunt and reached on an error, the second in the inning, scoring Palermo to make it 4-2. After Walter Christian walked to load the bases and AJ Huber struck out, Yacykewich got plunked on ball four to make it 5-2, driving in Baranauskas.

Then, when things seemingly couldn’t get any worse, Labno hit a ball to short that Marcus Lavornia booted. By the time he recovered, after Christian had scored, Lavornia threw home as Krulikowski was headed to the plate, but it sailed to the backstop. Now, the Jays were down 7-2.

But they weren’t done.

Luke Jones led off the sixth with an infield hit to short. Marcano singled and Almonte walked to load the bases with nobody out. After Kozak struck out, Daniel Ianiero walked in a run to cut the deficit to four. Lavornia did the same to make it 7-4. Almonte scored on a wild pitch to Dylan Ianiero, who then flew out to center, but the runner on third didn’t tag, leaving the bases loaded, down 7-5.

Then, Long hit a line drive ground ball to second that went off John Boyke’s glove and into right field, plating Daniel Ianiero and Lavornia, tying the game at seven. But Sean Hughes ended the inning with a little blooper to short.

Middlesex head coach Blaze Iannetti brought in Dalton Michael to pitch, but pulled him after a leadoff walk. Long came in from center to pitch, and got a pop up into foul territory, a K, and a fly out to right, with the final out coming as John Boyke was just 90 feet from home, advancing with a stolen base and wild pitch.

Then, Middlesex won it in the bottom of the inning on a daring decoy play Iannetti said he didn’t really want to show just yet. But when you need a win – and they got it – all bets are off, the bag of tricks has to be opened.

Long got the win in relief for the Jays, improving to 6-0 on the season, allowing just one base runner in his one inning of work. Labno, who also only worked the seventh, took the loss for St. Joseph.

Click below to watch Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with seniors Lucas Blanco and Chris Kozak, along with head coach Blaze Iannetti.