Deep Cut: ‘Perfect’ Pitcher Foils Brick Memorial in Group 3 Final

PISCATAWAY — For the first two batters of the NJSIAA Group III championship game at Rutgers University, Brick Memorial senior Brody Moore looked the part of an untouchable starting pitcher.

Then, Selden Kolkebeck stepped to the plate and stole the show for Old Tappan.

The senior right-hander and Columbia University commit worked a nine-pitch walk to start a two-out, run-scoring rally, later added a two-run single, and did what he does best on the mound by pitching a four-hit shutout in a 5-0 Old Tappan win over Brick Memorial that clinches the Golden Knights’ first state title since 2008.

With his 10-strikeout outing, Kolkebeck completed a near-flawless senior season in which he went 12-0 in 12 starts with 11 complete games. During the NJSIAA Tournament, he allowed just one unearned run in 26 innings with 38 strikeouts and three walks, and his final shutout came against a Brick Memorial team that had not been shut out since April 10, 2023 — a span of 108 games.

“That’s something I take a lot of pride in,” Kolkebeck said of his 11 complete games. “I have always considered that my job when I take the ball. It’s my job to start the game, and it’s also my job to finish it. That has always been my mentality.”

Selden Kolkebeck mows down Brick Mem in the 3rd, including strikeouts of Tyler Garbooshian and Brody Moore. Fastball has been 88-89 after hitting 91 in the 1st, but it’s the big slider giving the Mustangs problems. pic.twitter.com/79M8pSUDge

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) June 14, 2026

Moore figured to be a worthy counterpart in the Group III final, and after striking out the first two batters he faced on eight pitches, the senior left-hander appeared poised to match one of the state’s best pitchers. During his at-bat with Kolkebeck, he called to the dugout for a towel to clean off a cut that opened up on the middle finger of his pitching hand.

“It didn’t affect my pitches,” Moore said. “It was kind of annoying, because I had to keep wiping the blood off my finger, and then the band-aid was kind of uncomfortable. I just had to put it out of my mind, and once I did, I felt like I was throwing the ball well. I just had a couple of pitches that didn’t go my way.”

“I don’t think it bothered him too much,” Brick Memorial coach Evan Rizzitello said. “He didn’t say anything about it once he came into the dugout after the first inning, and he put the bandage on it. If it was affecting him, he kept it to himself. He didn’t have his best stuff, so it’s possible it affected him. He was falling behind hitters, but some of that could be attributed to the strike zone, which we thought was tight.”

After the stoppage, he waged a nine-pitch battle with Kolkebeck that ended with the Golden Knights starter taking a fastball that crossed just off the outside corner for a two-out walk.

“I think if I struck out there, that would have been huge for their momentum,” Kolkebeck said. “(Moore) was throwing the ball well, so getting a run in the first inning was definitely huge. I feel like I’m the kind of pitcher who can keep his composure in any situation, but I still think I pitch better with an early lead.”

Each of the next two batters reached when Moore could not bury his slider with two strikes. Senior catcher Anthony Onnembo ripped a single to left field, and on a 1-2 pitch, Moore hit junior third baseman Isaiah Rodriguez on his back foot. With the bases loaded, Moore uncorked a wild pitch on the first pitch of the next at-bat to score Kolkebeck, then ended the inning by inducing a ground out to third baseman Matt McGlynn.

Moore beat out an infield single in the bottom of the first, but Kolkebeck made his initial statement by striking out the side to set the course for his fourth gem of the state tournament.

“He worked really quickly, which maybe caught us off-guard at first,” Moore said. “He had a pretty good fastball, and his slider was in the zone a lot, but it didn’t seem like he missed over the middle too much. I give him credit, he was good.”

Old Tappan added to its lead at the top of the fourth thanks to a pair of errors on the infield by Brick Memorial. After a lead-off walk by junior rightfielder A.J. Aiello, junior second baseman Cayden Yoon laid down a sacrifice bunt that McGlynn threw over the head of first baseman Dan Golembiewski to set up the Golden Knights with runners on second and third and none out.

On the next batter, senior first baseman Mateo Skific hit a ground ball that skipped through senior second baseman Trevor Kish, scoring both runs. Moore helped himself out of the inning by starting a 1-6-3 double-play for the first two outs and picked off center fielder Joe Crescitelli after Crescitelli hit a two-out single.

Both McGlynn and Kish bounced back from their errors to make dazzling defensive plays later in the game. Kish snared a one-hopped rocket off the bat of Onnembo on his back-hand side to start an inning-ending 4-6-3 double-play in the fifth. At the top of the sixth, with junior Zach Pirnik taking over for Moore, McGlynn made a sliding stop to his left and popped up to throw out Rodriguez for the first out.

 

Trevor Kish with some nice glove work on a scorcher by Anthony Onnembo to start the inning-ending double play. Bottom 5: Old Tappan 3, Brick Memorial 0. pic.twitter.com/q9qGYGBhGG

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) June 14, 2026

“Errors happen at every level,” Rizzitello said. “As coaches, as parents, as anything, all we can do is to tell the kids to keep playing. Matt made a great play, going to his left and throwing from the ground on one hop. Kish makes the backhanded stab on a ball that was hit very hard and gives a great feed. I’m really proud of them. I know they are going to dwell on those errors, but they also made unbelievable plays on a big stage, so they should be very proud of the way they played.”

