One of One: Point Beach Rolls to First Baseball State Championship
PISCATAWAY — After the top of the first inning of the NJSIAA Group I championship Sunday at Rutgers University, Point Pleasant Beach head coach Angelo Fiore admitted his post-traumatic stress disorder was kicking in, and it had nothing to do with his military background.
Pompton Lakes scored three runs before Point Beach came to bat, which triggered memories of the 2024 Group I championship game, which ended with Pompton Lakes beating the Garnet Gulls via the 10-run rule in Point Beach’s first-ever Group I final.
While Point Beach’s head coach had a brief moment of dread, his players — many of them starters on the 2024 team — had no such concern. By the end of the first inning, they proved this Garnet Gulls team is different.
Point Beach responded to a three-run first inning by Pompton Lakes with five runs in the bottom of the inning and rode that early momentum shift all the way to a 10-4 victory that secured the Garnet Gulls their first NJSIAA Group championship.
“I think this is a validation of our program,” Fiore said. “That we are not a little program that is just getting lucky every now and then. It used to be we would play in our old division (Class B Central), and we would have to pick up a game to prove a point. This was such an exceptional year, and it was cemented in a championship game that showed the players we have are about as legit as anybody else. They are some of the best players in the Shore Conference and the state.”
Two years ago, Pompton Lakes dumped cold water on Point Beach’s first visit to the Group I championship game by beating the Garnet Gulls, 14-4, in five innings. Two years later, with six starters from the 2024 game still in the starting lineup in 2026, Point Beach returned the favor and saved the cold water for Fiore and the coaching staff when it was time to celebrate.
“This was a long time coming,” senior left-handed pitcher and centerfielder Tommy Conroy said. “We have had many special teams, but I feel like this squad was unlike anything I have ever been a part of, and I’m just so happy we could finish it like this. (Two years ago) was pure heartbreak, and I didn’t want to feel that again.”
Point Beach’s Tommy Conroy (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)
Sunday’s win was Point Beach’s 20th of the season, marking the fifth straight year in which the Garnet Gulls have won 20 games. Those wins were never harder to come by than this season: for the first time in its history, Point Beach played in the Shore Conference Class A South division and finished first out of six teams in the standings. That grueling regular-season schedule prepared the Garnet Gulls for this year’s run in a way that the 2024 and 2025 schedules could not.
After finishing off Pompton Lakes on Sunday, Point Beach finished its state tournament run outscoring its six Group I opponents by a cumulative score of 69-14.
As much as this year’s schedule sharpened Point Beach’s edges, a three-run third first inning threatened to derail the Garnet Gulls on their road to a championship. Centerfielder Jonah Carbon led off with a double into the leftfield corner and scored on a single by shortstop Jon Popovich. The second run scored when a ground ball popped out of the outstretched glove of freshman second baseman Mason Sesny and another scored when Luke Porcelli deliberately got caught in a rundown between first and second while Popovich scored from third before Point Beach tagged out Porcelli.
“My PTSD was kicking in from two years ago,” Fiore said. “At the end of the day, I think the difference between this team and that team is we have been battle-tested because of what we went through all year.”
“The boys never give up until the final out,” Conroy said. “Three runs in the first inning weren’t going to stop us.”
Conroy started the bottom of the inning with a single through the middle on a 1-2 pitch.
“I’ve been doing that for four years,” Conroy said of leading off innings. “I’ve grown accustomed to getting on base, setting up my teammates.”
Junior third baseman Carson Pfeifer got Point Beach on the board with an RBI infield single and senior shortstop Antonio Acevedo tied the game with a two-run double that he dropped inside the rightfield line. On the next batter, sophomore designated hitter Thomas Slobiski lined a two-run single to centerfield to give the Garnet Gulls a 5-3 lead.
“I saw the bases loaded and I said, ‘I got this,’ Acevedo said. “I’m driving in a run no matter what. I got a pitch I liked, I sent it the other way, and it dropped. Once we got the game tied, I knew we weren’t stopping.”
Chad McConnell answered with an RBI single to cut Point Beach’s lead to 5-4 in the top of the second inning and from there, Garnet Gulls senior right-hander Bennett Moberg settled in and pitched two scoreless innings in the third and fourth before turning the game over to Conroy.
“That was a huge weight off my shoulders,” Moberg said of the five-run first. “I know that my team has my back in the field, at the plate and in everything. I got so many comments in the dugout: ‘We got this. We got you.’ It’s amazing to feel that.”
