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Better Late: Brick Memorial Explodes in Final Three Innings, Rolls to OCT Title

Matt Manley|May 8, 2026|Last Updated May 8, 2026

BAYVILLE — Any person in attendance at Thursday’s Al Kunzman Ocean County Tournament Baseball championship game could have wondered, with each increasingly menacing swing unleashed by the Brick Memorial lineup, how the Mustangs were only the No. 5 seed and not the runaway No. 1 seed in the tournament.

One winless week in April is the answer to that question, and even in that 0-3 week, Brick Memorial scored 29 runs. Thursday’s OCT final vs. Toms River South was confirmation that even if it takes Brick Memorial time to rev up its hitting engine, the Mustangs remain a well-oiled machine.

Senior left-hander Brody Moore pitched a four-hit complete game with 11 strikeouts on the mound and the Brick Memorial lineup exploded for 15 runs over the final three innings, turning a tense pitcher’s duel between two talented left-handers into a 15-1 rout — the most one-sided OCT championship game in the history of the tournament.

“We always talk about pouring it on,” Brick Memorial coach Evan Rizzitello said. “Adding insurance runs is big, and we’ve learned the hard way a few times this year that no lead is safe. Teams don’t stop playing against us, especially in a championship game, so we really preach playing for more runs once we have a lead.”

Brick Memorial senior Brody Moore. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com) - Brick Memorial Brody Moore

Brick Memorial senior Brody Moore. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)

The county championship is the second all-time for Brick Memorial and the first since the Mustangs’ 1996 championship, which they will be honoring with a pre-game celebration next week to commemorate the 30th anniversary of that first title. On Thursday at Al Leiter Ballpark, the Mustangs began the celebration early by adding another OCT title to the program’s résumé.

“It feels great,” Moore said. “That team, they come out, and they support us. We wanted to do it for them. They were a great team in their day, and we want to be remembered the same way.”

In his seven innings of work spanning 86 pitches, Moore walked just one and hit two batters along with his four hits allowed. The lone run charged to him was earned, and it came after his team had already built a double-digit lead in the late innings. In striking out 11, Moore recorded double-digit strikeouts for a fourth consecutive start, and the last three of those starts were Ocean County Tournament games in which he earned the win.

“Today was right on par with the last few,” Rizzitello said. “He is just getting better and better. As the weather warms up, he seems like he is feeling better. He drilled real hard in the offseason and during the season to be able to recover and I’m really happy for him.”

Moore also made an impact from the batter’s box by finishing 3-for-4 with an RBI double. The all-around performance cemented his status as the Most Valuable Player of the OCT, during which he hit .467 (7-for-15) with four RBI at the plate and went 3-0 on the mound with a 1.05 ERA, 12 hits and three walks allowed and 32 strikeouts in 20 innings.

“Brody has been awesome, specifically in the tournament,” Rizzitello said. “It’s one of those things: based on how they prepare for games and their temperament, it fit us real well to start Brody and then have (junior Zach) Pirnik finish it. We’ll take either one of them on the mound and Brody happened to be the guy we chose, and we felt real comfortable backing him up with Pirnik if we needed him.”

Tuesday’s win was not only redemption for Brick Memorial following a fourth-place finish in the Shore Conference Class A South standings this season, but also for Moore and his returning teammates for their 3-1 loss to Toms River East in last year’s OCT final. Moore was not eligible to pitch that game and went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts out of the leadoff spot in that 2025 championship loss. Brick Memorial would go on to win the Shore Conference Tournament and claim the No. 1 ranking in the final 2025 Shore Sports Insider Top 10, but returning to Al Leiter Park for the OCT final left the Mustangs many returning starters with the feeling that there was unfinished business to settle at the venue.

Brick Memorial senior Brody Moore. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com) - Brick Memorial Brody Moore cellie after getting out of the fifth

Brick Memorial senior Brody Moore. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)

“We had a goal to win this after losing here last year,” Moore said. “We wanted redemption. I didn’t have the best game here, and we all wanted to be back here. We got here, and we did our thing.”

Moore and Toms River South junior southpaw Aiden Moylan matched scoreless frames for the first four innings, and Moylan was one strike from escaping the top of the fifth with the game still scoreless. Brick Memorial put the pressure on with walks by senior second baseman Trevor Kish and senior rightfielder Michael Figner, followed by a one-out sacrifice bunt by senior leftfielder and No. 9 hitter Gavin McCue that moved the runners to second and third bases with two out.

