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Dan in the Arena: DiTullio Bolsters Big-Game Resume in CBA Win

Matt Manley|May 23, 2026|Last Updated May 23, 2026

MIDDLETOWN — Most high school pitchers work their entire careers to earn a chance to thrive in a game with the significance of a Shore Conference Tournament semifinal. Christian Brothers Academy senior left-hander Danny DiTullio has been living in them for three years now.

DiTullio’s third straight Shore Conference Tournament semifinal start got off to a rocky start Friday, but by the time he made it back to the dugout following his first inning of work, he was in the frame of mind to do what he has been doing for the better part of three years as a key member of the Colts pitching rotation.

Fifteenth-seeded Colts Neck jumped on DiTullio for two runs in the top of the first inning but couldn’t touch him for the rest of his outing as No. 6 CBA rode its staff ace to a 5-2 win that sends the Colts to the Shore Conference Tournament championship game for the second time in three years. CBA will take on fifth-seeded Rumson-Fair Haven in the SCT final on Sunday at ShoreTown Ballpark in Lakewood.

“This is my third straight Shore Conference semifinal and I threw well in those first two,” DiTullio said. “That gives me that sense of confidence dealing with the hype around the game. That kind of fits my personality well on the mound and over time, I have pitched in state championships and big games like that so just that confidence of doing it so many times makes it very easy to deal with everything that comes with it.”

DiTullio surrendered two runs and threw 35 pitches in the top of the first inning and allowed just one base-runner the rest of the way, which his catcher, junior Griffin Kilcullen, erased by throwing out Cougars senior Ronan Kiely attempting to steal second base to end the top of the third inning. DiTullio then retired the final nine batters he faced, including striking out the side on 11 pitches in the top of the fifth. He was one strike away from an immaculate inning and nearly got it on a curveball that elicited an appeal to one of the field umpires for a check swing that was denied. Two pitches later, DiTullio finished off the strikeout, marched off the field and primed himself to wrap up his start with a one-two-three inning in the sixth on 13 more pitches.

“I definitely wasn’t at my best to start the game,” DiTullio said. “I tend to let the adrenaline run through me, which is pretty evident on the mound. I think it was just a matter of realizing the moment isn’t too big and just doing my thing: pound the zone and mix it up. I would have liked to get out of that first inning without giving up a run, so that was kind of self-inflicted. But then after that I think I got in a groove.”

“He commanded the ball really well,” CBA coach Marty Kenney Jr. said. “He kept them off-balance with his offspeed: his changeup and his slider. We went with the two-seamer late in the game to get him some ground balls. He did a really good job. He went further than I thought he would after that first inning.”

Six innings and 92 pitches marked the end of DiTullio’s game and during his outing, the CBA southpaw struck out nine, walked two and allowed only three hits — all of which came in the first inning. He ate up important innings for an injury-riddle CBA staff before senior right-hander Declan Doogan pitched a clean seventh inning on 11 pitches with one strikeout to earn his third save of the season.

“DiTullio has been the steady guy for all four years he has been here,” CBA senior shortstop Colin Hoverter said. “That first year, it was (Chris) Levonas and DiTullio. Last year, it was (Dylan) Iwanyk and DiTullio. Now, it’s (Dan) Pardini and DiTullio. Our depth is going to over-ride any concerns we have about a quote-unquote lack of pitching. I would take our fourth guy over almost anybody in the Shore.”

Colts Neck jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a two-out, two-run single by senior third baseman Joe Pignatelli that dropped just to the fair side of the rightfield line. The Cougars set up the rally with a leadoff single by senior second baseman Dan Annunziata, an infield single by senior shortstop Jack Dugo and a 10-pitch walk by senior first baseman Ronan Kiely.

“This whole year, the first inning has been our nemesis,” Kenney Jr. said. “We have kicked the ball, we walk guys, we give up some balls that drop in and it feels like we’re chasing all the time and it’s really on us. It’s not because guys are banging the ball around. So it was similar to what we have been seeing all season, but we responded in the first inning and got the lead, which takes the pressure off a little bit.”

One batter before Pignatelli’s run-scoring hit, Colts Neck suffered a significant loss to the lineup, when Annunziata had to be helped off the field after a collision on a force-out at home plate and missed the remainder of the game.

“The first at-bat was the best hit they had all day,” DiTullio said. “He is a good player. I didn’t like seeing that. Hopefully, he is okay.”

