Shore Regional Named Week 4 Joe Leone’s Baseball Team of the Week | Shore Sports Insider
Week 4 Joe Leone’s Team of the Week:
Shore Regional Baseball
Shore Sports Insider is proud to partner with Joe Leone’s this spring to present our weekly Joe Leone’s Baseball Team of the Week Award, recognizing standout Shore Conference programs for their accomplishments on the field.
We are also thrilled to welcome Joe Leone’s Italian Specialties as our title sponsor, providing a generous $250 gift card each week to celebrate the winning team.
The Week 4 recipient of the 2026 Joe Leone’s Baseball Team of the Week is Shore Regional after the Blue Devils continued their climb up the Shore Conference Class C North standings with a 3-0 week that included a second win on the season over St. John Vianney, followed by a two-game sweep of defending division co-champion Holmdel.
As impressive as Shore was in going 3-0 with two runs allowed last week to earn the Team of the Week Award, the Blue Devils were even more impressive in celebrating the recognition on Tuesday.
Shore senior left-hander Ryan Barham continued his team’s run of dominant pitching by pitching his second no-hitter of the year in a 6-0 win over Marlboro, giving the Blue Devils their fifth straight win and eighth in the last nine games. Barham collected his 100th career strikeout and went on to whiff a career-high 14, including a four-strikeout inning in the top of the second.
Ryan Barham finishes off a no-hitter with 14 strikeouts and Shore wins its 8th game out of the last nine. 4 errors by Shore and 3 of them could have generously scored as hits, but all three could have been made.
Final: Shore 6, Marlboro 0 pic.twitter.com/nETyxXBeSJ
— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) April 28, 2026
“I have been feeling good the past couple of weeks,” Barham said. “I know I have to throw strikes and I just felt good out there. I tried to do my job and let my teammates do their job.
“I did it a couple weeks ago in six innings, so it was different to do it in seven. I didn’t really think about it. I didn’t know I had one so it wasn’t on my mind. I was just trying to throw strikes and trust my defense.”
Back on April 14, Barham pitched a six-inning no-hitter in a 10-0 win over Matawan, in which he struck out nine and walked one. On Tuesday, Barham went the full seven innings on 106 pitches and allowed five base-runners — three on infield errors, one via walk and another on the strike-three wild pitch during the four-strikeout inning.
“He’s my favorite pitcher to catch,” Shore senior catcher Riley Smaltini said. “He locates so well. I have been catching him since 9U and it’s awesome to see how far he has come.”
“From last year, I think I have definitely gotten a lot better,” said Barham, who was 4-4 with a 4.23 ERA and 55 strikeouts and 26 walks in 41 1/3 innings as a junior. “When I’m on the mound, I feel like we can win any game. I’m confident in all my guys on the mound. They do their job, we do our job and that’s how you win games.”
Shore’s offense was quiet until the fourth inning, when Smaltini cashed in an RBI double into the leftfield corner to open the scoring. It was the first of three runs by Shore in the bottom of the fourth, two of which were unearned runs charged to Marlboro senior starter Sujay Sesha. Senior Trevor Doremus also swatted an RBI single during the rally, which extended Shore’s lead to 3-0.
“I saw two curveballs in my first at-bat,” Smaltini said. “I wanted to be ready for another one, I got it and I didn’t miss it.”
Riley Smaltini breaks the scoreless toe with an RBI double in the bottom of the 4th. Shore now leads 2-0 after another run scores thanks to a pair of errors. pic.twitter.com/sB2YQFa6ZJ
— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) April 28, 2026
Senior Liam Hennelly shot an RBI single through the right side in the bottom of the fifth for a 4-0 Blue Devils lead and senior Mike Russomano capped the scoring with a booming two-run double to left-centerfield in the bottom of the sixth.
The final two insurance runs set the stage for Barham, who entered the seventh inning at 93 pitches and came up with the first out of the inning on just one pitch. After a foul-out down the rightfield line for out No. 2, Barham won an eight-pitch battle against pinch-hitter Ryan Luchi by striking out his 14th batter to end the game.
