About 15 minutes before game time, when asked how he felt about his team this year so far, veteran South River skipper Mike Lepore Jr. seemed happy overall, but noted his team has struggled sometimes against good pitching.
Well, on Friday afternoon, they faced North Plainfield starter Ian Lamiera – who was 2-0 with a 0.70 ERA coming into the game – and got five runs in the first two innings, all of them unearned, en route to a 7-0 win at first place North Plainfield in GMC Blue Division action.
It all started in the top of the first, when Jeremiah Sanchez reached on a throwing error by Lamiera, then Rutgers-bound senior Julius Rosado knocked him in from first with a double off the wall in left-centerfield. Rosado stole second, and after James Zsorey struck out, Travis Maloney knocked him with a sac fly to left to make it 2-0. That play would have been the third out of the inning, so both runs were unearned.
In the second, the Rams picked up three more runs, and – again – they were all unearned. Starting pitcher Brendan Lell led off with a single, and after a strikeout, Dylan Pasion was hit by a pitch and Sanchez walked to load the bases. Rosado struck out for the second out of the inning, and then Zsorey hit a ball to second that was booted into right field. It should have been the third out, but plated two more runs.
With first and third, Zsorey tried to steal second with Maloney at the plate. The throw didn’t get him, but Sanchez came in to steal home without a throw to make it 5-0.
At that point, Lamiera settled down a bit for the Canucks, not allowing another hit – and only three more base runners – through the end of the fifth.
The Rams got two more insurance runs off him in the sixth. Sebastian Deerson walked to lead off the inning, then after two strikeouts, North Plainfield intentionally walked Rosado. Zsorey came up and promptly hit a hard triple that plate both before Maloney grounded out to second to end the inning.
Meanwhile, Lell was cruising on the mound. He allowed two first-inning hits – the second an infield hit on a knuckler off the end of the bat that ended up like a good bunt down the third base line – but Lell got a strikeout and two flyouts on ten pitches to get out of the inning.
Otherwise, he scattered a few walks, but didn’t allow another hit until the sixth. The Canucks actually loaded the bases after a one-out single and a hit batter, then a pop foul, as DH Jake Six singled to fill the bags, but Luis Ceda grounded back to Lell to end the threat.
Lell took the mound in the seventh looking like he would finish the game. In the seventh, he struck out the nine hitter to lead it off, but then walked Mark Fultz and gave up a single to Victor Ceda. Lepore made a change, and brought in the hard-throwing Zsorey from first to pitch, and he got Davyn Ciriaco to ground into what looked like a double play to short, but the throw to second was too late. He then got Tommy Zotollo to ground back to him, ending the game.
Lamiera fell to 0-2 with the loss, while Lell improved to 3-1 on the season and brought his ERA from just over five to a 3.55. It was his first shutout performance through at least four innings since a five-inning, 12-0 complete game shutout over East Brunswick Magnet on May 5, 2023, his freshman season.
For the time being, the win knocks North Plainfield (8-3 overall) into second in the GMC Blue Division at 8-3, one full game behind Metuchen (8-2, 7-3 Blue), pending its game at Piscataway Friday afternoon. It also gets the Rams to 7-3 in the division (8-3 overall), but they remain in third by a half-game with a game in hand on the Canucks, but with one extra game than Metuchen pending that Piscataway result. (We’ll update this once that score is reported.)
The Rams have two losses already to Metuchen, but the Bulldogs have two losses against North Plainfield. South River will rematch with the Canucks at home on Monday afternoon at 4 pm.
Click below for postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen with junir starting pitcher Brenden Lell and head coach Mike Lepore Jr.:
