Shore Conference Baseball Saturday Scoreboard, May 18

Saturday, May 18

Shore Conference Tournament

Quarterfinals

(1) Southern 3, (8) Jackson Memorial 2

Southern capitalized on two Jackson Memorial errors during a three-run second inning and Brady Lesiak fired five innings of scoreless relief to earn his sixth win to send the Rams past the Jaguars and into the SCT semifinals for the first time in program history. Southern will take No. 5 Wall at Count Basie Park in the first game of Monday's semifinal double-header.

Jackson Memorial scored twice in the top of the second inning, opening the scoring on an RBI single by Collin McCarron. Julian Caruso later beat out an infield single with the bases loaded to push in another run for a 2-0 Jaguars lead.

Tyler McLeod got one back for Southern with an RBI single to make it 2-1 in the bottom of the third. Aiden Miller reached on an error and the second of three singles by Ray Mulhern loaded the bases for Mike Kaczynski, who struck a hard ground ball that was misplayed by the Jackson Memorial defense and chased home what proved to be the winning runs.

Jackson Memorial put at least one runner on in each inning, but Lesiak did not allow a runner past second base in any of his five innings in relief of starter Roger Dreher.

Pitching

Top Hitters

(6) Red Bank Catholic 7, (3) Middletown South 2

Sophomore Charlie Stumberger drove in three runs and Declan Leary leaned on his pickoff prowess to get through six innings as the Caseys pulled away in the final inning to beat the Eagles and return to the SCT semifinals in search of a fifth consecutive conference tournament title.

Stumberger opened the scoring with a two-run single with two out in the top of the fourth inning and later ripped a one-hopper off the field umpire with the bases loaded -- resulting in a dead-ball RBI single that extended RBC's lead to 6-1 during a four-run seventh inning.

Leary, meanwhile, worked around early command problems and eight Middletown South hits in seven innings to make it through six innings on only 79 pitches while allowing just one run to score. Middletown South advanced a runner to third base in every inning except the second and sixth and in the second, RBC catcher Aidan Funk snuffed out a potential rally by throwing out a runner attempting to advance from second to third on a ball in the dirt for the first out of the inning. Leary then induced two groundouts to end the threat.

Base-running mistakes also cost Middletown South in both the first and fifth innings. With runners on the corners and one out in the first thanks to a pair of walks, Leary faked the move to third and threw back to first to pickoff his starting pitching counterpart, Brevin Bezick, for the second out of the inning. Leary escaped the inning when third baseman Sean Griggs scooped up a ground ball and fired to first for the final out of the first.

Middletown South again parked runners on the corners with one out in the bottom of the fifth and again, Leary baited the runner at first with a fake to third. Lou D'Alessio was caught in a rundown between first and second base and once shortstop Max Dantoni received the throw from first baseman Dylan Passo, the runner on third -- Jack Concordia -- broke for home. Dantoni calmly threw the ball to Funk, who applied the tag on Concordia for the second out of the inning. Bezick then flew out to deep rightfield to end the inning.

The Eagles did break through vs. Leary in the bottom of the fourth with a two-out RBI single by Brody Tacca that pulled his team within 2-1.

Funk contributed an RBI single in the top of the sixth to stretch the RBC lead back to 3-1 and the Caseys stretched their lead to 5-1 on a double-steal that goaded Middletown South into two throwing errors that allowed both runners -- Max Dantoni and Luke Lonczak -- to score.

Pitching

Top Hitters

(2) CBA 2, (7) Colts Neck 1 (10 Innings)

Jared Matejicka hit a two-out, game-winning RBI single to right-centerfield in the bottom of the 10th inning to send the Colts to the SCT semifinals with a walk-off win over the Cougars.

Fellow sophomore Colin Hoverter started the two-out rally by CBA with a single through the middle and moved up to second on a pick-off error. Colts Neck decided to take advantage of the open base by intentionally walking Matejicka's twin brother, Jayden, which brought up Jared with a chance to win the game.

After taking strike one, Jared Matejicka lined the second pitch of the at-bat into right-centerfield and Hoverter coasted home from second with the winning run.

CBA took a 1-0 lead on a solo home run by catcher Danny Tsimbinos in the bottom of the fourth -- Tsimibos's fourth homer of the season.

Colts Neck answered back by scoring an earned run against Wake Forest commit Chris Levonas. Dan Annunziata opened the top of the fifth with a single to leftfield -- the first and only hit allowed by Levonas in his six innings of work. Annunziata moved up to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Joe Pignatelli.

Levonas was one out from escaping the inning unscathed and induced a swinging strike three against R.J. Conover, but the ball in the dirt got away from Tsimibinos and Conover reached first base on the wild pitch. At the same time, Annunziata took third on the wild pitch and when home plate was uncovered, he kept running and scored the tying run.

Levonas closed out the inning with a strikeout and also pitched around back-to-back walks with one out to put up a scoreless sixth. The 97 pitches thrown marked a season-high for Levonas and tied a career-high. His three walks were also a season-high and his 13 strikeouts tied his season-high.

Shane Langan scattered six hits in 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief before Dylan Iwanyk recorded the final two outs of the top of the 10th to put himself in position for the win.

Pitching

Top Hitters

(5) Wall 3, (13) Manalapan 0

Four different Wall players hit a double that contributed to the run-scoring, which was enough to back sophomore left-hander Christian Suarez's six-hit shutout on the mound as the Crimson Knights downed the Braves to reach Monday's SCT semifinal against top-seeded Southern at Count Basie Park in Red Bank.

Jon Cofone led off the game with a single and quickly came around to score when T.J. Legere doubled him home on the next batter. Later in the bottom of the first, Legere scored on an RBI double by Mike Horowitz.

Wall tacked on a run in the bottom of the fourth on back-to-back doubles by Will Hague and John Catanio to lead off the inning.

Manalapan's best threat came in the top of the sixth inning, when Erik Johnson led off with a double and Suarez walked Anthony Foti to put two on with none out. Suarez then induced a pop-out for the first out and catcher Jake Howlett picked up his pitcher by throwing out Johnson on an attempted steal of third base for the second out. Suarez completed the scoreless sixth by rolling up a ground-ball out.

Pitching

Top Hitters

Regular Season

Non-Division

Holmdel 18, Long Branch 4 (5 Innings)

Freehold Boro 10, Point Boro 2

No. 4 Toms River East 6, Middletown North 5

Jackson Liberty 5, Howell 3

Red Bank 5, Rumson-Fair Haven 0

Toms River North 8, No. 13 Donovan Catholic 7 (9 Innings)

No. 14 St. Rose 9, No. 10 Ranney 3

Game 1: Freehold Twp. 2, Manasquan 0

Game 2: Freehold Twp. 13, Manasquan 12 (8 Innings)

Ocean 10, Lacey 9

Monmouth 12, Freehold Boro 2 (6 Innings)

Jackson Liberty 8, Raritan 5

Neptune at Monmouth, 7 p.m. at ShoreTown Ballpark

Non-Conference

No. 8 Brick Memorial 10, Spotswood 5

St. Thomas Aquinas 5, Raritan 2

No. 11 Matawan 8, Rutgers Prep 0

Postponements/Cancelations

Non-Division

Barnegat at Brick – Canceled