The Shore Daily, 5/7/15
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Colts Neck wrapped up its second straight outright division title, while the Class A Central and Class A North races will come down to the final days after Wednesday's action.
The NJSIAA also announced yesterday that the proposal to split the public and non-public schools in football and the proposal to strengthen the transfer rule will both go up for an official vote by the membership at the NJSIAA's annual meeting in December.
Also, congrats to Middletown South softball coach Tom Erbig on an incredible milestone yesterday.
Let's get to the Top 10 performers from Wednesday's action.
Mike Garvey, Sr., P, Christian Brothers Academy
The senior right-hander made his first start in three weeks because of elbow soreness and it was a huge one as he threw six shutout innings, allowing five hits, walking one and striking out four in a 1-0 win over Howell that put the Colts one win away from clinching no worse than a tie for the Class A North title.
Jake Sadowitz, Jr., 1B, Manalapan
Sadowitz has been a key part of Manalapan's surge, and he did it again on Wednesday with a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the seventh for a 5-4 win over Middletown North that kept the Braves in the mix to potentially grab a piece of the Class A North title. Sadowitz finished 3-for-3, which included a solo home run, in Manalapan's seventh straight win.
Joe Silvestrone, Sr., C, Freehold Township
Silvestrone tied a school record set by former Rutgers star Val Majewski, who played with the Baltimore Orioles, when he slugged his eighth home run of the season in a 12-5 win over Marlboro. He finished 2-for-3 with five RBI in the win and leads the Shore Conference in homers.
Anthony Mazzucca, Jr., P, Rumson-FH
Mazzucca threw a complete-game three-hitter in a 3-2 upset of first-place Manasquan that denied the Warriors a chance to clinch at least a tie for the Class A Central title. He struck out three and got a two-run homer from teammate Max Goione to get the win.
Tim Cavrak, Jr., INF, Colts Neck
Cavrak helped the Cougars bring home the outright Class B North championship by going 4-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored in a 7-2 win that ended a 10-game winning streak by Wall and brought Colts Neck its second straight division title after claiming the Class A North crown last year.
Austin Markmann, Jr., P, Middletown South
Markmann continued an outstanding season with a complete-game four-hitter to put Middletown South on the cusp of clinching at least a tie for the Class A North title after a 5-1 win over Freehold Boro for the Eagles' 13th straight win.
Dylan Visser, Sr., A, Brick Memorial
Visser scored with one second left in overtime to finish with a hat trick and give the Mustangs a 7-6 nondivisional win over Ranney.
Brandon DeKovics, Jr., P, St. John Vianney
DeKovics pitched five shutout innings of three-hit ball that proved to be huge in a 5-2 win over Monmouth because Manasquan lost to Rumson, allowing the Lancers to tie for first place and put themselves in position to repeat as Class A Central champions.
Sam Maxwell, Sr., OF, Ocean
Maxwell went 2-for-3 with a two-run single in the sixth that broke a 2-2 tie to help the Spartans pick up a 6-4 win over Neptune.
Devin McLaughlin, Jr., P, Shore
McLaughlin threw five shutout innings on five hits to combine with Ryan Campi on a complete-game shutout in a 5-0 nondivisional win over Manchester.
BASEBALL
Colts Neck has now won back-to-back division titles in two tough divisions, Class A North and Class B North, after cooling off Wall yesterday to claim the outright B North crown. You can't say enough about the program Mike Yorke has established at Colts Neck, which is always a contender and has consistently produced Division I talent and even a standout professional in Cincinnati Reds pitcher Anthony DeSclafani.
Next up for the Cougars is showing they can get it done in a tournament after an early exit in the Monmouth County Tournament. They look to be the No. 1 seed in Central Jersey Group IV and also should be a high seed in the upcoming Shore Conference Tournament. With the 1-2 punch of Chris Murphy and Mario Ferraioli on the mound plus a deep lineup, they have the firepower to make this a season of multiple championships.