“It was a tight game,” Rizzitello said. “I felt like, at some point, we were going to break out. I’m glad we were able to do that. We were pretty comfortable with three (runs) with Brody on the mound, but playing on a smaller field, knowing one swing could tie it up, I’m glad we got more.”

Moylan jumped ahead of sophomore third baseman Matt McGlynn, 0-2, and McGlynn stayed alive by fouling off a pitch and taking a pitch just above the strike zone. On the 1-2 offering, McGlynn roped a changeup from Moylan into left field to score both runners to give the Mustangs a 2-0 lead and took second base on the throw home to sustain the threat for the next batter, senior shortstop Tyler Garbooshian. The Rutgers University commit added to the lead by yanking a single through the left side to chase home McGlynn with the third run of the inning.

“Full confidence in him,” Moore said of McGlynn. “That’s why he’s our leadoff guy. He is still a sophomore, too, so he is going to be great.”

“Matt’s been very effective for us, and that’s why he is batting leadoff this year,” Rizzitello said. “I give Gavin McCue a lot of credit. He hasn’t been performing like he has wanted to at the plate recently, and we asked him to lay one down with one out. We thought maybe he could get one down the line and beat it out, but he got the job done and gave us a chance. We had two guys in scoring position with our leadoff guy up and Garbooshian behind him if they put him on, so we’ll take those percentages pretty much every time.”

Toms River South also bunted right out of the gate, with No. 2 hitter Andrew Schmidt sacrificing senior Jaden Geremia to second base after Geremia led off the game with an infield single. The Indians also bunted with designated hitter Rob Abatemarco after Moore hit senior second baseman Evan Schmidt to lead off the fourth, but Moore struck out the next two batters.

“My initial thought with them bunting early was that one run wasn’t going to beat us,” Rizzitello said. “I wasn’t overly concerned, and Brody is an excellent fielder on the mound. He’s our best outfielder, so I knew he would be fine fielding those bunts, and as long as we got those outs, I wasn’t real concerned when they had guys in scoring position with one or two outs, because Brody is really effective getting weak contact and strikeouts.”

Moore responded to the offensive support with the ultimate shutdown inning. After striking out the last two batters of the bottom of the fourth, Moore struck out the side in order in the fifth to run his streak to five consecutive strikeouts and send the game to the top of the sixth with Brick Memorial leading, 3-0.

“I felt like by fastball was jumping out of my hand,” Moore said. “Usually, it’s my slider. I got Geremia with a changeup (in the fifth inning). I didn’t use it all game, but it worked well in certain spots. I just tried to command the zone.”

After breezing through five innings on the mound, Moore got involved in the batter’s box in the sixth with a double to the warning track in centerfield that scored courtesy runner Brandon Ryan, who ran for senior catcher Joe McGlynn after McGlynn led off the inning with a single. Figner added to the lead later in the inning with a two-run double down the leftfield line to push the Mustangs’ lead to 6-0 in the top of the sixth.

“This lineup can hit,” Brick Memorial first baseman Dan Golembiewski said. “We showed we could hit last year, and we can hit this year as well as we did last year. We have confidence in every one of these guys, and we knew we were going to find a barrel one way or another.”

To that point in the game, Golembiewski was not a noteworthy part of Brick Memorial’s offensive breakthrough despite collecting a single, a walk, and a stolen base in three trips to the plate up to that point. The 2025 First-Team All-Shore selection and prolific power hitter stepped up with the bases loaded in the sixth and took the first of two massive swings in the final two innings, with the first one driving the ball off the left field fence for a bases-clearing double that pushed Brick Memorial’s lead to 9-0. Joe McGlynn followed with an RBI single to right to score Golembiewski with the seventh Mustangs run of the inning, which extended the lead to 10-0.

“I know I’m going to get a strike,” Golembiewski said of his bases-loaded at-bats. “I just have to do damage. I got jammed a little bit on the first one, but I got enough of it to get it over (Geremia’s) head.”

Brick Memorial settled for seven in the sixth, and Toms River South senior Evan Schmidt extended the game with an RBI double to right field to make it 10-1. That just gave Golembiewski a chance to transform what was a quiet evening for him into a massive performance. The Farleigh Dickinson University commit again came to the plate with the bases loaded, and this time, he did not miss his pitch. Golembiewski launched a grand slam over the left-centerfield wall to cap the scoring with his fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh RBI of the last two innings.

Golembiewski finished 3-for-4 with a double, home run, walk, two runs scored, seven RBI, and a stolen base in the championship game. That closed out an OCT in which Golembiewski hit .615 (8-for-13) with four doubles, two home runs and 13 RBI in Brick Memorial’s four wins.