Pirnik pitched a clean sixth inning and was one pitch from keeping the deficit at 3-0 heading to the bottom of the seventh when Kolkebeck beat him for a two-out, two-run single through the left side for a 5-0 Old Tappan lead.

Kolkebeck finished off his 11th complete game of the season with a six-pitch seventh inning, capped by an over-the-shoulder catch by Skific in shallow right field.

Moore battled through five innings on 102 pitches, issuing three walks and allowing four hits while striking out four. The four strikeouts pushed him past the 100-strikeout threshold for the season, making him the third pitcher in the Shore Conference this season to reach 100 strikeouts. Moore (101 strikeouts), Holmdel senior Jack Vallillo (101) and Lakewood sophomore Abel Martinez (110) are the first three Shore Conference pitchers to eclipse 100 strikeouts since the 2022 season.

“This was my last game pitching in high school, so obviously I wanted to go out with a win,” Moore said. “I felt like I gave it everything I had. Not every game is going to be easy. Sometimes, you have to battle, and that’s what I tried to do today.”

Brody Moore with another scoreless inning in the 3rd, including a couple Ks after a leadoff infield single. He is figuring out since he opened up the cut on his finger. Bottom 3: Old Tappan 1, Brick Mem 0. pic.twitter.com/rDeKNgZS3E

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) June 14, 2026

Brick Memorial threatened with runners in scoring position in three innings vs. Kolkebeck. In the bottom of the first, Moore stole second base after his infield single in the first, and in the bottom of the second, McGlynn led off with a walk, stole second, and went to third on a sacrifice bunt by junior rightfielder Michael Figner. Kolkebeck responded by striking out the next batter and inducing an inning-ending ground out to Yoon at second base.

Brick Memorial senior shortstop Tyler Garbooshian entered Sunday having reached base safely in eight straight plate appearances, but Kolkebeck struck him out in each of their first two match-ups in the Group III final by throwing him exclusively sliders.

“The first two times I faced Garbooshian, I didn’t throw him anything but sliders,” Kolkebeck said. “He is a really good hitter, great player, and I feel like my slider is tough to hit, especially the first couple times through the order. The third time I faced him, I knew he would probably be looking for it, so I tried to work the fastball more and when I threw him one over the plate, he hit it.”

In the third showdown, Garbooshian beat Kolkebeck back through the middle for a single to lead off the bottom of the sixth. The Old Tappan ace struck out Moore and Golembiewski for the first two outs and senior catcher Joe McGlynn enhanced the threat with a single to rightfield — his second hit of the game. Kolkebeck induced a pop-out to end the inning, then came through with his two-RBI hit in the following half-inning.

“I felt like the sixth inning was our chance,” Moore said. “We got a couple of hits off him, but we weren’t able to get anything out of it. After that, it was going to be tough.”

Kolkebeck topped out at 91 miles per hour on the Rutgers radar gun and threw his slider from a lower arm angle than his three-quarter arm-slot fastball.

“He was big, strong, and he threw in the high-eighties, low-nineties,” Rizzitello said. “He did his thing, and we didn’t execute on offense. We tried to simulate stuff during practice. We had some alumni come throw to our guys. We set our machine up to throw sliders like we thought we would see, but you can’t simulate the real deal.”

Golembiewski put a brief scare into the Golden Knights in the bottom of the fourth inning when he launched a deep fly ball down the left-field line. It had home run distance, but hooked well foul. Kolkebeck then got the Shore Conference home run leader (11) to fly out to right field for the first out.

Brick Memorial’s season ends one win shy of the program’s first ever NJSIAA Group championship, but the 2026 season included the Mustangs first ever NJSIAA sectional championship, as well as their first Ocean County Tournament championship since 1996.

“I think our loss to Northern Burlington (in the Central Group III final) last year set us up for this year,” Rizzitello said. “We were motivated going into this year. We got the OCT title, which we haven’t done in a long time. The Shore Conference Tournament was a big bump in the road, but come state tournament, we were ready. We got to Northern Burlington, and it was no big deal. Then, to beat Delsea on a walk-off in our last home game to make it to the state final, that was special.

“To get to Rutgers was awesome. Obviously, our guys are pretty upset. As coaches, we’re frustrated. Eventually, we’ll be able to celebrate the entire year as a whole.”

“It was awesome,” Moore said of his team’s run. “I grew up playing with most of these kids, so to win sections and make it here was amazing. I wish it were a better ending, but I’m really proud of this team.”

 

Box Score

Old Tappan 5, Brick Memorial 0

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Old Tappan (26-4)	1	0	0	2	0	0	2	5	6	0
Brick Mem (25-8)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	2

Pitching

Old Tappan	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	PC
Selden Kolkebeck (W, 12-0)	7	4	0	0	1	10	92

Brick Memorial	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	PC
Brody Moore (L, 8-1)	5	4	3	1	3	4	102
Zach Pirnik	2	2	2	2	1	2	31

Top Hitters

Old Tappan	Game Stats
Selden Kolkebeck	2-3, BB, R, 2 RBI
Maximo Garcia	1-3, BB, R, SB
Mateo Skific	1-2, R,

Brick Memorial	Game Stats
Joe McGlynn	2-3
Tyler Garbooshian	1-3
Brody Moore	1-3