After being rained out on Friday, the South Brunswick High School baseball team came out swinging on Saturday. Unfortunately, so did Sayreville.
Despite taking two leads -- one by six runs -- South Brunswick was edged in the season opener, 9-8. Sayreville scored the decisive two runs in the bottom of the seventh.
"The pitching was just off," South Brunswick Coach Tim Sweeney said. "We walked five or six guys and made some errors. It's hard to hold a team down when you are giving them free bases."
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South Brunswick had taken a 6-0 lead in the top of the second. The big hit in the inning was a three-run double by Matt Amato.
Sayreville tied the game with six runs in the bottom of the second.
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South Brunswick fought back to take the lead with two runs in the top of the fourth.
"Offensively, we did really well," Sweeney said. "We had a few extra base hits and only struck out twice."
Craig Cleffi had a pair of doubles and two runs scored. Ariel Torres had three hits. Jack Young had two hits. As a team, South Brunswick had 12 hits.
"We had a good offensive game, but so did Sayreville," Sweeney said. "Give them credit. They were down 6-0 and they fought back. We took the lead again and they fought back. They never stopped."
Sayreville cut the deficit to 8-7 with a run in the fifth. It then won with two in the seventh.
Because of the way the schedule is set up, South Brunswick will be back in action against Sayreville on Tuesday. This time, South Brunswick will be the ones with the important last licks.
Sweeney likes the format of playing teams in back-to-back games because it takes luck out of the equation.
"If you didn't do it this way, teams could save their best pitcher to throw against you," Sweeney said. "This way evens things out. You can't just have one great pitcher, you need a pitching staff. I think this way favors the better team."