“I’m picturing a moonshot every time he comes up,” Moore said. “I knew he was hitting that grand slam, a hundred percent. I expect him to hit a bomb every time.”

Toms River South was making its first appearance in the OCT final since 2016 and seeking its first title since 2010. The Indians clinched no worse than a share of the Class B South championship by winning at Leiter Ballpark Monday against Central, but dropped a rematch at home vs. the Golden Eagles Wednesday with a chance to clinch the division outright. Even if Toms River South settles for the division co-championship with Manasquan — which can clinch a share of the title by winning at Manasquan on Monday — it marks Toms River South’s first championship of any kind since winning the Class A South title in 2017.

“I think last year, we almost surprised ourselves a little bit,” said Toms River South coach Jim Rankin, who led the Indians to the South Jersey Group III final in his first season as head coach in 2025. “We knew we weren’t a five-win team like we were the year before, so we knew we had the guys to do it. I just think we didn’t realize how good we could be, and when we went on that run, it opened our eyes, at least for the kids because as coaches, I think we believed in them. It was big for our confidence after being so defeated the year before. It was huge for our psyche and to this year, now that they are used to playing in big games, they’re not scared of the moment. They love playing in these games.”

Since losing three straight games during the week of April 13 through 19, Brick Memorial is 7-1 over its last eight games, with Wednesday’s regular-season loss to Red Bank Catholic — the No. 1 team in the Shore Sports Insider Top 10 — the lone defeat. Brick Memorial lost two games to Point Pleasant Beach and one to Southern Regional during that mid-April week despite scoring 29 runs and holding a lead in all three games. In both the first loss to Point Beach and the loss to Southern, Brick Memorial led going into the seventh inning.

Brick Memorial senior Dan Golembiewski. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com) - Brick Memorial Dan Golembiewski

Brick Memorial senior Dan Golembiewski. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)

“It gave us a dose of reality,” Rizzitello said. “The way we tried to rationalize it was, outside of four really bad innings — to Beach twice, Southern, and RBC yesterday — I think we have played really good, really competitive baseball. If we can clean that stuff up moving forward, I think we’ll be in real good shape.”

That three-game losing streak dropped Brick Memorial to 5-5 and came on the heels of a road win over DePaul Catholic on April 11. DePaul is currently 15-2, and its only other loss is to reigning NJSIAA Non-Public A champion Don Bosco Prep, with whom DePaul split a regular-season series.

To further illustrate how unusual the three-game losing streak was, Brick Memorial averaged more runs per game in that three-game skid (9.7) than the Mustangs did during the four-game OCT (9.0).

“We knew it was little details we knew we were missing,” Moore said. “Once we started getting everything done — pitching, hitting, defense — we have been in a groove.”

“We started off the year slow, but I still knew we were going to come back hot,” Golembiewski said. “Everyone has bad weeks, everyone has bad games. We just got really unlucky in some of those games, but we played good baseball for most of those games up until the end. We’re going to be one of those teams again this year.”

Brick Memorial celebrates winning the 2026 Ocean County Tournament. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com) - Brick Memorial OCT Champs

Brick Memorial celebrates winning the 2026 Ocean County Tournament. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)

Box Score

Brick Memorial 15, Toms River South 1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Brick Mem (12-6) 0 0 0 0 3 7 5 15 13 0
TR South (13-5) 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 4 1

Pitching

Brick Memorial IP H R ER BB SO PC
Brody Moore (W, 4-0) 7 4 1 1 1 11 86
Toms River South IP H R ER BB SO PC
Aiden Moylan (L, 4-2) 5.1 7 7 6 4 6 95
Christian Mascaro 0.2 3 3 0 1 0 21
Karsin Migliori 1 3 5 5 2 2 33

Top Hitters

Brick Memorial Game Stats
Dan Golembiewski 3-4, 2B, HR, BB, 2 R, 7 RBI, SB
Brody Moore 3-4, 2B, RBI
Michael Figner 1-3, 2B, BB, 2 R, 2 RBI
Joe McGlynn 3-5, RBI
Matt McGlynn 1-4, HBP, 3 R, 2 RBI, SB
Tyler Garbooshian 1-3, 2 BB, 2 R, 2 RBI
Braden Kabus 1-4, 2B, R
Toms River South Game Stats
Jaden Geremia 2-4, 2B
Evan Schmidt 1-2, 2B, HBP, RBI
Andrew Schmidt 1-1, BB, R

 

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