Long-Term Thinking: Rumson Rebounds from Tough Stretch, Sweeps Colts Neck

RUMSON — To best compete against what was an unbeaten Colts Neck team going into the the head-to-head series opener on Thursday, the Rumson-Fair Haven baseball team had to forget about the two games it just played, lest the trauma of losing two winnable games affect the way the Bulldogs played in their biggest regular-season game of the year.

So if two games less than a week earlier were off limits as sources for inspiration, what was available? How about two games played early last spring?

“We really wanted those guys this year,” Rumson senior centerfielder Jack Gyimesi said of Colts Neck. “They took it to us last year, like really bad both games. We didn’t forget about that.”

Rumson’s roster was inexperienced when it was dominated by Colts Neck in the opening series of last season and the Bulldogs were not shy about their desire for payback this season, which they earned by rallying to win game one on Thursday, then completing the sweep of the Cougars, 4-2, on Saturday morning at Hal Lorme Field.

“We have definitely grown as a team in the past year,” sophomore Brady Williams said. “With the trust that we have, if we stick together and we just work together, we can get through anything.”

Jack Gyimesi ties it with a 2-out RBI single in the 6th. pic.twitter.com/scKXz9p00T

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) April 18, 2026

Gyimesi supplied the first of consecutive two-out, run-scoring singles by Rumson in the bottom of the sixth, with his line drive to centerfield tying the game, 2-2. once courtesy runner Evan Sophinos touched the plate. Two pitched later, junior second baseman Lloyd Bush flipped a shallow fly ball into centerfield that Cougars centerfielder R.J. Conover came up short of catching on a slide. With two runners on base moving on contact, sophomore Dan McElduf easily scored from second and Gyimesi motored all the way from first to home to give Bush a two-run single and Rumson a 4-2 lead.

“We changed up our practice plan this week to focus on hitting balls hard and up the middle,” Gyimesi said. “It really paid off. I just went up focusing on finding a pitch and hitting a line drive to centerfield and that’s what I did.”

Senior left-hander Max Hinchliffe came on to pitch in relief of winning pitcher and sophomore right-hander Brady Williams and worked a one-two-three seventh to earn the save, which he closed out with a strikeout on his final pitch. The final out completed a combined two-hitter by the two Rumson pitchers, with Williams allowing two earned runs on two hits and two walks while striking out six.

“It wasn’t the smoothest game for me,” Williams said. “Having my team behind me and knowing they can pick me up at any moment is just huge for me.”

Williams took the mound for the first time since a week earlier, when he took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning at then-unbeaten Caldwell. One out from victory, Rumson committed an error, Williams hit a batter, the Bulldogs made another error on the infield and compounded it with a throwing error that allowed the tying run to score and the winning run to reach third. On the very next pitch, Williams uncorked a wild pitch and the winning run scored, giving Caldwell a 4-3 win.

Three days later, Rumson dropped a 4-2 decision at Middletown North, which meant the Bulldogs would take a two-game losing streak into a critical Shore Conference Class B North series vs. Colts Neck.

“We stranded ten runners in each of those games,” Rumson-Fair Haven coach Owen Stewart said. “We had more opportunities than we did (against Colts Neck) to score runs. We had guys on base, then it would be a strike out or a pop-up. Today, we improved from those games because in those games, we got real frustrated and guys got down on themselves.”

“We’ve been trying to take a more stoic approach,” Gyimesi said. “The last two years, our team would have folded. It really would have put us down and you never know: we might have lost three games.”

On Thursday, a 4-1 lead turned into a 6-4 deficit as Colts Neck waited out Rumson-Fair Haven junior left-hander Cooper Jones and got into the Bulldogs bullpen. That turned out to be beneficial for Rumson, which handed the ball to junior Brady Dill for the final 4 2/3 innings. Rumson surged ahead with three runs in the top of the fourth inning, including a go-ahead two-run home run by junior Casper Billington.

In the top of the sixth, Rumson put the game out of reach with four runs thanks to an RBI double by senior third baseman D.J. Ylagan, an RBI single by Williams and a two-run single by McElduf.

“Being able to come back on Thursday showed us that there is a good offense here,” Stewart said. “It’s going to come if we keep working through it. Today, they didn’t get frustrated with the pop-ups early in the game. They started talking and making adjustments.”

Dill took it from there, pitching 4 2/3 no-hit innings with one walk and four strikeouts to secure Rumson a 11-6 win while dealing Colts Neck its first loss of the season after seven straight wins to start it off.

“Brady Dill has been awesome throwing him off Cooper Jones,” Stewart said. “He gives a totally different look than everybody else.”

The scene shifted from Colts Neck on Thursday to Rumson on Saturday, when Williams returned to the mound looking to both get right after the Caldwell ending, as well as give his Bulldogs a clear leg up in the race for the Class B North championship.

