South Jersey Group II Final
No. 3 Buena (19-5) at No. 1 Barnegat (20-8), 3:45 p.m.

In a year of firsts for the Barnegat baseball program, its defining game of this program-defining season will challenge the Bengals to accomplish another first, not just among Barnegat teams but among teams throughout South Jersey this season.

The top-seeded Bengals will attempt to win the first sectional baseball championship in school history at home Friday in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group II championship, and in order to do it, they will have to be the first team this season to beat Buena ace Denny Brady.

Sophomore Jason Groome will get the ball Friday against Buena looking to pitch Barnegat to its first ever NJSIAA sectional championship. (Photo by Matt Manley)
Sophomore Jason Groome will get the ball Friday against Buena looking to pitch Barnegat to its first ever NJSIAA sectional championship. (Photo by Matt Manley)
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The junior right-hander and East Carolina University recruit is 8-0 this season with a 0.44 earned-run average in 47 innings and has struck out 86. Brady has a no-hitter to his credit this season – a 3-0 win over Ocean City on April 24 with nine strikeouts and two walks – and shut out Deptford, 10-0, in the sectional quarterfinal last week.

Although Barnegat will have to beat an unbeaten pitcher to win its first tournament championship of any kind on Friday, its starting pitcher presents an equal-if-not-greater challenge to a hot-hitting Buena lineup. Sophomore left-hander Jason Groome not only has the numbers to match Brady – a 0.64 ERA and 22 hits allowed in 54 1/3 innings with 90 strikeouts against 12 walks – but is an imposing figure at 6-foot-5 with a hammer for a curveball that complements a fastball that has been clocked in the low-90-miles-per-hour range.

“We’ve got our best pitcher ready to go, playing for the first championship in the history of the program, on our home field in front of what we expect to be a great crowd,” Barnegat coach Dan McCoy said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Groome also takes a scoreless streak of 26 1/3 innings into Friday, a streak that spans his last five appearances. Since allowing an RBI double to Jackson Liberty’s Kyle Tavaska in the third inning of a May 5 Barnegat win, Groome has allowed only seven hits and seven walks over 26 1/3 scoreless innings while striking out 47.

The state tournament is a major part of that streak, as Groome pitched his best game of the season in a 2-0 win over No. 9 Sterling in the sectional quarterfinals, when he pitched a one-hit shutout with two walks and 13 strikeouts. Groome also came in for a seven-out save on Tuesday to nail down a 6-3 win over No. 4 Overbrook, striking out five, walking one and allowing one hit in 2 1/3 shutout innings.

Buena’s offense will put its recent scoring surge to the test against the Bengals left-hander. The Chiefs have scored 10 runs in each of their last two state tournament games and are averaging exactly nine per game over their three tournament games. Brady has also been a big part of the offensive success, with 3-for-3 games in both the first round against Woodstown and the semifinals against Haddon Heights.

Barnegat’s offense has not been quite as consistent. The Bengals erupted for 12 runs in a shutout of Pleasantville in round one, managed only two runs in another shutout of Sterling, than put up six runs in the first three innings of a 6-3 win against Overbrook on Tuesday. Barnegat also edged Wall, 2-0, with only three hits in the Shore Conference Tournament semifinal, while Buena was shut out by St. Augustine – the state’s No. 1 team according to the Newark-Star Ledger – 5-0 on May 23.

Barnegat also puts on the line its record of 11-0 against teams outside of its Shore Conference Class B South division. Its only loss outside division play came in the Ocean County Tournament final against division rival Central Regional. Groome’s only loss, meanwhile, also came against Central when he took a shutout into the seventh inning pitching against University of Alabama recruit Andrew DiPiazza in a regular-season game on April 22.

 

Central Jersey IV
No. 6 Monroe (15-6) at No. 5 Jackson Memorial (17-7), 4 p.m.

Jackson Memorial’s home field has earned the reputation among Shore Conference teams as a launching pad for hitters, particularly those of the caliber that Jackson Memorial has boasted over the last five-plus years.

