Freehold Twp. Named Week 7 Joe Leone’s Baseball Team of the Week | Shore Sports Insider
Week 7 Joe Leone’s Team of the Week:
Freehold Township 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 7 recipient of the 2026 Joe Leone’s Baseball Team of the Week is Freehold Township after the Patriots ousted the No. 1 seed in the Shore Conference Tournament, Red Bank Catholic, in extra-innings on Saturday, then unleashed their Seton-Hall-bound ace on eighth-seeded Toms River East on Monday to earn a spot in the Shore Conference Tournament semifinals for the first time in 20 years.
The Freehold Township players and even their competition knew the Patriots were hard to beat with Jackson Redmond on the mound and that has proven true in the SCT. To make a deep run in the tournament, however, the Patriots would need more and an offense that has steadily improved over the last month delivered. In the nine offensive innings between Redmond’s last pitch of the first round at Southern Regional and his first pitch of the bottom of the first inning Monday at Toms River East, Freehold Township put up 20 runs against a collection of the best pitchers that two of the Shore’s Top 10 teams — Red Bank Catholic and Toms River East — have to offer.
“The odds were against us,” Redmond said. “If there were odds on high school baseball games, they wouldn’t have been too good for us going up against RBC. I just told the guys to get after it. We have nothing to lose, nobody is expecting us to win so let’s just go out and get after it. Once that game started going and we had a chance to win, I knew I had a chance to get the ball and that’s what I live for.”
Freehold Township senior Jackson Redmond. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)
Freehold Township’s SCT run began with Redmond throwing his fifth consecutive complete game in a 3-0 win at Southern. The senior-right-hander carved through the Rams on just 73 pitches on the way to a four-hit shutout that included five strikeouts and no walks. The shutout was the second for Redmond on the season.
That first-round win was a modest offensive output for Freehold Township compared to what was to come, but it featured some timely hits by a group of hitters that have gone on to have huge tournaments at the plate. Sophomore shortstop Kobe Dancel went 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored, including the first run of the game on a dropped third strike that got away from the catcher.
In the fourth inning, Nick Stabile began his next-level offensive performance with a triple, then scored on an RBI double by Skylar Garcia. In the fifth, senior catcher Nick Schicchi singled home a run to cap the scoring.
The first-round win over Southern was an affirmation of Freehold Township’s prowess with its best pitcher on the mound, but three days later, it would have to take on the No. 1 team at the Shore with Redmond unable to contribute on the mound after he threw three pitches past the 70-pitch number that would have made him eligible to pitch on Saturday. Smith did not want to mess around vs. Southern on Wednesday — nor did was he ready to complicate Redmond’s throwing schedule — and trusted his team to compete against the top-seeded Caseys at Count Basie Park in Red Bank.
The Freehold Township offense immediately rewarded its head coach’s confidence with five runs in the top of the first inning, highlighted by a two-run homer by Stabile on the second batter of the game. The first-inning outburst set off a wild game and a torrid scoring stretch for the Patriots, who held leads of 5-0 and 8-3 on RBC before the Caseys rallied to tie the game, 8-8, in the bottom of the fourth.
The Patriots pitching was a mixed bag at RBC, including a workmanlike 3 2/3 innings of relief by sophomore Ryan Van Kleef, followed by a sixth inning in which junior Julian Polo and sophomore Bradley Santoro combined to walk five and uncork a wild pitch that scored one of two runs the the Caseys scored to take their first lead of the game, 10-9.
Schicchi hit a two-run home run in the top of the third inning and crushed a leadoff ground rule double in the top of the seventh that set up a rally that culminated with a two-out RBI single by Garcia that extended the game. Santoro then found his groove on the mound, pitching a scoreless seventh to give his team a chance to win the game in the eighth inning, which they did. Schicchi came through with his third hit of the game, this time scoring the tie-breaking run on a bases-loaded single through the left side. Freehold Township added two more runs on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by junior George Burdge.
Santoro completed his second straight scoreless inning to close out the 13-10 win, with the sophomore right-hander earning his first career win with 2 2/3 innings in which he was not charged with a run.
