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Bitter Wein: St. Augustine, Gatorade Player of the Year End CBA Season

Matt Manley|June 4, 2026|Last Updated June 4, 2026

RICHLAND — The home field of the St. Augustine baseball team has been the site of several notorious losses for the two preeminent non-public programs from the Shore Conference — Christian Brothers Academy and Red Bank Catholic. The Hermits have not lost an NJSIAA Tournament game at home since 2007 for a state-playoff home winning streak of better than 30 games.

While strange and stunning things have happened to land his team on the losing end at St. Augustine in the NJSIAA Tournament, CBA coach Marty Kenney had a straightforward explanation for why his team once again could not figure out the Hermits on their home field in Thursday’s NJSIAA South Jersey Non-Public A final.

“They’ve got Alex Weingartner and we don’t,” Kenney said, referring to St. Augustine’s ace, leadoff hitter and the N.J. Gatorade Player of the Year.

Weingartner pitched his first seven-inning complete game Thursday and fired a two-hit shutout with nine strikeouts to lead St. Augustine — the No. 2 seed in the South Jersey Non-Public A bracket — to a 6-0 win over No. 5 CBA that clinches the Hermits their ninth sectional championship in the last 11 seasons. Weingartner also singled in each of his first two at-bats and scored two runs, with the first coming after he stole both second and third base.

“That kid’s a monster,” Kenney Jr. said. “On the mound, at the plate — you’re trying to figure out what to throw him and I have no idea. He has great power, great velocity. He hasn’t thrown that much, but his stuff carried today, for sure, on a hot day. He just disrupts everything at the plate and on the mound. Once he gets on, they don’t have to do too much to get him in. He is a difference-maker.”

Two days prior to pitching his first shutout, Weingartner hit a game-winning, game-ending grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat Red Bank Catholic, 7-4, in the sectional semifinal. That game avenged a 2025 season-ending loss to RBC, which scored seven runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to shock St. Augustine, 9-8, in the last year’s semifinal round.

“I’m super proud of myself,” Weingartner said. “It was a long road to get to this spot. I’m proud of myself and I’m proud of these guys. All I care about is winning the next game and finishing out my season with another championship.”

On Thursday, Weingartner worked around a one-out walk to throw a scoreless first inning, then created the first run of the game by ripping a single through the middle, stealing second base, stealing third and scoring when the throw from CBA junior catcher Griffin Kilcullen skipped into leftfield.

“We did a really good job,” Weingartner said of his team’s offensive game. “We took extra base, we got the two-strike, two-out hit, which we have been talking about all year. It just showed in a really important game like this and it’s something that means something to all of us. It was really cool to see it all come together.”

That was all the offense Weingartner needed to pitch his team to the championship game at Rutgers University Wednesday against Delbarton. CBA did not notch its first hit off the Penn State commit until the top of the fifth inning, which senior leftfielder Parker Hughes led off with a single to leftfield. Weingarter struck out the next batter and induced a 3-6 double-play to stop the threat in the minimum number of batters faced in the inning.

The Colts’ only serious threat came in the top of the sixth, with St. Augustine still leading, 4-0. Junior second baseman Dylan Reynholds worked a one-out walk and junior designated hitter Ryan Wetmore lined a single to rightfield. Both runners moved up a base on a ground out to Brady Jackson at shortstop by CBA shortstop Colin Hoverter and Jackson got his pitcher out of the inning by making a back-hand pick on a grounder by junior Michael Knox and completing the play with a throw to first base.

The 102 pitches thrown by Weingartner were 12 more than his prior season high.

“I have been delaying this for a while,” Weingartner said of pushing toward 100 pitches. “Coach (Mike) Ney has done a really good job of managing my pitch count throughout the season. Being able to open it up in a game that really means a lot to us was always the plan. We have delayed it for a reason. We’ve got one more game to go.”

“That was the hope,” Kenney Jr. said of Weingartner being on a strict pitch count. “Then, I saw him warming up (for the seventh) and everything I heard was out the window today. And good for him. The kid is a Draft pick and there are a lot of guys who have shut it down and bowed out late in the season for whatever reason, but this dude stepped up.”

Jackson and Weingartner finished with nearly identical stat lines at the plate, with both going 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two stolen bases, while Jackson added an RBI for good measure. Jackson also handled four ground balls in the final two innings alone, including a high-level, back-handed, sliding pick deep in the hole in the seventh inning, followed by a strong throw to deny Hughes a second hit. Jackson is making his presence felt during St. Augustine’s run after missing nearly a full month of this season following surgery on his hand.

Thursday marked the final game for five CBA starters, including starting pitcher Danny DiTullio. The left-hander capped a decorated CBA career by pitching within one out of a complete game, finishing with 5 2/3 innings, six runs allowed, nine hits, no walks and a pair of strikeouts.

“DiTullio and (Declan) Doogan were the guys who could kind of handle their lineup today and that’s really what it came down to,” Kenney Jr. said. “When you get to a certain level, you have to have certain stuff to be able to compete. That was the reason we stuck with Danny as long as we did. I felt he gave us the best chance and with Doogan going over 40 pitches two days ago, I didn’t want to go to him too early.”

CBA’s season-ending loss snapped an 11-game winning streak, the last of which was Tuesday’s 1-0, eight-inning win at top-seeded Immaculata. CBA was averaging just under nine runs per game during the first 10 games of the streak before managing only one over its final two games.

The 11-game winning streak turned around what was a 7-8 season through 15 games and carried the Colts to their ninth Shore Conference Tournament championship in program history, as well as a second straight trip to the South Jersey Non-Public A final.

“It’s been a heck of a run,” Kenney Jr. said of his team’s finish to the season. “Just the way they have played, in general, for the last eleven, twelve, thirteen games or whatever the stretch was, it’s one of those things where things could have gone south. All our pitchers seemed to be down at once and we just said, ‘Let’s keep our heads above water and see what happens.’ We got healthy and things just kind of clicked for us.”

 

Box Score

St. Augustine 6, CBA 0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
CBA (18-9) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3
St. Augustine (22-7) 1 0 2 1 0 2 X 6 9 0

Pitching

CBA IP H R ER BB SO PC
Danny DiTullio (L, 5-1) 5.2 9 6 6 0 2 86
Declan Doogan 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 2
St. Augustine IP H R ER BB SO PC
Alex Weingartner (W, 6-1) 7 2 0 0 2 9 102

Top Hitters

CBA Game Stats
Ryan Wetmore 1-3
Parker Hughes 1-3
St. Augustine Game Stats
Alex Weingartner 2-4, 2 R, 2 SB
Brady Jackson 2-4, 2 R, RBI, SB
D.J. Lloyd 1-3, HBP, RBI
Austin Gilson 1-2, HBP, R, SB
Adam Williams 1-3, HBP, R, SB
Hank Biglin 1-3, RBI
John Eddis 1-4, RBI, SB

 

 

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