Captain Kaplan: Manasquan Lefty Leads Warriors Back Into Division Race

MANASQUAN — In his previous high school baseball seasons, Chase Kaplan would pitch until he was either pulled or the game ended and his performance was his contribution for the Manasquan baseball team that day.

On most days, that contribution was overwhelmingly positive. The left-handed Lafayette College commit was a First Team All-Shore selection by Shore Sports Insider in 2025 after going 6-1 with a 0.98 ERA with 72 strikeouts in 42 2/3 innings during his junior campaign.

Now a senior, Kaplan is focused on refining his craft as a pitcher but if in that process, the opponent scores on him, he now has a new recourse: just get those runs back as a hitter.

Kaplan surrendered a career-high four earned runs Monday vs. Toms River South but countered that with a career-high three RBI at the plate to lead his Warriors to a 7-4 win over the Indians. Manasquan’s victory completed a regular-season sweep of Toms River South — the No. 10 team in the Shore Sports Insider Top 10 and the first-place team in the Shore Conference Class B South standings — and pulled the Warriors to within a game of first place in the division standings.

Manasquan beat Toms River South, 5-3, on Friday in Toms River to set up the opportunity to sweep on Monday with Kaplan on the mound.

“It all started with Friday night lights,” Kaplan said. “We took a big win from them at their place. I just really wanted to carry the momentum to today in a big division game and now we are really in the hunt.”

Four of Kaplan’s seven walks came in the sixth inning, including three straight to open the inning and another to force home a run after he notched his ninth strikeout for the first out of the top of the sixth. Senior Liam Opatosky replaced Kaplan with the bases loaded and one out and got out of the inning by giving up a sacrifice fly to Toms River South junior shortstop Christian Mascaro that made the score, 7-4, then inducing a ground out to sophomore second baseman Seamus Ahern.

“Getting through my starts with better command has been a big focus for me this year,” Kaplan said. “Obviously, it didn’t show today, but my previous starts have been much better with command. I can drop in a 0-0 curveball for a strike and just have full control of my arsenal and a better idea when to throw pitches, which I feel like I have definitely improved. I’m not happy about the walks today, but I’m happy about the win.”

“In three years of having him, I haven’t seen him lose it like that,” Manasquan coach Brenan Gordon said of Kaplan. “He just ran out of gas. Usually he’ll bounce back, but he reached the end before he could find it again.”

Opatosky closed out the victory with a scoreless seventh that took only nine pitches, despite a leadoff single by Toms River South senior Evan Schmidt.

“His ball moves a lot,” Gordon said of Opatosky. “He throws strikes, he gives us a chance and he is tough to hit. He is a one-to-two-inning guy and the pressure doesn’t seem to bother him. All year, we have brought him into tough situations and he has been great. And he is a different look from Chase.”

Only two players in Manasquan’s batting order were starters a season ago and Kaplan was not one of them, outside of his pitching duties. Senior centerfielder Matt Antonucci and senior first baseman Liam Opatosky entered this year as the only Warriors hitters with regular at-bats in 2025, but the goals for this season are still lofty thanks to Kaplan and the pitching staff.

“Offense comes after pitching, but it’s still fun,” Kaplan said. “I’m just hacking and having fun. If you can hit the ball hard, good things will happen.”

“He is just an overall leader,” Gordon said. “All the guys follow him. He is a great teammate — one of the best teammates I have ever coached. He treats the next-best player on the team the same as he treats the last guy in the program. He is the hardest worker too.”

Making his fourth start of the season Monday, Kaplan settled into his start by allowing the first three batters to reach, then finding his groove. Toms River South leadoff hitter Jaden Geremia beat out an infield single, Kaplan hit centerfielder Cannan Sanzone in the foot with a slider and Mascaro hit a jam-shot single into shallow centerfield to score Geremia, giving Toms River South a 1-0 lead before Kaplan could record an out.

Senior Brett Rankin then bunted the ball back to Kaplan, who fired to third base for the force out, got back to the mound and found his All-Shore form. He strikck out the final two batters of the first, the first two batters of the second and induced a week pop-up in foul territory to close out two innings of work. In the bottom of the second inning, meanwhile, he drew his second walk of the game and this time, it came with the bases loaded and forced in a run.

The top of Toms River South’s order was tough on Kaplan throughout his 5 1/3 innings of work and in the top of the third, they mounted another threat against Kaplan. Geremia hit a hard ground ball to third base that Manasquan could not convert into an out, Kaplan issued a walk to Sanzone and Mascaro bunted the runners over. Kaplan then struck out Rankin, but the ball got away from senior catcher Mike Loffredo, allowing Rankin to reach first as the two base-runners held their spots. Kaplan brushed off the bad break by striking out the next two batters, giving him seven punchouts through three innings and a 3-1 lead.

Chase Kaplan sets down the side in order on 10 pitches in the 2nd with a couple more strikeouts. pic.twitter.com/Z7JNxiUVjo

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) April 20, 2026

“In the second inning, I probably threw 70 percent curveballs,” Kaplan said. “Other innings, it was 70 percent fastballs and I was mixing in the changeup the whole game.”

