Monroe’s Andre Love delivers a pitch at Edison in the GMCT Tournament quarterfinals. (Photo: Nick Hart)
It was a cloudy and windy afternoon as the number one seed, Edison, hosted nine-seeded Monroe in the quarterfinals of the Jim Muldowney GMC Tournament, and although the sun didn’t shine, the Falcons (10-12) sure did on the field.
Monroe wasted no time jumping on the Eagles (15-6) as the first three hitters of the game recorded a hit. First, it was Justin Mangano who started things off with a single, then it was Ben Faigin – Monday’s winning pitcher in an upset of Colonia – who doubled, and both were driven in by an Alex Marcus double to take an early lead.
In the bottom half of the first, Edison looked like it was ready to answer right back, with two base runners of its own reaching via a pair of walks. With two on and one out it looked as though the Eagles had the Falcons starter, Andre Love, in some early trouble. But Love found his way out of the jam by striking out the next to batters to keep his team’s lead intact.
After a leadoff single, start the top of the second by Austin Loudin, the next two batters were set down, but the lineup had flipped back up to the top. Mangano singled once again, bringing up Faigin, who launched a three-run homer to left-center field that sent his team and the Monroe faithful into a frenzy.
On the other side of the inning, love continued to settle in, setting down Edison in order, picking up another pair of strikeouts.
The Eagles found some success in the third, but were only able to push across one run on an RBI double from Ray Tavarez.
With a five-run advantage, the sentiment in the Falcons’ dugout seemed to be that no matter the lead, no number would suffice. Monroe proceeded to tack on an additional run in the top of the fourth and three more in the top of the fifth with RBIs from Marcus in both frames, Mangano in the fifth, as well as a run driven in by Tyler Bacon.
In the bottom half of those innings, Edison could not string together much success against Love on the mound. The Eagles went down in order in the fourth, and sent four to the plate in the fifth, thanks to a two-out triple from Robert Roma, which resulted in no runs.
Love found the same success in the bottom of the sixth, retiring Edison, one, two, three, with another pair of strikeouts. Approaching his pitch limit in the bottom of the seventh, Love needed to be efficient in order to complete the game, and that is just what he was. With the first to batters of the inning retired on groundouts, Love punctuated his standout performance with a strikeout, his 11th of the ballgame.
To have a stat line of seven innings pitched, three hits, one run and 11 strikeouts is impressive in its own right, but to do so against the top team in the GMC tournament adds just another level to Love’s outing.
The top of the Falcons’ order also had a stellar performance, with each of the top three hitters in the lineup reaching base three or more times.
Next up for Monroe is a matchup against the five seed, South Plainfield in the semi-finals of the Jim Muldowney GMC Tournament after the Tigers defeated Monroe 7-6 in their quarterfinal matchup. That game will be played at noon, and you can hear it live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe on the call.
Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Nick Hart with Monroe pitcher Andre Love, catcher Justin Mangano and head coach Sean Field, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
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