BERKELEY HEIGHTS – If the weather cooperates and the Gov. Livingston baseball team gets in all four of its games scheduled to be played this week then I think we will get a solid indication of exactly where the Highlanders are at and possibly going.
After Wednesday's 12-0 win over Elizabeth which followed Tuesday's narrow 11-10 loss in 9 innings to Summit on Tuesday afternoon, the Highlanders are 8-1 overall and 4-1 against fellow Union County Conference-Watchung Division foes.
GL began the week with a big Watchung Division home game against 4-2 Scotch Plains this past Monday. The Raiders came to Berkeley Heights with a four-game winning streak.
Sparked by dominating pitching early on from junior right hander Matt Diskin and an advantageous offense that immediately cashed in on several Scotch Plains miscues in the bottom of the first, the Highlanders rolled to a solid 9-1 triumph.
“We’re playing a lot of good teams this week and you can tell the energy in the dugout,” Diskin said.
GL had outscored its first seven opponents by a whopping 60-5 margin. Scotch Plains had a four-game winning streak snapped and fell to 4-3 and 2-1 in the Watchung Division.
GL is out to win the Watchung Division for the first time since 2018.
GL is scheduled to play Middlesex this Sunday, April 19 in the annual Autism Awareness Games at North Brunswick’s Community Park.
The recent strong showing vs. Scotch Plains was simply indicative of the high level of play the Highlanders have shown through the season's first two weeks.
After Diskin set down the Raiders in order in the top of the first on 14 pitches, including a striking swinging and then one looking, the Highlanders wasted no time getting on the scoreboard in the bottom of the frame.
Leadoff batter Matt Shaffer reached on an infield error and then stole second base before Zach Geertsma hit what would be the first of his three straight singles to left field to put runners on second and third. Diskin then brought home Shaffer on a deep sacrifice fly to center to give GL the lead for good at 1-0. Geertsma also tagged and went to third.
Geertsma reached base all four times up on three singles and an error to go 3-for-4 with three runs and one RBI.
“Coach tells us to jump on the fastballs because the percentage of hitting a fastball compared to a breaking ball is higher,” Geertsma said.
Alex Adornato then struck out, but the catcher had to throw to first and his attempt went past the first baseman, so Adornato reached and Geertsma scored on the error to make it 2-0. Two batters later Michael Novotny blooped a hit to center that brought home Adornato for a 3-0 lead.
Michael Basile then reached on the third Scotch Plains infield error of the inning, with Novotny scoring for a 4-0 advantage. Three Raider errors led to three unearned Highlander runs in the inning. Scotch Plains starter Ryan Quinones, also a right hander, was a bright spot for his team in the inning by striking out the side.
GL scored its next three runs in the fourth on Geertsma’s third hit to left, an RBI-single, and a two-run homer the lefty-swinging Adornato blasted over the right field fence.
Scotch Plains got on the board in the sixth on an RBI-single produced by Jaden Carpien to make it a 7-1 contest. Of the five baserunners Diskin allowed, three of them reached in the sixth. Diskin retired the first 11 batters he faced, retiring the side in order in the first, second and third innings.
GL scored the game’s final two runs in its half of the sixth. Adornato almost hit a second two-run homer over the right field fence, but had to settle for a sacrifice fly RBI. Novotny then drove the ball to the right side for an RBI-single that made it 9-1.
Right hander Jason Habedank needed only five pitches to close the game for GL in the top of the seventh, his last one good for an inning-ending and game-ending 1-6-3 double play.
“To get four runs in the first against a good pitcher, that is important,” GL head coach Chris Roof said. “We took advantage.”
GL banged out nine hits in its six at-bats, scoring in three of them. The Highlanders have scored at least nine runs in five of their first seven games.
Diskin’s line was 82 pitches, 53 strikes and 29 balls, for six innings complete. He struck out seven, walked two, and hit one batter, allowing only one run on two hits to improve to 3-0.
