Poll leads Falcons into GMCT's second round BY SHAWN LAYTON Staff Writer METUCHEN - The tough decision St. Joseph's High School head baseball coach Paul Esposito made in Thursday's preliminary game against Colonia to pull senior ace Kevin Poll after four innings of work paid dividends in Saturday's round-one match-up with North Brunswick. "We wanted Poll to be available for both the preliminary round and the first round," Esposito said. "It wasn't easy to pull him from Thursday's game with just a three-run lead, but it proved to be the right decision." Poll's brief outing on Thursday enabled him to come on in relief to preserve starting pitcher Sam Fourre's win in the 5-1 victory over North Brunswick in the first round of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament on Saturday. The Falcons scored all the runs they would need in the first inning when the team's first four hitters combined to hit for the cycle. Senior shortstop and leadoff man Ed Brown opened the game with a solo home run before clean-up hitter Brian Koster drove in two with a bases-clearing triple. "To begin the game with a cycle was a great start," Esposito said. "We played a clean game, committing no errors and issuing no walks. We did have some other opportunities to put runs on the board, but we didn't. Our pitchers came through for us and did a nice job." In the preliminary-round win over Colonia, Poll was relieved by the trio of Alex Egiziano, Sean Hille and Doug Steinbach as the pitching staff combined on a solid effort. "A lot went wrong in that first inning as Colonia jumped ahead by putting three on the board," Esposito said. "We came in knowing we had to put some runs on the board, and fortunately we swung the bats pretty well. Poll is having a good season for us. He's consistently getting ahead of hitters and he always gives us a chance to win. He had some tough-luck losses against Edison and South Brunswick where he pitched well but we didn't hit for him." The Falcons immediately responded to Colonia's offensive surge in the bottom half of the first to tie the game at three and added two more in the second to go up 5-3. Despite Colonia's efforts to crawl back, they never gained the advantage after their brief lead in the first inning. St. Joe's advanced by a final score of 10-7. Right fielder Nick Marcucci was one of several Falcons to handle a hot stick as he finished the game 3-for-4 with three runs scored. First baseman Tim Furey went 1-for-3 with a two-run homer, and teammates Nick Ciardiello and Chris Bielak each drove in a pair of runs off 2-for-3 outings. Ciardiello hit doubles in the first and second innings. The Falcons will resume GMCT play in a second-round meeting with Carteret today at 3:45 p.m. Carteret is fresh off its upset win over No. 2 Edison on Saturday. Behind Al Tampa's three-hitter, Carteret knocked off Edison 8-3. While St. Joe's and Carteret will square off at a neutral site, the location was yet to be determined at press time. What has been determined is that Poll will get the start. "He's our senior ace and he's going to go for us on Wednesday," Esposito said. "He comes in with a 4-3 record, but he's pitched well in all of his outings."