Medler leads Stevens to GMC tourney win over Piscataway
Hawks will play semifinal game against St. Joe's this afternoon
BY SHAWN LAYTON Staff Writer
The No. 2 seeded J.P. Stevens High School baseball team got another stellar pitching performance from Connor Medler to advance to the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament quarterfinals with a 6-1 win over No. 18 Piscataway over the weekend.

Medler allowed just three hits over seven innings to improve to 6-0 on the season. He walked only two batters and fanned 10. Piscataway's lone run was unearned in the seventh inning.

"Connor had his change-up working really well," Stevens head coach Dave Marzano said. "He was able to keep all of his pitches low in the strike zone, and this kept the Piscataway hitters off-balance the entire game."

The big hit for Stevens came in the fourth when third baseman Ryan Chichester sent a ball over the left-field fence to put the Hawks up 4-0.

"We've been hitting the ball well this year, but we only managed six hits against Piscataway," Marzano said. "Fortunately, we were able to knock in runs when we did hit the ball. Ryan's home run over the 345-sign was a big lift."

Stevens' Billy Dumchus also delivered a big hit. Dumchus smacked a RBI double to help seal the win.

The win over Piscataway came on the heels of a disappointing loss to state powerhouse Bloomfield earlier in the week. Bloomfield beat the Hawks 13-0.

"Bloomfield is one of the top teams in the state in everybody's rankings," Marzano said. "We saw how good they can be."

The win over Piscataway pits the Hawks against familiar foe St. Joe's. The Falcons advanced to the quarters with a 2-1 win over Colonia behind a completegame gem from Sean Hille.

"It's real tough to beat a team three times in a season," Marzano said. "St. Joe's is on a nice run and they've beaten some quality teams of late."

In its regular season sweep of the Falcons, Stevens pulled out a pair of one-run victories. The first meeting saw the Hawks win 8-7, and in the most recent affair the final score was 4-3.

"In our first meeting we got a really nice pitching performance from Billy Dumchus," Marzano said. "He gave up a bunch of runs early, but settled down and kept us in the game. I think we were down five runs before we were able to come back and win the game."

In the second meeting between the two schools, Anthony Montalbano delivered the big blow with a three-run homer that propelled the Hawks to a 4-3 win.

The two teams are scheduled to square off today at 3:45 p.m. in South River. Marzano expects to use both Medler and Dumchus on the mound.

"We want both of our top guys to share the workload,"Marzano said. "Conner will probably start and hand the ball to Billy at some point in the game."