“He dials in with people on base,” Gordon said. “Sometimes, he puts people on and then he just locks in and turns into a different pitcher. He gets into attack mode. It’s his competitive side. That’s why we don’t worry when he puts people on base. We know he’ll get out of it.”

In the top of the fourth, Toms River South cut its deficit to 3-2 on a sacrifice fly by Geremia — another productive trip to the plate for a top-three hitter in the Indians order. The bottom of the order, meanwhile, set up the threat, with junior third baseman Anthony Abatemarco singling and reaching third on two wild pitches and and senior rightfielder Karsin Migliori drawing a walk.

After giving up a run in the top of the fourth inning, he improved his balance sheet with a two-run single to rightfield to push Manasquan’s lead to 5-2. Sophomore Connor Lalli and Antonucci set up the scoring opportunity by leading off the inning with back-to-back singles and each stealing a base.

Chase Kaplan gives himself a 3-run lead with a 2-run single in the bottom of the 4th. Squan leads 5-2, still none out in the inning. pic.twitter.com/JkDO1AuDCZ

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) April 20, 2026

“Being able to hit this year, the pitching side of it allows me to hit better,” Kaplan said. “I understand the plate more, the arsenal of what the other pitcher is going to do. It’s all fun.”

“We always knew he could hit,” Gordon said of Kaplan. “Last year, we didn’t have to hit him because our lineup was deeper and certain guys had to DH. This year, we knew he was going to hit so we moved him to the top of the order and he is having a great year hitting too.”

The fifth started with a leadoff walk by Kaplan, but he navigated the inning on only nine pitches, albeit without recording a strikeout — the only inning in which he did not do so.

Manasquan added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth, with Loffredo leading off the inning by ripping a double down the leftfield line and junior Jack Soltis scoring courtesy runner Sonny Higgins with a safety squeeze bunt. A second run in the inning scored when Ahern was caught between third and home, but ran through the tag of Indians catcher Logan Sawa midway between the two bases, knocking the ball out of Sawa’s glove and scoring Manasquan’s seventh run.

“Mentality is a big part of it,” Kaplan said. “When you know it’s the bottom of the order and you’ve got to throw strikes, it’s not as easy as it sounds. I tried the best I could, which is all you can do. I ran out of gas, but I just wanted to give us a chance and hand it off to the right guy (Opatosky) and that’s what I did.”

Loffredo reached base three times in the win, going 2-for-2 with an RBI, and also handled Kaplan behind the plate. Loffredo is second on the team behind Opatosky in extra-base hits (three) and home runs (one) and has been one of the new starters who has stood out for the Warriors through the first 11 games.

“Mike calls a great game,” Kaplan said. “I don’t shake him off a lot.”

“Mike has done an excellent job all year,” Gordon said. “We had to replace Connor (Voelksen) who had been catching for two years and that was a question mark coming in because Chase is hard to catch. His ball moves a lot, but Mike has done a great job all year just keeping the ball in front of him. Today was probably the most balls he has let get away but in other games, not much has gotten past him.”

Kaplan’s sixth-inning command issues caused his pitch count to inflate to over 105 pitches, which marked the fourth time in four starts he reached 100 pitches. On opening day, Kaplan pitched a no-hitter with 15 strikeouts in a win over Central Regional and since then, he has pitched each subsequent Monday, giving him exactly six days of rest between each start.

That schedule will change going forward, as the next game on Manasquan’s schedule in which Kaplan will be eligible to pitch is an April 30 division game at Donovan Catholic. His next start after that will likely be six days later in the Warriors’ Class B South division finale at Brick, which would also make him available to pitch one week later in the first round of the Shore Conference Tournament, should Manasquan qualify.

“We haven’t really talked much about getting off the schedule yet, just because I think we have been focused on each game and one week at a time,” Kaplan said. “For now, I am just going to throw until coach says I’m done and whatever coach wants me to do, I’m willing to do. If I feel like I’m tired, I’ll speak up, but if I’m on enough rest and I feel good and everything lines up, I’m always willing to compete for my team.”

Barring disruptive weather that would dramatically alter it, the schedule will not require Gordon to call upon Kaplan to pitch with fewer than five days of rest, but that day could be coming if Manasquan sets itself up to either clinch a division title or advance deep into either the Shore Conference Tournament of NJSIAA Group II playoffs.

“He could have come back for the county tournament (Saturday at Manalapan) but we weren’t going to push him,” Gordon said. “As it gets later in the year, he’ll come back when he needs to. He has a future in front of him where he’ll know he is going once a week. There’s not much point to rushing him back on the fifth day in April. It’s a fight to take him out too.

“If it’s a big game, we’re going to have those conversations, whether it’s about starting a game four or five days later or closing a game, then coming back a couple days later. He’ll be honest if he feels like his arm is not ready to go and that’s fine. But if he feels fine, I can’t see him ever not taking the ball. He takes care of his bady, he takes care of his arm as well as anyone I have seen. He wants the ball at all times.”