The Shore Daily, 5/18/15
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The NJSIAA Baseball Tournament gets underway with a whopping 26 games involving Shore Conference teams, while the Shore Conference Tournament has now whittled the field down to the final eight teams.
In the lacrosse state tournament, Southern, Freehold Township, Jackson Liberty, Lacey, Ocean, Barnegat, Manasquan and Rumson-Fair Haven are all still alive after the first round of action, with Barnegat and Jackson Liberty each having won their first state playoff game in program history. St. John Vianney and St. Rose are both underdogs who will go on the road for first-round games in the Non-Public brackets today.
Before I get to the weekend's action, it was a great event on Sunday as the Shore Conference athletic directors honored 93 athletes from 47 schools with their annual Sportsmanship Awards. The ceremony was held at Pine Belt Arena, combining the recipients from Monmouth and Ocean counties together in the same event for the first time. One male athlete and one female athlete were selected by their respective athletic director from each of the 47 Shore Conference schools.
It's the kind of day that's an especially proud one for parents because it means they have taught their son or daughter about how to be good people in addition to good athletes. You will see more success stories out of that room than on any regular All-Shore team. There also were some touching tributes, as Brick Memorial football standout Karl-Mark Kumm dedicated his award to his mother, who brought her family with her from Estonia when Kumm was six years old in search of a better life. Red Bank's Jimmy Ferrogine dedicated his award to the late Albert Martin, Ferrogine's former basketball teammate who died tragically when he collapsed in a preseason scrimmage in 2012.
You can check out quotes from all the recipients in our program for the event, which was hosted by Shore Sports Network's own Kevin Williams as part of SSN's official partnership with the Shore Conference.
BASEBALL
The SCT quarterfinals are all set, with the biggest surprises being a pair of Class A Central squads, as No. 15 Manasquan stunned No. 2 Toms River North on Friday, and then No. 23 Shore Regional continued its underdog run that already included a win over No. 10 Barnegat by upsetting No. 7 Manalapan on Saturday. Manasquan and Shore will now play each other for a third time this season, and the Warriors have the rare home game for a 15 seed on Wednesday.
Manasquan pulled out a 6-5 win over the Mariners by scoring the winning run on a dropped pop-up for the second time this season, as they did the same in a win over St. John Vianney. The Warriors used both Sheehan brothers and Marc Galvan to piece together the pitching and get the win, with Max Hawkins also having a big game with two hits, including an RBI double, two runs scored and two walks.
The loss by Toms River North means all that is left for a talented Mariners team that won Class A South is the state tournament. They lost on the field as the No. 1 seed to No. 16 seed Southern in the first round of the Ocean County Tournament in a game that Southern later forfeited due to an illegal pitcher, and now they went down as the No. 2 seed, so now they are down to their last chance in South Jersey Group IV.
Top-seeded Colts Neck, which lost as the No. 1 seed in the first round of the Monmouth County Tournament, nearly met the same fate as Toms River North in the SCT but was able to outlast the upset bid of No. 17 Freehold Boro with a 2-1 win in 10 innings on Saturday. A walk-off RBI single by Andrew Conforti and a huge out at the plate on a great throw from rightfielder Tyler Kay were the crucial plays for the Cougars, who will now host eighth-seeded Red Bank Catholic on Wednesday after beating the Caseys twice in Class B North during the regular season.
The big question with No. 23 Shore was whether the Blue Devils could topple a top opponent without ace James Kelly on the mound. Junior Chas Breithoff answered that question by allowing two runs on six hits in six innings of a 7-2 win over Manalapan. Matt McCarthy and Justin Halper had a combined five hits to lead the offense, as the defending Group I champions have once again come alive in the postseason. To me, a run in the SCT by Shore is even more impressive than in the state tournament because they are a Group I school that has now beaten a Group II and a Group IV program to reach the quarterfinals against Group II Manasquan.
Middletown South beat Marlboro for the second time in three games this season thanks to a three-hitter by Zac deRocco and will now have a third meeting of the season with Class A North rival and No. 3 seed Christian Brothers Academy. The Colts rolled over Brick 11-1 in six innings thanks to a combined six hits and eight RBI by Cid Porter and Brandon Martorano.
