Florence pushes across a run in the top of the seventh to defeat South Hunterdon 1-0 in CJ1 quarters
South Hunterdon’s Nate Lawton pitched a perfect game through five and a third innings on Tuesday but that wasn’t enough to save the 3-seed Eagles from defeat as Florence starter Josh Pagano gave up just one hit in six and two third innings to stake the 11-seed Flashes to a 1-0 win in the quarterfinal of the Central Jersey Group 1 Sectional Tournament in Lambertville.
It would be the last hit Florence would get off of Gallagher, but the South Hunterdon defense, which had kept the Flashes off the bases by making a half dozen big plays over the first six innings, would come up short in the seventh, committing three errors and allowing Florence to kick open the door and get a single run across the plate.
But the exchange at second was misplayed and as the ball rolled away, Saintz rushed home from third with the game’s only run. Gallagher managed to pitch his way out of trouble the rest of the way, but the damage had been done. Pagano would pick up the first two outs in the bottom of the seventh for Florence before Boss came in in relief to get the final out and lock up the win.
Both teams used pitching and defense to set the stage for the game’s down to the wire finish but while South Hunterdon starter Lawton was economical in his pitches, Florence’s Pagano was running up his pitch count through the early innings. With a one run lead heading into the bottom of the seventh, Pagano’s pitch count was already at 105, just five short of the max. But there really wasn’t any doubt who would be coming out to the mound to start the inning.
As tough as Pagano had been through the first four innings, he would turn it up a notch over the final three. After the fourth inning walk to Lawton, Pagano retired eight straight batters, four on strikeouts, before he handed the ball off to reliever Boss.
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