Builders’ General Shore Conference Baseball Opening Day Scoreboard, 4/1/24

Monday, April 1

Class A Central

No. 1 Red Bank Catholic 7, No. 8 Rumson-Fair Haven 2

Senior Al Delia hit his first career home run in the bottom of the second to highlight the offense and classmate Declan Leary continued his mastery of Rumson-Fair Haven with a three-hit complete game as the Caseys took down the Bulldogs on opening day.

Leary defeated Rumson twice as a sophomore and once again last year as a junior, making him 4-0 vs. the Bulldogs over the last three seasons after Monday's win. Rumson senior Aaron Del Tin touched Leary for a solo home run on the first pitch of the top of the fourth, but Leary limited the hard contact the rest of the way.

Rumson built up a threat in the top of the fifth thanks to errors by RBC on the first two batters of the inning. With runners on first and third, Leary induced a soft lineout to shortstop Max Dantoni, then coaxed a shallow flyout to leftfielder Jake Frankel for the second out.

Rumson second baseman Alex Calabretta stole second base with one out to make it two runners in scoring position, but Leary stranded both of them when Caseys first baseman Dylan Passo made a diving stab on a line drive off the bat of Rumson junior Parker Shenman to end the threat and preserve a 4-1 lead.

Delia started RBC's fifth-inning rally with a single for his second hit of the game and went to third on a double by junior second baseman A.J. Sciametta. Delia ran into an out at third base for the second out of the inning but senior Matt Brunner picked him up with an RBI single to push the Caseys lead to 5-1. A second run in the inning scored when a pickoff attempt at second got away from Del Tin, allowing Dantoni to scored from third.

RBC took a 1-0 lead on a two-out, 3-2, bases-loaded walk by sophomore Charlie Stumberger. Rumson starter Owen O'Toole appeared to have struck out Stumberger on a 2-2 fastball to end the inning, but the umpired conferenced and determined that Stumberger tipped the pitch and it was ruled foul.

After Delia's first-pitch dinger over the left-field wall to lead off the second, Sciametta drew a walk and scored on Dantoni's ringing double that one-hopped the fence in left-centerfield to make it 3-0.

The Caseys took a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth on a passed ball and added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth on a bases-loaded walk by Sciametta.

Leary ended the game with two of his five strikeouts in a one-two-three seventh inning, which ended with a swing-and-a-miss at a breaking ball.

 Pitching

Top Hitters

Non-Conference

Old Bridge 2, Manalapan 1

Senior right-hander Dylan Shaffer pitched a three-hit gem with 10 strikeouts and the Braves put a runner in scoring position in all seven innings, but could not push across the winning runs in a loss to the Knights -- the No. 20 team in the statewide preseason rankings by NJ Advance Media.

Manalapan stranded eight runners in scoring position for the game and left the bases loaded in both the third and seventh innings. Down to their final out, Manalapan reached three straight times against Old Bridge reliever Justin Hascup, with sophomore Noah Feldman working a walk, classmate Brandon Heller following with his second single of the game and Anthony Foti keeping the game alive with another walk to load the bases. Hascup bounced back by inducing a game-ending pop-out.

In the third, Manalapan loaded the bases with no one out with an infield single by senior John Pecoraro, a the second of two hit-by-pitches for senior Erik Johnson and an error. Knights starter and Rider commit Frank Papeo then worked out of it with fielder's choice groundout to get Pecoraro at the plate, followed by back-to-back strikeouts.

Manalapan finally broke through in the top of the sixth on a two-out RBI single by Johnson to cut Old Bridge's lead to 2-1.

 Pitching

Top Hitters

At Northeast Regional Park

Orlando, Fla.

Brighton (N.Y.) 9, Colts Neck 8

Brighton scored the tying and winning runs during the same at-bat with two out in the bottom of the seventh to pull out a walk-off win over the Cougars in Colts Neck's season-opener.

Senior left-hander Tom Diffley surrendered three runs in the bottom of the first inning on two walks, two wild pitches and an RBI triple by John Ahrens, then settled in and struck out 11 over 4 1/3 one-hit innings.

Diffley and sophomore Ryan Spencer combined on a three-hitter, but walked seven and allowed seven of the nine runs to score on wild pitches or passed balls, including all six runs in the fifth inning or later.

Colts Neck jumped on top with four runs in the top of the first even after Brighton starter Wesley Sturrup retired the first two batters of the game. Ronan Kiely and Joe Pignatelli hit consecutive RBI singles to open the scoring and Dan Annunziata scorched a two-run double to make it 4-0.

Colts Neck picked up two more runs in the second on an RBI triple by Diffley, followed immediately by an RBI double for fellow senior Casey Gardiner. Annunziata added an RBI single in a two-run sixth for Colts Neck that extended the Cougars lead to 8-4.

Pitching

Top Hitters

Postponements/Cancelations

Class A North

Freehold Twp. at No. 3 CBA -- PPD, Saturday, 11 a.m.

No. 10 Middletown South at No. 5 Middletown North -- PPD, Thursday, 3:45 p.m.

Manalapan at No. 13 Howell -- PPD, TBA

Class A Central

Monmouth at Wall – PPD, Thursday, 11 a.m.

Holmdel at Raritan – PPD, TBA

Class B North

Freehold Boro at Ocean – PPD, Friday, 2 p.m.

Red Bank at No. 7 Ranney -- PPD, Saturday, TBA

St. John Vianney at Manasquan -- PPD, Saturday, 10 a.m.

Neptune at Matawan – PPD, TBA

Non-Division

Brick Memorial at Shore – Canceled

Non-Conference

New Egypt at Manchester – PPD, TBA

Jackson Memorial at Vineland – Canceled