In other news, this is the Year of the Illegal Pitcher in the Shore Conference. Marlboro already forfeited an MCT game to Wall because it used one, and now Southern's big upset of Toms River North in the Ocean County Tournament from Saturday has been voided because the Rams used Jared Lubanski for seven innings on Thursday and came back with him again on Saturday, which is a violation of NJSIAA pitching rules. That forfeit also hurts because it takes away 43 power points, meaning it could end up costing Southern a spot in the state playoffs.
While Toms River North gets the forfeit win, it also taints the OCT somewhat because if it had been reported/discovered earlier, Toms River North could potentially still be alive in the OCT semifinals this weekend. However, Southern played Barnegat a day later in the OCT and lost, allowing the Bengals to move on, so it's too late to reverse that result.
I'm not shocked that this has happened a few times because it's hard to police. No media outlet runs full box scores of every game, so opposing coaches don't always know who has pitched when for their opponent unless there's proof of it from a game report or a tweet or something like that. It's basically the honor system in most cases.
FOOTBALL
As our own Kevin Williams outlines here, there could be a big change coming to the scholastic landscape in New Jersey after the NJSIAA's annual meeting in December. The key word there is "could,'' because the proposals to split the publics and non-publics into separate leagues in football and strengthen the transfer rule have to be approved by the NJSIAA's member schools, which have chosen apathy instead of changing anything in recent years by voting down almost every big proposal by the NJSIAA.
The football proposal, which would put the 37 non-public teams across the state into their own divisions away from public teams, was always going to be put up for a vote in December at best. The tougher transfer rule had a chance to go into effect immediately if the NJSIAA executive committee had decided to approve the rule itself at its meeting yesterday, but they voted to put it up for a vote from the general membership in December.
What that means is that this summer you're probably going to see the free agent wheel spinning as usual with players jumping schools. I've already gotten strong indications that at least two and possibly three football All-Shore picks from this fall at public schools may jump ship to non-publics this summer. However, that could be a blessing in disguise because it could create even more of an outcry and help push along a vote to approve the transfer proposal in December.
There are 26 states in this country where transfers sit out a year with no appeals process, so New Jersey is one of the more liberal states when it comes to athletes bouncing around schools. A big reason is because there's seemingly three lawyers for every athlete in this state. I guarantee you that even if this rule gets approved in December, some four-star recruit will come forward with a sob story of hardship and a lawyer to argue that he shouldn't have to sit out after switching schools.
For now, there's no reason to get too worked up about anything because nothing will happen until December.
More on Thursday:
- Eagles defensive end and former Neptune star Vinny Curry is a huge pro wrestling fan.
- A high school player in San Diego set an area record with his 118th career stolen base to beat the mark set by former Oakland A's All-Star Eric Chavez.
- There is a bill in the state legislature that could make cheerleading an official sport governed by the NJSIAA.
- Tom Brady is a great football player, but I don't want to hear anything about "integrity" and "class" after this, as he put two Patriots employees right under the bus in Deflategate.
- There is a star softball player named Madison Bumgarner in the hometown of...Madison Bumgarner.
On tap for today: It's a big day across the board. In lacrosse, the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals will be going at four sites to whittle down the field for Saturday's semifinals.
In baseball, Middletown South plays at Howell and can clinch no worse than a tie for the Class A North title with a win. Meanwhile, CBA hosts Manalapan and can also clinch a tie for the A North title with a win. If either CBA or Middletown South loses and the other one wins, that team would get the title outright. If both lose, it would be a three-way tie for the title with Manalapan, so it's potentially a huge game for the Braves as well. Got all that?
In Class B South, it's real simple. The winner of today's Barnegat at Jackson Liberty game will be the division champ.
Manasquan plays at Monmouth and can clinch no worse than a tie for the Class A Central title with a win. If the Warriors lose, St. John Vianney can win the title outright by beating Shore on Friday. If Manasquan and St. John Vianney both lose, Shore and Monmouth could also have a shot at sharing the title.
Also, Toms River North can wrap up the outright title with a win tonight against visiting Lacey in Class A South, and Mater Dei Prep can claim the outright the Class B Central crown by beating Ranney at home today.
I'll end with Shaq wiping out in the middle of the TNT broadcast last night, and the awesome double bicycle kick goal.
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