Diskin’s first two wins were against Oratory Prep and New Providence. GL defeated Oratory Prep 10-2 at home in the April 1 season-opener and New Providence 3 -1 at New Providence on April 9.
DISKIN IMPRESSIVE ON MOUND IN 6 COMPLETE
Diskin was dealing immediately.
Three up and three down in the top of the first.
Visiting Scotch Plains-Fanwood was sent back to the dugout.
Then the host Highlanders took advantage of three Raider errors and pushed across four runs in the bottom of the first, giving Diskin a lead that seemed unsurmountable.
It was. Matt Diskin, No. 8 on your Highlander scorecard, was that good.
So was GL.
Diskin, a Mountainside resident who has given a verbal commitment to continue playing in college at Stetson, overpowered Scotch Plains Monday in leading the Highlanders to a convincing 9-1 Union County Conference-Mountain Division baseball triumph.
Diskin, a junior right hander who improved to 3-0, retired the first 11 batters he faced, striking out five of them, and yielded just five baserunners total in six complete innings. GL head coach Chris Roof felt that 82 pitches were enough, so Jason Habedank pitched the seventh.
The pitches were 52 for strikes, most of them fastballs, and 29 for balls, which is a pretty good ratio on any level.
“My fastball was jumping out of my hand so I used my two-seam to my advantage,” Diskin said.
Diskin fanned seven total, five swinging and two looking, walked two and hit one batter. He allowed just one run on two hits, with Scotch Plains not getting its first hit until a ball went off Diskin’s foot with two outs and nobody on in the fourth. Diskin also fielded three balls hit back to him for three assists.
“My body felt really good, especially my lower half,” Diskin said. “That gave me the ability to command my control.”
“At times he was even better than his first two starts,” Roof said.
Diskin’s first wins in his other two starts were against Oratory Prep and New Providence.
“He’s been very consistent so far,” Roof said.
In the first it was a ground ball out to third, a strikeout swinging on six pitches and then strikeout looking on another six. With a 4-0 lead now in the top of the second it was two more strikeouts swinging and then a ground ball back to Diskin.
In the third Diskin got a second ball hit to him that he threw to first and then he produced his fifth strikeout, another one swinging. The final out of the frame came on a ground ball hit to returning varsity sophomore shortstop Zach Geertsma, a Berkeley Heights resident who was 3-for-4 with three singles to left, three runs and one RBI. Geertsma also reached on an error, reaching base all four times up from his No. 2 spot in the batting order.
“We took a step further by beating this team today and now we need to lock in,” Geertsma said.
When Diskin took the mound in the fourth he appeared to have no-hit stuff. Diskin retired the first batter on another ground ball to Geertsma and a third one hit back to him. On the first pitch to lefty-swinging Joe LaRosa, the Scotch Plains desigated hitter, LaRosa hit a shot off Diskin’s foot that fell into the glove of GL second baseman Matt Shaffer for an infield hit.
Although the no-hitter ended Diskin retired the next batter on a fly ball to center.
In the top of the fifth, now with a 7-0 cushion, Diskin walked the leadoff batter for his first bases on balls and then recorded his sixth strikeout, getting the batter swinging on a 1-2 count.
A line drive to Geertsma at short and then Diskin’s seventh and final strikeout, this one looking, followed to close the fifth.
In the sixth it was Diskin issuing his second walk and then getting a fly ball to left for the first inning’s first out. He then hit a batter and then got one more fly ball out to left. Then came an RBI-single to left connected by Jaden Carpien followed by a fly ball out to right.
Diskin allowed only four fly ball outs to the outfield, with three of them coming in the sixth.
Diskin worked ahead all game long and his fastball was one that Scotch Plains batters could not catch up to.
“This is the kind of win we hope to feed off of,” Diskin said.
Follow JR Parachini on X (Twitter) @ parachini_jr
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