DiTullio induced a ground-ball out to end the first and faced the minimum number of batters over his next five innings of work. The lone batter to reach against him after the first inning with senior Ronan Kiely on a four-pitch walk and Kilcullen erased him by throwing Kiely out attempting to steal second base for the final out of the top of the third. After throwing 35 pitches in the first inning, DiTullio threw 33 over the next three innings and 57 over the final five.

“With the wind blowing the way it was today, I realized it was easy to pound the zone and get outs,” DiTullio said. “That approach helped me get ahead in counts early and just realizing my stuff is going to play helped. The goal is just to get outs and go win the game.”

Of course, CBA had to respond at the plate after conceding two runs in the top of the first and the Colts did so immediately, with help from Colts Neck’s defense. Jayden Matejicka continued his May hot streak with a lead-off single and stole both second and third base. The first of two two-out errors on the infield during the inning allowed Matejicka to score and Hoverter followed with a single that put two runners in scoring position after he advanced to second base on a throw to third from the outfield. CBA then added two more on a throwing error, with Pignatelli making a diving stop to his left but pulling the throw just wide of first after he popped up off the ground.

A two-out dropped pop-up in the bottom of the second spoiled a chance for Colts Neck starter Ryan Rude to pitch a one-two-three inning and CBA took advantage by following the error with a single by senior Jared Matejicka and back-to-back walks by juniors Dylan Reynholds and Ryan Wetmore, the second of which forced in a run for a 4-2 CBA lead.

The Colts added a run in the bottom of the fifth on a two-out RBI single by Kilcullen on a shallow fly ball that dropped in just out of the reach of Colts Neck leftfielder Austin Hardy.

Friday was the latest exhibit that CBA is rounding into its top form after laboring through the first 13 games of the season. The Colts have won seven in a row since a loss to Ranney in the Monmouth County Tournament semifinals dropped them to 7-8, but it was a win two games earlier that most of the Colts cite as the game that turned around their season. After getting dragged by Red Bank Catholic, 13-0, on its refurbished home field and falling behind the Caseys, 6-2, two days later, CBA rallied for a 15-10 win at Count Basie Park that set off a run of eight wins in nine games.

“The breakout game was RBC at RBC,” said Hoverter, who was 5-for-5 in that win at Count Basie Park. “We put up 15 runs against their top three arms. I take a lot of pride in jump-starting that game. I was proud of that because the team just showed a lot of heart. I beat out a big hit for us and legging that out really just changed the mood of the team from that point on. That’s how we have gone about playing since then.”

That win at RBC also marked the start of a torrid stretch at the plate for Matejicka, who entered the April 29 game vs. the Caseys hitting an even .100 on the season. Since then, the CBA centerfielder is hitting .589 (17-for-29) with four doubles, two triples, two home runs, 14 runs scored, 15 RBI and nine stolen bases. The hot hitting of the last three weeks has boosted that averaged from .100 to .388 with a .735 slugging percentage — the best of any hitter from the Shore Conference Class A North division. Matejicka went 2-for-3 with a double, pair of runs scored and three stolen bases on Friday.

“Jayden is about to catch me in hits and he didn’t start hitting until a month into the season,” Hoverter said.

“Jayden and Jared got off the slow start, Jayden especially,” Kenney Jr. said. “You’re thinking, ‘I hope this is just a slump.’ Sure enough, he broke out of it. Jared has been a little bit more consistent throughout the year based on what we have seen of him throughout the years. Jayden has just really come on and they are just super-natural athletes. We go as they go. They can hit the ball in the gap and then they can steal two bags.”

Hoverter, meanwhile, has been CBA’s steadiest hitter from start to finish, as he currently sports a .347 batting average with three doubles and three triples after picking up two more hits on Friday. A third-year starter at shortstop, Hoverter is one of three third-year full-time starters on the Colts along with the Matejicka twins. Those three, along with DiTullio are playing with a collective chip on their shoulder after losing to Brick Memorial in last year’s SCT semifinal and to Don Bosco in 11 innings in the 2025 NJSIAA Non-Public A championship game.

“I saw some of the seniors from last year here supporting us,” Hoverter said. “They set the tone for us. I reached out to them the other night and I was just telling them, ‘You’ll never know how sorry I am we couldn’t do this for you guys last year. There was a lack of urgency. (Danny Tsimbinos) tried to get us going and we just couldn’t follow behind him. To do it this year means a lot and for them to tell me this means more to them than it would have last year is really the most humbling thing I could have heard.”