Point Beach senior Bennett Moberg. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)
“Coach (Joe) Mazza and I talk every inning about scenarios,” Conroy said. “He just told me to be ready, so I was ready whenever they needed me. Thankfully, Bennett pitched great, settled in and did his job, which is all you could ask from him.”
Before Conroy took over in the top of the fifth, Point Beach added to its lead with three runs in the bottom of the fourth. The first of the three scored when Pfeifer smacked a single into rightfield to advance junior leftfielder Brody Powers to third base. On the throw to home plate, the ball became lodged inside the chest protector of Pompton Lakes catcher Dylan Hazan, which allows each runner to advance one base.
After Powers scored to make it 6-4, Acevedo lined an RBI single to make it 7-4, and sophomore rightfielder Dylan Marquez knocked in another with an RBI single for an 8-4 Point Beach lead.
Conroy breezed through his first two innings on 12 pitches, retiring five batters on six pitches to start his relief outing.
“I was just relying on my fastball,” Conroy said. “I didn’t really throw anything else. I trusted my defense, and they made every play.”
In the bottom of the fifth, Point Beach scored on a fielder’s choice ground ball by Pfeifer that allowed Sesny to slide in safe after taking off from third. Acevedo capped the scoring by bunting for a single to plate courtesy runner Jalen Kreiger.
Acevedo led the offense by going 3-for-4 with a double, two runs scored, four RBI and two stolen bases. While senior catcher Danny Lubach (0-for-2, two walks and a hit-by-pitch on Sunday) and Conroy are four-year starters and Powers and Pfeifer each moved into the starting lineup as freshmen, Acevedo transferred to Point Beach from Brick looking for a chance to make an impact for a team that had already won Central Jersey Group I championships in 2022 and 2023.
Point Beach senior Antonio Acevedo reaches for a ground ball in the first inning of the NJSIAA Group I championship game.
“I came here and I saw how great the culture was,” Acevedo said, who is one of many players on Point Beach’s team to take advantage of the school’s status as a choice school, which enables students from outside the district to pay tuition to attend. “When I came here, I just wanted to play, and it turned out to be a great decision.”
Point Beach racked up 10 stolen bases in the game, all of which the Garnet Gulls swiped in the third inning or later.
Conroy struck out the first batter of the seventh inning, induced a ground ball to Sesny for the second out and coaxed a game-ending fly ball to leftfield that landed in the glove of senior Jayden Kolans.
Lubach, Conroy, Acevedo, Powers, Pfeifer and senior first baseman Dylan Ryan were the six starters from the 2024 team who returned to action in 2026 and helped Point Beach avenge the Group I title game loss and enhance Point Beach’s championship legacy. Pfeifer and Powers will have a chance to add to that legacy next season while Lubach, Conroy and Ryan graduate with a piece of three sectional championships and the program’s first state title.
Point Beach catcher Dan Lubach celebrates the final out team’s Group I championship. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)
“All those seniors have just built and built and built from day one,” Fiore said. “They set the foundation from day one and went on to do all these amazing things out here. As a coach, it has been a fun thing to watch.”
Box Score
Point Beach 10, Pompton Lakes 4
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
| Pompton Lakes (22-8) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| Pt Beach (20-6) | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | X | 10 | 14 | 2 |
Pitching
| Pompton Lakes | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | PC |
| Tim Riche (L, 7-3) | 3.2 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 81 |
| Jon Popovich | 2.1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 42 |
| Point Beach | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | PC |
| Bennett Moberg (W, 8-2) | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 68 |
| Tommy Conroy (SV, 1) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 25 |
Top Hitters
| Pompton Lakes | Game Stats |
| Jonah Carbon | 1-3, 2B, BB, R |
| Jon Popovich | 1-3, R, RBI |
| Cade Tuozzolo | 1-1, BB, R |
| Chad McConnell | 1-4, RBI |
| Point Beach | Game Stats |
| Antonio Acevedo | 3-4, 2B, 2 R, 4 RBI, 2 SB |
| Mason Sesney | 3-5, 2 R, 3 SB |
| Carson Pfeifer | 2-3, HBP, 2 R, 2 RBI |
| Thomas Slobiski | 1-4, 2 RBI |
| Davin Marquez | 2-4, RBI, SB |
| Dylan Ryan | 1-3, HBP, SB |
| Brody Powers | 1-3, HBP |
