Baseball: Woodbridge Advances Past South River, 9-2, in GMC Tournament

WOODBRIDGE, NJ —  Woodbridge ace Eddy Nunez dominated eight of the nine hitters in the South River lineup.

That was more than enough to carry second-seeded Woodbridge to a 9-2 baseball victory over 18th-seeded South River in the first round of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament under the lights on Monday night.

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Woodbridge will play 10th-seeded Sayreville in the GMCT quarterfinals Wednesday at 7 p.m. at North Brunswick Community Park.

Nunez pitched a three-hitter with one walk and eight strikeouts, and neither of the runs against him was earned.

But, as well as the Barrons' sturdy senior right-hander pitched against every other batter in the Rams' lineup, he never solved the dilemma of how to pitch to South River's lethal No. 2 hitter Julius Rosado, who smashed three extra-base hits off the wall against Nunez -- a triple to center, a double to right and a double to left. Rosado scored both of South River's runs.

Asked if Rosado, a Class of 2025 Division 1 Rutgers University commit, was the toughest hitter that the undefeated Nunez (6-0) has faced this season, Nunez rolled his eyes and said, "Oh yeah," with a laugh. "One-hundred percent. Julius Rosado is a great player. I got a couple of pitches past him, but anything close to the box, he's gonna hit it."

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South River took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Rosado's one-out triple was followed by an infield error. The Barrons got that run right back in the home half of the first after Drew Lukachyk reached on an infield hit with two out, stole second and took third base on Shawn Kish's infield single. Kish then got himself hung up between first and second base, and as South River began to engage him in a rundown, Lukachyk set out for home plate, and South River's pitcher airmailed the throw home to the backstop as Lukachyk scored to tie the game, 1-1.

Woodbridge scored five runs in the third inning on RBI singles by Kish (he was 3-for-4 with two RBI), Xavier Diaz and Bryan German, a bases-loaded walk to Jostiel Valdez and a wild pitch.

Lukachyk, who may be Wednesday's starting pitcher in the quarterfinals, scored three runs and Gavin Slicner was 1-for-3 with two runs scored for Woodbridge.

Nunez retired the last six batters he faced, and recorded half of his eight strikeouts in the fifth inning or later -- testament to his durability.

"I'm the type of pitcher who usually goes deep into games," said Nunez, who has pitched at least six innings in all seven of his starts in 2024. "I have at least three complete games, and I feel like I'm able to turn it up when I need to. I run a lot, and I work a lot on my endurance."

Nunez, whose curve accounted for about half of his third strikes on Monday night, has walked 16 batters in 45 2/3 innings and struck out 70 batters this season. He has walked just one batter in three of his last four starts.

"I threw a lot of strikes," Nunez said, "and I feel like I executed my approach well tonight."

SOUTH RIVER (9-8)   100 001 0 -- 2-3-3
WOODBRIDGE (15-3) 105 003 X -- 9-8-2
WP-Nunez
LP-Zsorey

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