After nearly a full season of cold home-run-hitting that coincided with cold, damp weather, the launching pad was finally open for business again on Tuesday, when the Jaguars slugged five home runs in a 16-4 win over East Brunswick in the Central Jersey Group IV semifinals.

Jackson Memorial junior Brandon Janofsky has been swinging a hot bat, but his arm may hold the key to the Jaguars' first sectional title since 2010. (Photo by Matt Manley)
Jackson Memorial junior Brandon Janofsky has been swinging a hot bat, but his arm may hold the key to the Jaguars' first sectional title since 2010. (Photo by Matt Manley)
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Jackson Memorial entered the game having hit only two home runs as a team all year long and increased that output by 250 percent in one game. In fact, the Jaguars exceeded their previous home run total with three homers in the first inning.

Senior catcher Nick Babin accounted for three of those home runs, while Brandon Janofsky hit a leadoff homer for his second of the year and Mike Petrizzo belted the other first-inning long ball. Babin did two weeks’ worth of damage in the win, finishing 3-for-4 with eight RBI, including a game-ending grand slam in the fifth to enact the 10-run run.

Speaking of two weeks’ worth of damage, the Central Jersey Group IV championship’s other catcher comes into the game as the hottest hitter in the other dugout during the NJSIAA Tournament. Sophomore backstop Anthony Tagliaferro is 6-for-12 with two home runs and eight RBI during the tournament, including a clutch, game-tying, two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth to pull the Falcons even at 3 with Marlboro. Monroe would go on to win the game, 4-3, in nine innings.

In a game that features two hot-hitting lineups, both teams will have a number of pitching options. Janofsky is next up in Jackson Memorial’s rotation, but senior left-hander Matt Guarino is available for five innings after throwing five innings in Tuesday’s win. Janofsky has arguably been Jackson Memorial’s hottest pitcher and is coming off a 2-1 win over No. 13 Howell in the sectional quarterfinals in which the junior right-hander struck out a career-high 13.

Monroe, meanwhile, has the option of going with any of senior Mario Danza or freshman Eric Heatter. Heatter is the one of the two with unlimited availability, but Danza is eligible to throw up to 6 1/3 innings after lasting only 3 2/3 on Tuesday against Marlboro. Sophomore Robbie Peto has been the Falcons’ most effective pitcher over the last two weeks and is coming off 5 1/3 scoreless relief innings in which he allowed only one hit and two walks while striking out nine. By rule, he is not eligible because he threw into his sixth inning of work on Tuesday.

Jackson Memorial is seeking its first sectional championship since 2010, when the Jaguars lost to Randolph in the Group IV championship game. Monroe last appeared in a sectional final in 2011, when it lost to eventual Group IV champion Manalapan.

 

Central Jersey Group II
No. 5 Rumson-Fair Haven (14-10) at No. 2 Robbinsville (18-8-1), 4 p.m.

Pitcher records do not usually tell a detailed story of an individual season and anyone referring only to the records of Friday’s likely starting pitchers in the Central Jersey Group II championship will likely have a misguided view of the game.

Robbinsville starter Mike Fischer got the ball in each of the Ravens’ first two NJSIAA Tournament games and was stellar in each while running his record to 5-1 this season, a record that indeed reflects how well the junior has pitched. He shut out No. 15 Delaware Valley for six innings in a 5-0 Robbinsville win in round one, then came back six days later against Manchester to pitch an eight-inning complete-game in an extra-inning win for the Ravens. In 14 state tournament innings, Fischer has allowed one run on 15 hits and one walk while striking out 17.

Rumson-Fair Haven senior Shane McCarthy did not given up a run in his first state tournament game and will look to do the same against Robbinsville in Friday's Central Jersey II championship. (Photo by Matt Manley)
Rumson-Fair Haven senior Shane McCarthy did not given up a run in his first state tournament game and will look to do the same against Robbinsville in Friday's Central Jersey II championship. (Photo by Matt Manley)
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Rumson will hand the ball to senior Shane McCarthy, who boasts a modest 3-4 record this season for the 14-10 Bulldogs. McCarthy missed all of last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery and had a limited high school varsity résumé coming into the season, but he is also a Seton Hall University recruit with a fastball that can creep toward 90 miles-per-hour.

