Baseball: RBC Upends St. John Vianney to Reach SCT Quarterfinals

HOLMDEL - The last time Red Bank Catholic played on St. John Vianney's field this season, the Caseys not only gave up 11 runs, they imploded in a hail of nine errors.

After surrendering four unearned runs with shaky play to allow St. John Vianney to get back into Saturday's Shore Conference Tournament game, Red Bank Catholic showed how far it has come since that first week of the season. Rather than letting it snowball, RBC shook off the rough inning and finished strong behind four scoreless innings of relief by senior right-hander Al Molina to avenge two regular-season losses to the Lancers with an 8-4 victory that put them into the SCT quarterfinals.

"We've been on our heels a lot this season, but we definitely came to win this one,'' said senior centerfielder Brendan Madigan. "We were fired up for this one. We couldn't lose three times to them. We had that one inning, but we just shook it off and kept playing hard."

The ninth-seeded Caseys (19-5) will travel to top-seeded Freehold Township in the SCT quarterfinals on Wednesday in a bid to make their SCT run into a revenge tour, as they lost 4-3 to the Patriots in the Monmouth County Tournament on April 26. They had plenty of motivation on Saturday, given that St. John Vianney also ended the Caseys' run of four straight division titles by capturing the Class A Central crown during the regular season.

"We completely embarrassed ourselves here the first time, so we had a lot of motivation, and we are playing a lot better now,'' said RBC head coach Buddy Hausmann. "We were playing a lot of young guys, sophomores, who weren't really ready for the bright lights at first, but we have continued to improve."

The veterans led the way on Saturday, as Madigan finished 2-for-3 with a two-run homer, a walk, and two runs scored, Kurdewan went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI and Molina struck out six, walked two and allowed only one hit in four innings of relief of starter Tom Puza (6-1).

The Caseys seized the early momentum against the eighth-seeded Lancers (15-7) by making St. John Vianney (15-7) pay for a pair of errors by pushing across five runs in the top of the second inning.

"That was huge,'' Madigan said. "It got us all fired up, and we stayed in the game the entire time, which we usually don't do."

The inning began when a routine pop-up to shortstop by RBC senior catcher Mike Alescio was lost in the sun. Designated hitter Tom Merlo followed with an infield single to put a pair of runners on. First baseman Doug Facendo then dropped a bunt down the first base side that was thrown into the outfield to allow one run to score.

Left fielder Chris Bender then made it 2-0 with an RBI groundout to second base for the first out. Right fielder Mike Spinelli, RBC's No. 9 hitter, followed by ripping an RBI single off Lancers' senior righty Dan Schirmacher for a 3-0 advantage.

Madigan then ballooned the lead to 5-0 when he smashed a first-pitch curveball over the wall in left center field for a two-run homer and his third home run in the last five games. Madigan's aggressive approach was emblematic of the whole lineup. The Caseys, who faced Schirmacher in each of the their past two meetings, put the ball in play on the first or second pitch in 12 of their first 16 at-bats.

"(Schirmacher) starts us off mostly with first-pitch fastballs,'' Madigan said. "That's usually the best pitch of the at-bat, and we like to jump on that pitch."

"Last year when he pitched against us, we really hit him,'' Kurdewan said. "This year he got a little bit better, and we had some tough times in the first two games against him, so today we just wanted to attack the best pitch he threw to us."

The Caseys nearly gave it all back in the bottom of the third thanks to multiple miscues that led to four unearned runs, but they were able to maintain the lead. Puza, a St. Peter's recruit, struck out the first two batters of the inning before a two-out single by senior first baseman Joe Rotelli kept the inning alive. A grounder by Chris Morris to Molina at shortstop looked like it would end the inning, but his throw was just wide and couldn't be handled by second baseman Evan Madigan to put runners at the corners after Rotelli went to third on the error.

Morris then took off to steal second and a miscommunication between the middle infielders led to both of them watching as Alescio's throw to second sailed into center field to bring home Rotelli with St. John Vianney's first run. Puza then ran into some hard luck in what should've been an inning-ending strikeout. He got Lancers' third baseman Anthony LaVigne to swing over the top of a curveball for strike three, but the ball spiked off the front of the plate and shot over the backstop for another wild pitch that allowed LaVigne to reach base and Morris to score to cut the lead to 5-2.

Drew Fisher followed with a bunt single down the third-base line to keep the inning going for the Lancers and put a pair of runners on. LaVigne and Fisher then pulled off a double steal to put two runners in scoring position, and both of them ended up scoring on wild pitches to make it 5-4. Just when it could have been a "here we go again" scenario for RBC, which made seven errors in one inning in its first game against St. John Vianney, Puza worked around a walk and got a groundout to third to end the inning with the lead intact.

"The first time we played here, we had one of those innings, but today we calmed everyone down and just said, 'We have to get a couple more (runs) and we'll be good,' and that's what we did,'' Kurdewan said.

With Molina, who is headed to Coastal Carolina, quieting St. John Vianney's potent lineup the rest of the way, RBC tacked on three runs with two outs in the sixth inning against reliever Justin Chin, an NJIT recruit. Facendo led off with a single to center field and then went to second on a sacrifice by Bender before Chin struck out Spinelli for the second out. Madigan was intentionally walked to put runners at first and second, which set up his younger brother, sophomore Evan Madigan, who laced an RBI single for a 6-4 lead.

Molina drew a walk to load the bases, and Kurdewan followed by ripping a hanging curveball on an 0-2 count for a two-run single to left field that pushed the lead to four runs and gave Molina a comfortable cushion to finish out the game. Molina struck out three of the final six batters he faced to wrap up the win and keep the Caseys' SCT hopes alive. Molina has mainly been a one- or two-inning pitcher this season but was still going strong four innings into his appearance on Saturday.

"There was a lot of adrenaline going because we really wanted to beat this team when it mattered,'' Molina said.

In a wide-open season with plenty of parity, the Caseys now have as good a shot as anyone to make a run at their second SCT title in four seasons and the second in program history.

"Especially as the nine seed, everyone is thinking we're not that good this year,'' Kurdewan said. "But we're playing well, and we've got some good team chemistry."

Box score

Red Bank Catholic 8, St. John Vianney 4

RB Catholic (19-5) 0 5 0 0 0 3 0 - 8 8 4

SJ Vianney (15-7)  0 0 4 0 0 0 0 - 4 5 2

Home runs: (R) B. Madigan. WP: Puza (6-1); LP: Schirmacher (6-1).