The inspired performance vs. Red Bank Catholic gave Smith a chance to give the ball to Redmond with a chance to send the Patriots to the SCT semifinals for the first time since 2006. After the top of the first inning at Bill Frank Field on the campus of Toms River East High School, Smith found himself contemplating getting his ace off the mound to save him for the semifinals.
“I knew it was going to be at least three innings,” Smith said of Redmond’s outing. “Then, we didn’t do any thing (after the first inning), so (taking Redmon out early) was out the door. So I did think about it, but when it was the same score in the third inning, I was like, ‘Just go. Keep doing what you have been doing the last five starts.'”
Coming off five runs in the first inning and 13 runs total at RBC, Freehold Township exploded for seven runs in the top of the first inning against Toms River East’s No. 1 starter, James Whalen. Stabile again starred in the game’s biggest rally by ripping an RBI double to open up the scoring and Schicchi made his presence felt with an RBI single that capped the scoring in the rally.
“We came out ready to play and made the most of our opportunities,” Smith said. “The other day at RBC, we were an inch away from getting seven or eight runs in the first inning and I knew we needed every one of them. They made the pitching change today and I said to them, ‘Keep going. Don’t settle.’ Getting that sixth and seventh run was big and up and down the lineup, we just made the most of our opportunities. We came out hot.”
“I was amazed,” Redmond said. “We have been struggling with hitter all year and now we have turned it around in the Shore Conference Tournament. You can’t ask for more. It doesn’t change anything for me, because I’m always looking to attack the strike zone. That’s all I’m every thinking about: just going after hitters. The scoreboard doesn’t change that.”
With seven runs on the board, the game was as good as over with Redmond on the mound. He coasted through the first two innings, worked around a pair of base-runners in the third and hit the accelerator in the strikeout category over his final four innings. Redmond racked up eight of his 12 strikeouts over the final four innings to finish off a four-hit shutout on 96 pitches.
“He didn’t have his breaking ball early in the game and he came in around the third inning and I was like, ‘You’re going to have to find it as some point,'” Smith said of Redmond. “He did and that’s a credit to him. Even when he wasn’t great at the beginning of the game, he still got outs, then got better as the game went on. He located, he competed and he is just so experienced and poised. His composure, even when we made a couple mistakes behind him and they dropped in a couple of hits, he just figured his way out of it.”
For the sixth straight start, not only did Redmond log a seven-inning complete game but he again did so without issuing a walk. During those 42 innings-worth of complete games, Redmond has struck out 63 and walked none while allowing three runs — all unearned.
“It’s hard for me to explain, because I’m not really doing anything different from what I have been doing my whole life, which is the pound the strike zone,” Redmond said. “I trust my stuff more than ever. My fastball is probably the hardest it has ever been, so I feel like I can throw it by them.”
“It’s progressively become better competition, not to take away anything from the other teams,” Smith said. “Every game, he has stepped up to the challenge and we knew this would be another one. They (Toms River East) have a deep, talented lineup that can do a lot of different things. He answered the bell.”
During the SCT, Stabile, Schicchi and Dancel have been the hot hitters for Freehold Township. Stabile is 5-for-12 with three doubles, a triple and a home run, Schicchi is 6-for-9 with a double and five RBI, and Dancel is 5-for-10 with two doubles during the SCT.
Freehold Township’s youth has made this late-season surge all the more encouraging, with Redmond, Schicchi and senior pitcher Cameron Chiapuzio the only senior starters on the team. The Patriots began the season 1-5 and are 12-5 since, sparked by an offense that has averaged 5.2 runs per game over the last 17 games after putting up 3.2 during the 1-5 start.
Thursday’s trip to Rumson-Fair Haven for the SCT semifinals is the first since Freehold Township lost in the semifinals of all three tournaments — Monmouth County, Shore Conference and Central Jersey Group IV. The two teams played twice during the Shore Conference Class B North division regular season, with Rumson winning both games. The first of those two wins was a 5-4 win over Redmond at Freehold Township, which was the last game Redmond lost and did not complete.
“We have improved dramtically from the beginning of the season,” Smith said. “Right now, we’re playing our best. They are believing, they are confident, they are understanding the game on their own a little bit better. Their instincts and IQ has improved. More than anything, I think they are just having fun.”
On Tuesday, Shore Sports Insider visited practice to present Freehold Twp. Head Coach Todd Smith 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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