CBA senior shortstop Colin Hoverter. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com) - CBA Colin Hoverter

CBA senior shortstop Colin Hoverter. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)

In the loss to Brick Memorial last season, DiTullio pitched a complete game, but was bested by the Mustangs in a 2-1 CBA loss. The year prior, DiTullio pitched CBA to a win over Red Bank Catholic in the SCT semifinals, which ended a run of four straight SCT titles for RBC. During his CBA career, DiTullio has thrown 64 innings during tournament play with a 1.53 ERA.

“He just competes,” Kenney Jr. said. “No matter who sees it, he plays with the same fire. Our new athletic director (former Hudson Catholic basketball coach Nick Marinello) said we he first saw him that he just loves the way he competes. My father (former CBA coach and 800-game winner Marty Kenney Sr.), same thing: loves the way he competes. He hasn’t taken a big jump from his sophomore and junior year when you see his stuff, but his competitive level is just far above everybody else’s and I think that’s what carries him through these games. He believes in himself, he has been in these games since his sophomore year and he just competes his butt off.”

“I always tend to be better later in the year,” DiTullio said. “I was a little hurt over the winter, really after last spring. All offseason, it was more just getting healthy, so it took me a little bit to get back in the groove. That made it hard at the beginning and I lost some touch on my pitches, but I got that back once I took some time off. It was the same thing last year. I’m just glad to be ready to go for the playoffs.”

CBA entered the first day of practice in March with championship aspirations thanks, mostly, to the return of its three Division I starters returning from 2026. Unfortunately for the Colts, all three — DiTullio, Dylan Iwanyk and Sean Loggie — have dealt with injuries this season and DiTullio is the only one currently healthy enough to pitch. Loggie has missed the entire year with an undisclosed arm injury and Iwanyk is currently recovering from a strained hamstring, an injury similar to one that prevented him from starting the 2025 season on time.

“If there is one downside to being at CBA and being so successful over the past four years, it’s that you tend to overlook things at times,” Hoverter said. “Which you can never do. You’re going to get punched in the mouth and lose a game you shouldn’t lose. This year, if we had all our guys on the mound, yeah, we would have been better. But we also wouldn’t have gone through the adversity we went through and we probably would have got punched in the mouth here. We just beat a great team and I don’t know if that would have happened earlier in the season.”

DiTullio battled elbow discomfort in the offseason and early in the spring, but has been sharp since taking two weeks off from pitching in games at the end of April. After posting an ERA of 2.80 and a WHIP (walks-plus-hits per innings pitched) of 1.53 with 18 strikeouts and five walks over 15 innings in March and April, DiTullio has an ERA of 1.87 and a WHIP of 0.93 with 19 strikeouts and four walks in 15 May innings.

With DiTullio ineligible for Saturday’s final, CBA will turn to senior left-hander Dan Pardini, who also missed part of this season due to an ankle injury but has made two effective appearances since returning — including four-plus scoreless innings vs. Point Pleasant Boro in the quarterfinals on Monday.

“Pardini is really good,” Kenney Jr. said. “The way Pardini is throwing and with Doogan backing it up, mixing in some juniors here and there, we’re just going to ride those three as far as we can. We told Danny and Danny, just keep getting the ball back to each other.”

 

Box Score

CBA 5, Colts Neck 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Colts Neck (18-8) 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 3
CBA (14-8) 3 1 0 0 1 0 X 5 7 0

Pitching

Colts Neck IP H R ER BB SO PC
Ryan Rude (L, 6-2) 3.1 4 4 0 3 0 73
Jack Dugo 1.2 2 1 1 0 0 21
Ryan Spencer 1 1 0 0 0 0 15
CBA IP H R ER BB SO PC
Danny DiTullio (W, 4-0) 6 3 2 2 2 9 92
Declan Doogan (SV, 3) 1 0 0 0 0 1 11

Top Hitters

Colts Neck Game Stats
Joe Pignatelli 1-3, 2 RBI
CBA Game Stats
Jayden Matejicka 2-3, 2B, BB, 2 R, 3 SB
Colin Hoverter 2-3, 2 R, SB
Griffin Kilcullen 1-3, RBI
Jared Matejicka 1-4, SB

 

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