CBA is still in play for five titles (division, county, conference, sectional and Group) in one season, which has only been achieved once in Shore Conference history by the 2004 Wall team. The Colts tied for the overall Class A North crown, they will play Wall tomorrow for the MCT title, and they are still alive in the SCT while not having started their state playoff run yet.
Fourth-seeded Jackson Memorial survived a scare with a 2-1 win over No. 13 Howell thanks to a seven-hit complete game by Chris Hawryluk and will host No. 5 Wall. I took in Wall's 8-0 win over St. John Vianney in which sophomore righty Matt Yard threw a five-hit shutout. Wall was on its game from the outset, while the Lancers came out flat and were undone by errors. Yard looks like he can become a legitimate ace for the Crimson Knights in the future given his 6-foot-4 frame, his control, and a curveball that had a few Lancers bailing out before it came back over the plate for strikes.
Wall has a serious gauntlet this week, as it hosts Allentown today in Central Jersey Group III, plays CBA for the MCT championship tomorrow night, then has to go to Jackson Memorial on Wednesday in the SCT, followed by another state playoff game on Thursday if it wins today.
After two hard-fought losses to Colts Neck during the regular season, RBC will get its chance at revenge in a big spot in the SCT quarterfinals on Wednesday. Junior John Poccia threw a six-hitter and Anthony DeRosa hit a clutch two-run double to help them beat Toms River South, 4-3, on Saturday night for their second win over the Indians this season.
As for today's action, there are four all-Shore match-ups, with Brick Memorial going to Jackson Memorial in Central Jersey Group IV, Ocean hosting Jackson Liberty in CJ Group III, Middletown South hosting rival Middletown North in CJ Group III, and Monmouth traveling to Manasquan in CJ Group II.
As St. John Vianney showed last year in going from unranked to No. 1 in New Jersey thanks to its run to the NJSIAA Non-Public A title, all teams have to do is get hot for about 2 1/2 weeks and totally change the way this season will be remembered.
LACROSSE
The biggest win of the weekend belonged to Barnegat, which stunned defending South Jersey Group I champion A.L. Johnson 12-11 on Saturday for its first state playoff win in history.
Senior attackman Chad Tropea was the hero, as he scored with 34 seconds left in regulation for the win. J.J. McKenna had three goals and two assists, and Ricky Gerena had a pair of goals and four assists in the victory for the Bengals, who will travel to top-seeded New Providence tomorrow for the quarterfinals.
Another thriller was Freehold Township pulling out a 7-6 win over Egg Harbor Township in double overtime on Friday thanks to a goal by Matt Lach. The Patriots now have to travel to second-seeded Lenape in South Jersey Group IV tomorrow.
The majority of the Shore teams left will be road underdogs in the quarterfinals except for two-time defending South Jersey Group IV champion Southern as well as Rumson in South Jersey Group I. Manasquan has a road game at Bernards in the 4-5 game in SJ Group I and certainly is capable of getting a win in that spot as well.
More on Monday:
- Toms River East grad and UFC star Frankie Edgar deserves a title fight after dispatching of Urijah Faber on Saturday in Manila.
- After nine sacks last season, Eagles defensive end Vinny Curry (Neptune) is looking for an even bigger year this fall.
- The alma mater of SSN photographer Mark Brown, Lynchburg College, has reached the Division III men's lacrosse championship game after rallying from a 9-2 hole in the third quarter against Gettysburg College.
- A blind female pole vaulter took third at the Texas high school state championships.
- Interesting look at IMG Academy in Florida, which is snapping up talent from around the country and apparently blatantly recruiting public school football players in Florida.
- Is it wrong to let children participate in extreme sports?
On tap for today: As I said above, it's a huge slate of first-round state playoff baseball action, while a pair of non-public teams kick off their tournaments in lacrosse.
I will end with the sick "lost and found" dunk, and a Penn State lineman tackling a tree.
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