“I feel like in the early innings, I had my best fastball,” Barham said. “I was just trying to mix up timing and locate it in the right spot. Later in the game, I used more offspeed and stuff like that.”
“He was locked-in from the start,” Shore coach Jay Kuhlthau said of his Tuesday starter. “With four games this week, we needed him to give us seven (innings) today or to get as close to it as he could and he came out and attacked from the start. This is the best I have seen him all year.”
Barham’s second no-hitter of the season is the fourth shutout of Shore’s five-game winning streak and in the other win, the Blue Devils surrendered just two runs. Since starting the season 0-4, Shore has allowed 12 runs in nine games, six of which came in a 6-1 loss to Wall in which the Blue Devils walked 11 as a staff.
“It’s just been about the mindset,” Barham said of his team’s turnaround since the 0-4 start. “It starts with the pitching. We had a lot of walks early in the season and we have improved there. Pitching sets the tone for our offense. All we have to do is pitch well and just do our job offensively.”
“After that game against Wall, we challenged them,” Kuhlthau said. “As a pitching staff, we had to do a better job of commanding the zone and attacking hitters. We were putting a lot of pressure on the defense to make plays and they took it upon themselves to limit the walks, challenge hitters and trust the defense.”
During a 3-0 week last week, Barham kicked off the week with a two-hit shutout and 11 strikeouts in a 6-0 win over St. John Vianney — the team that has held the top spot in the division standings for most of the season thanks to a seven-game winning streak early in the year. Shore followed that win up with an 8-0 victory over Holmdel in which Hennelly tossed his team’s second two-hit shutout of the week, which included seven strikeouts and no walks.
The Blue Devils completed the sweep of Holmdel with a 4-2 win on Thursday, with senior Andrew Barham and sophomore Luca Delonardo combining to limit the Hornets to two unearned runs on six hits. Senior Luce Moccia joined the run of shutouts Monday in a 3-0 win over Freehold Boro, during which he fired six scoreless innings before Russomano completed the combined shutout — and earned the save — with a scoreless seventh inning.
The top six batters in Shore’s batting order each had a multi-hit game last week and both Andrew Barham and fellow senior Braden Calandriello. Calandriello was 3-for-3 with three RBI in the win over St. John Vianney on April 20, while Barham went 2-for-3 with an RBI in the win. The following day vs. Holmdel, Andrew Barham was again went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI. Delonardo had the other three-hit game for Shore last week, which was a 3-for-5 showing with a double and three runs scored in the 8-0 win over Holmdel.
With a senior-loaded lineup and pitching staff, Shore has its sights set on its first division championship in two decades, which the Blue Devils can clinch with another win over Marlboro on Thursday. The current group of seniors are also eyeing late May, when they will try to carry Shore to its second NJSIAA Central Jersey Group I championship game in three years.
“When truly believed that when we were 0-4, we were the best 0-4 team in the state,” Kuhlthau said. “You have to have that confidence if you are going to rebound like we have. You don’t ever want to lose but, sometimes it’s good to get a gut check and force us to focus in on playing the kind of baseball we’re capable of playing.”
Two years ago, most of Shore’s team current team watched another senior-led team make it all the way to the sectional final round for the first time in nine years, which ended with a loss at Point Pleasant Beach. Shore last won a sectional title in 2014, then the Blue Devils went on to win the overall Group I championship.
“A lot of our guys have been starters for multiple years,” Smaltini said. “Depth is our strength, especially in Group I. We have a lot of guys who can throw strikes and get outs on the mound. It’s been our motto from the very beginning of the year: Go all the way. Play for the pile.”
On Tuesday, Shore Sports Insider visited practice to present Shore Regional Head Coach Jay Kuhlthau and the team with a $250 Joe Leone’s Italian Specialties Gift Card, courtesy of our partners at Joe Leone’s, for a well-earned team meal.
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