Despite the 3-4 record, the results have mostly been good for McCarthy when it comes to keeping the opponent off the board. In his four losses, Rumson has scored a grand total of two runs over the four games, and in a 3-0 loss to Red Bank Catholic in his first start of the season, he allowed three unearned runs. Those losses have also come against four quality opponents in Red Bank Catholic (twice), Freehold Township and Jackson Liberty. He did have a rocky outing against Freehold Township, in which he gave up six earned runs on eight hits and three walks, but he also struck out 10 in that game. Outside of that outing, McCarthy has been as good as advertised, and it shows in a 2.15 ERA with 68 strikeouts and 11 walks in 52 innings.

More importantly for the senior right-hander and the Bulldogs is that he has a chance to even up his record and pitch his team to a championship Friday against a Robbinsville team that has lived by the pitching-and-defense model without the benefit of much offense. While the Ravens have allowed only one run in 22 innings during the tournament, they have also scored only nine, including two in each of the last two wins.

Rumson’s lineup will be tasked with scratching across enough offense against Fischer after the Bulldogs scored nine runs Tuesday in taking out top seed and defending Group II champion Cinnaminson. Juniors Max Goione and Morgan Maguire have been the heart of Rumson’s offense this season, with Goione going deep for his second home run of the season in the win over Cinnaminson.

 

Central Jersey Group I
No. 6 Shore (16-9) at No. 5 New Egypt (14-9), 4 p.m.

The Central Jersey Group I championship game is one of redemption for both teams involved. Shore Regional made a Cinderella run to the sectional final as a No. 11 seed last year, only to be shut down 4-0 by eventual Group I champion Middlesex in the sectional final. New Egypt was the No. 2 seed in the bracket last year and fell victim to the red-hot Blue Devils in a 5-1, semifinal loss that denied the Warriors a shot at the heavily-favored Blue Jays in the final.

In many ways, Shore has already exorcised any demons from last year’s championship loss by beating second-seeded Middlesex, 9-2, on Tuesday in the sectional semifinals. With that flag already captured, Shore’s players can simply go out and play for a championship while playing behind their most consistent pitcher this season from start to finish.

Senior Andrew Schulz and Shore will look to bring home their first sectional championship when they take on New Egypt Friday in the Central Jersey Group I final. (Photo by Bill Normile)
Senior Andrew Schulz and Shore will look to bring home their first sectional championship when they take on New Egypt Friday in the Central Jersey Group I final. (Photo by Bill Normile)
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Senior Andrew Schulz will take the ball in the midst of a 7-1 season in which he has posted a 1.62 ERA in 47 1/3 innings. This game figures to be more of a grind than his outing in the sectional quarterfinals, when he cruised through five shutout innings while allowing only three hits in an 11-0 win over East Brunswick Tech.

New Egypt, meanwhile, will try to avenge last year’s sectional semifinal loss to Shore without its best weapon on the mound. Senior Austin Lindsay has pitched every inning of the tournament for the Warriors to this point and has been nothing short of dominant. In 20 innings, he has allowed only two unearned runs on 11 hits and two walks while striking out 32. He struck out 14 and walked none in a three-hit shutout of top-seeded South Amboy on Tuesday, which also makes him unavailable to pitch on Friday.

Outside of Lindsay, New Egypt’s pitching has been a game-to-game question. Trevor Buckelew has pitched against a number of quality opponents – including Central Jersey Group II finalist Robbinsville and Central Jersey III No. 1 seed Northern Burlington – but has not pitched since a May 9 loss to Monsignor Donovan. Sophomore Tim Morera was impressive in his last start on May 20, but that was against an overmatched Medford Tech team in a 33-0 blowout.

The most logical choice appears to be junior Chris Simms, who has lost to quality opponents Rancocas Valley, Moorestown, Allentown and Northern Burlington this season and did pitch well in his last start on May 15, a 14-1 win over Willingboro. Whichever way the Warriors go, the Blue Devils will have an edge against the back of the New Egypt rotation after averaging nine runs per game over the first three rounds of the tournament.

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