Colts Neck scratched a run across in the top of the first on a sacrifice fly by Cougars junior starter Ryan Rude, set up by a walk and stolen base by senior shortstop Jack Dugo, followed by a balk that moved Dugo to third. Dugo later beat out an infield single with two out in the third that was Colts Neck’s only hit through five innings against Williams.

“Colts Neck is a great hitting team,” Stewart said. “They time up fastballs better than anyone I have seen, maybe in years. We threw fastballs in the zone at them and they pounded them hard. Every time Cooper (Jones) threw a fastball in the zone, they were ready. Even their outs were really loud. Coming into (Saturday) we had to pitch backwards a little bit more and Brady did a nice job finding that once he got past that first inning.”

Rumson got that run right back with three singles off Rude in the bottom of the first, starting with a one-out single by Ylagan. Williams ripped a single up the middle with two out and McElduf yanked a single to right with two out that led to a run after Sophinos — running for Williams — was caught halfway between second and third while Ylagan was holding at third. Sophinos drew a throw to second base and dove in safely and once the throw went to second, Ylagan broke for home and scored standing up.

Colts Neck puts runners on the corners in the 4th but Brady Williams punches his way out of it. Colts Neck and Rumson 1-1, bottom 4. pic.twitter.com/TDoDGEodZI

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) April 18, 2026

Both pitchers posted zeroes over the next four innings before Cougars senior Ronan Kiely ended the offensive silence with a solo home run to right-centerfield on the first pitch of the sixth inning. Gyimesi raced toward the landing spot of the ball but ran out of room and could not quite reach Kiely’s opposite-field blast as it touched down on the hill beyond the fence.

“I thought I had a chance there,” Gyimesi said. “The wind was pushing it back in. I didn’t really know where the fence was. It was tough play, didn’t go our way, but I kept that in mind  during my at-bat and took it out on the ball.”

Rude retired the first batter of the bottom of the sixth, but Williams got another Bulldogs rally started with a single to center. McElduf then pulled a ground ball on the ground and in his haste to start a double-play, Colts Neck second baseman Dan Annunziata bobbled the ball and McElduf reached safely with Sophinos — again running for Williams moving to second.

Rude recovered to induce a pop-up to Kiely at first base for the second out, which brought up Gyimesi, who was 0-for-2 with a strikeout to that point. After taking strike one, Gyimesi scalded a line drive to centerfield to chase home Sophinos. McElduf and Gyimesi then completed their trips around the bases on Bush’s single into center.

“Coach always tells us run as hard as you can, no matter what,” Gyimesi said. “You never know when a guy is going to drop it. They told me he was playing a little deep and I’m out there in centerfield, so I’ve got some speed.”

Lloyd Bush gives Rumson a 4-2 lead with a 2-run single in the 6th, with Jack Gyimesi scoring from 1st. pic.twitter.com/ptEP4n67Qt

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) April 18, 2026

“Jack is a tremendous athlete,” Stewart said. “He is going to Colgate for football. In football, you line him up against almost anybody, he is going to win his reps just on physicality. Here, it’s a different game. He has to learn to fail and adjust to it and he did a great job of that today.”

Gyimesi, Bush and Williams are all football players as well, with Williams playing quarterback and Gyiemesi committed to play at Colgate next fall. After Williams allowed the home run to Kiely, his two fellow gridiron mates wanted to pick up their quarterback.

“I play football with both of them and I trust those as much as anyone,” Williams said. “They are two of my best friends on the team and I know that they can do what they did there and pick me up.”

Rumson not only swept Colts Neck over a stretch of three days, but also swept a Saturday double-header with a 12-6 win over St. Rose in the Monmouth County Tournament opening round. Junior Hunter Beattie picked up the win on the mound as the Bulldogs flexed their pitching muscle over the stretch of three games in four days. Williams, Jones, Dill, Beattie and Hinchliffe all threw important innings in the three games and, along with senior Lucca Strome, form a pitching nucleus reminiscent of the one that carried Rumson to the NJSIAA Group II championship game in 2023.

“It comes down to the buy-in of the kids,” Stewart said. “We had that in 2023. We had five guys we could throw into any situation and those guys bought in, especially  right before the state tournament. We were able to get 12 outs from our starter and then flip it over to the other guys to get three outs each. They threw strikes, every guy got hot and we rode that to the state final. If we get that buy-in, we’re going to be in every game.”

The Bulldogs are currently the No. 2 seed in what has become a loaded Central Jersey Group II bracket, trailing only Arthur L. Johnson in power points and slightly leading defending Group II champion Governor Livingston. During the 2023 run, Rumson hosted all five of its state playoff wins before losing to Pascack Valley in the championship game in Hamilton.

“I trust my guys,” Williams said. “We have a lot of talent on this team and I know no matter what happens, who is on the mound, we have a group of guys that’s going to pick each other up. That’s why I think we can have a great season and go really far in the tournaments.”