Baseball – DeRosa, Supp Blast RBC Past Delbarton

NORTH BRUNSWICK TWP. - Both Anthony DeRosa and Aidan Supp tested Delbarton center fielder Liam Corcoran in the first two innings of Red Bank Catholic's Autism Awareness Challenge game against Delbarton at North Brunswick Community Park Saturday night and both were denied by the rangy outfielder.

So one at-bat later, both DeRosa and Supp hit the ball where Corcoran - or any of Delbarton's other eight players on the field - could catch it.

DeRosa connected on a go-ahead grand slam in the bottom of the second inning and Supp cracked a go-ahead two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth and the Caseys - ranked No. 6 in the latest Shore Sports Network Top 10 - held on to beat the Green Wave, 8-7.

DeRosa scalded a fly ball to deep right-center field in his first at bat, but Corcoran hit his top seed and ran down the extra-base hit bid with a sliding catch as he made contact with right fielder Thomas Colicchio. Not only did Corcoran rob DeRosa of a potential two-run double, but he fired the ball back into the infield and Delbarton doubled off RBC senior first baseman Mike Veit at second after the field umpire ruled Veit left the base early while attempting to tag up.

Red Bank Catholic spotted Delbarton and Delaware commit Winston Allen four runs in the top of the first inning, but cut the deficit in half before DeRosa stepped back in the batter's box with the bases loaded in the bottom of the second inning. After DeRosa crushed a fastball in his first at-bat and fouled another one high into the air and out of play on the second pitch of his second-inning at-bat, Allen tried to sneak a breaking ball by the senior third baseman.

Allen, however, left the pitch up and DeRosa slammed it over the fence in left field to clear the bases and give the Caseys a 6-4 lead. The homer was the second of the season for the Rutgers-bound DeRosa.

Center fielder Connor Caizza started the scoring in the second with an RBI single through the left side to score starting pitcher Steve Turk. Senior shortstop Aaron Ahn later worked a two-out walk with the bases loaded to push across the second RBC run and set up DeRosa's blast.

RBC loaded the bases without a hit and managed to hang eight earned runs on Allen despite collecting just four hits against him. Allen walked five in his five innings of work while striking out four and throwing 90 pitches.

Delbarton jumped back ahead with three runs in the top of the fourth inning against Turk, who allowed four earned runs on eight hits in his first ever start at the varsity level. Turk threw 60 pitches, walked two and struck out three.

Ahn began the bottom of the fifth with a ringing single through the middle, moved to second on a tapper back to the pitcher by DeRosa and advanced to third on a wild pitch. After a strikeout, Supp stepped in with two out and worked the count full against Allen. Supp got a fastball up in the zone on 3-2 and lifted it out to center field, where Corcoran ran out of room as the ball cleared the fence.

With RBC now leading, sophomore Vin Bianchi returned to the mound for his second inning of work in the sixth and finished off his first ever varsity outing on point. After walking the first batter he faced in the fifth inning with four straight balls, the right-hander settled in and retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced to pick up his first career win.

Bianchi did not allow a hit in his three scoreless frames and struck out four while issuing two walks. He capped his night by blowing a fastball by Collichio with his 49th pitch, capping a one-two-three seventh inning.

RBC slipped to .500 with a 4-0 loss to Middletown North on Wednesday, but has bounced back with a 13-2 win over Long Branch on Friday and a win over a Delbarton team full of Division I talent.

Green Wave senior shortstop Andrew Papantonis made his first appearance of the season Saturday, but was limited to just hitting because he is still recovering from a knee injury. He started as the team's designated hitter and went 2-for-2 with two singles and was lifted for a pinch-runner both times. NJSIAA baseball rules allow each starting player to re-enter the game one time after being substituted, so the second pinch-runner ended Papantonis's night. His first hit was a shot to the left-center gap that would have been a double for the vast majority of players and certainly would have been for the University of Virginia recruit had he been healthy.

On top of DeRosa and Supp, Ahn also had a strong showing at the plate Saturday, finishing 1-for-2 with a pair of walks, two runs scored, two RBI and a stolen base.

Box Score

No. 6 Red Bank Catholic 8, Delbarton 7

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