Jersey Mike's Week 3 Baseball Team of the Week: CBA

Get our free mobile app

The Christian Brothers Academy baseball team ventured to Myrtle Beach, S.C. as a team coming off an 11-12 2021 season and a slow start at the plate to the 2022 campaign.

The Colts came back as an offensive juggernaut that mashes from No. 1 to No. 9 in the order.

CBA's offense caught fire in South Carolina and has stayed hot in the cool New Jersey spring. From Saturday, April 16 through the following Saturday, CBA went 4-1 while averaging 8.6 runs. Thanks to its emerging offensive prowess, plus a big win over previously-unbeaten Howell, CBA is the Week 3 Jersey Mike's Team of the Week.

Photo by Steve Meyer

The Colts split their first two games back in New Jersey, beating Freehold Township, 15-3, on April 16 to end the Patriots' six-game winning streak and then losing, 10-3, to Middletown South.

CBA then won its next three games, topping Middletown South -- ranked No. 3 in the Shore Sports Network Top 10 -- No. 5 Howell and Manalapan. In those three wins, eight different CBA players hit a home run, which is all the more impressive considering that, with much of the same players, CBA hit nine during the entire 2021 season.

In a 7-5 win over Middletown South on April 20, it was junior shortstop Harrison Campi who went deep for a two-run homer and also added a two-run triple to spearhead the lineup against the defending Group IV champions. Senior Jack Frankovic took care of six innings on the mound to earn the win.

Two days later, coach Marty Kenney Jr. gave the ball to Tulane-bound senior ace Colin Reilly to face a Howell squad that entered 9-0 and with a similarly dangerous lineup. Reilly gave up a pair of solo home runs -- both of which were aided by a stiff wind and clear the notoriously-short porch in left field -- on the way to a six-inning complete game and 12-2 Colts win.

CBA made sure to take aim at the short fence in left as well. The Colts belted six home runs from six different players: junior Zaine Toneske, senior Alexey Stout, senior Joe Figliolino, senior George Kruse and back-to-back homers by junior Hunter Del Guercio and senior Gavin Kus.

On Saturday, it was Frankovic who came through with a go-ahead solo home run in the bottom of the fifth inning for CBA, which scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth to secure a 6-3 win over Manalapan.

CBA entered the week in the thick of the Class A North divisional race and despite losing to Howell on Tuesday, the Colts remain alive for at least a share of the Class A North championship, although CBA will likely have to win its final six divisional games and get some help from multiple teams.

2022 Team of the Week Winners

Week 1: Shore

Week 2: Point Pleasant Beach