April Powers: Reloaded, Motivated Colts Neck Baseball Off To Another Hot Start

A 5-0 start to the season is nothing new for the Colts Neck baseball team, and while it is an enviable position for any team, the players on this year’s Cougars team are far more interested in how they are playing at the end of the year.

With that said, through five games, the Cougars are once again unbeaten and feeling good about their senior-loaded team — one that long-time head coach Mike Yorke thinks can live up to the standards set by some of the most accomplished teams in the 25 prior seasons of varsity baseball at Colts Neck.

After a program trip to Florida for spring break last week, Colts Neck has returned to the Garden State and opened its season with three Shore Conference Class B North division wins which, combined with the two regular-season wins in Florida, have the Cougars off to a 5-0 start for the second straight year. Like last season, the bats have been hot, regardless of whether the temperature has been warm and sunny or cold and windy.

Through five games, Colts Neck is averaging 10.2 runs per game, which is even better than the 8.8 it averaged during the 5-0 start to 2025. Eight starting position players are back from last year’s team, which went on to finish 12-10 while going 3-7 in its final 10 games, including four straight losses to close out the season. That gives this year’s group — equipped with eight seniors in the starting batting order and another leading the pitching staff — both experience with success and failure.

According to one of their seniors, that breeds both confidence and motivation.

“I definitely feel like this year is different,” senior second baseman Dan Annunziata said. “Last year was good, but the leadership wasn’t really there compared to what we have this year. It’s a game-changer and it’s showing for us so far.

“We had a good start last year and then it just tumbled. It kind of fell off for us. I don’t know why or how but the energy is definitely way different. I definitely feel like this is a big opportunity for us this year, way different than what it was last year.”

By Yorke’s account the difference between this year’s hot start to the season is more than just the extra seven runs the Cougars have scored this year. At several points already, Colts Neck has displayed its growth as a team, most recently with its 11-3 win over Raritan and Boston-College-bound left-hander Will Meehan on Wednesday.

“It’s the leadership,” Yorke said, citing the defining characteristic of this year’s team. “We say something once and they take control. The seniors are a secondary voice for us. There have been other seasons where we would have to keep saying the same things, so it just makes life a lot easier when you have seniors who buy in and are good friends. It makes all the difference in the world.”

Meehan was an All-Shore selection by Shore Sports Insider as a junior and ended his 2025 season by shutting down an unbeaten Governor Livingston over the first six innings of the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group II semifinals. Governor Livingston eventually rallied vs. Meehan and the Rockets bullpen for a 3-2 win, but it was one last notice that Meehan would be primed for a big senior season in 2026.

After four no-hit innings and nine strikeouts in an opening-day win over Middletown North, Meehan took the ball Wednesday vs. Colts Neck’s red-hot lineup and was again difficult to barrel. The Cougars, however, waited him out by drawing five walks and managed to scratch across a pair of runs before Meehan was lifted with 92 pitches after four innings and Colts Neck leading, 2-0.

“Facing competition like that is exciting, especially him,” Annunziata said of Meehan. “It gets everyone going and we play better against good competition. We want to be playing for championships at the end of the year and that’s the kind of pitching we’re going to see.”

From there, Colts Neck dropped the hammer against a young, inexperienced Raritan bullpen with five runs in the fifth and four more in the seventh to turn a tense pitcher’s duel between Meehan and senior Jack Dugo into an 11-3 runaway.

Before beating Meehan, Colts Neck showed its ability to deal with pressure during its final game in Florida. Protecting a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning against Churchville-Chili from Ohio, Colts Neck committed an error to start the inning, followed by three straight walks by senior Aiden Bain to tie the game and set Churchville-Chili up with the bases loaded and none out with three chances to win the game.

Yorke turned to junior Ryan Rude to move from first base to the pitcher’s mound in hopes of escaping the jam and extending the game, but first, mother nature intervened. Visible lightning delayed the game by 45 minutes and when it resumed, Rude and Colts Neck stole the momentum. Rude induced a pop-out and the runner on second was ruled out for offensive interference. Rude then coaxed a fly out to end the inning, Colts Neck scored twice on sacrifice flies in the top of the eighth and Rude shut down the bottom of the eighth to clinch a 7-5 win.

“It makes all the difference in the world in terms of team bonding and just giving the kids an experience that they’ll remember,” Yorke said of his program’s near-annual trip to Florida. “It’s even better when you can play well and win, especially being put in a situation like that early in the season and to be able to fight your way through it. It was a good experience.”

Back in New Jersey, Colts Neck returned close to midnight on Friday and still took care of its business against Monmouth Regional in an 11-5 win, setting the stage for a key early-season series vs. Raritan in which the Cougars would be facing both pitchers that combined to throw that opening-day no-hitter.

At home on Monday, Annunziata broke the game open for Colts Neck against Raritan sophomore Brendan Evernham with a three-run triple that gave the Cougars a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth. Colts Neck went on to score seven runs in the inning, with senior centerfielder R.J. Conover also driving in two with a triple. Rude went on to slug a solo home run and Conover added an RBI double in a five-run sixth that put the game out of reach, with Colts Neck winning, 13-4.

“We’ve just been able to get some guys on, put the pressure on, get the big hit and then keep the momentum going,” Annunziata said.

While the final score once again showcased Colts Neck’s hitting prowess, the first four innings belonged to Cougars senior ace Ryan Spencer. The right-hander retired the first 12 Raritan batters in order and only after the long bottom of the fourth inning did Spencer lose his perfect-game bid, which ended with a leadoff walk in the top of the fifth. Spencer lasted 5 2/3 innings and allowed four earned runs on two hits and five walks with a career-high 11 strikeouts.

“He was lights-out,” Annunziata said. “Credit to him. He controlled his entire game and he really gave us that lift that we really needed, even when we were struggling at the plate early in the game.”

Spencer entered his junior year hoping to establish himself as one of Colts Neck’s top three pitchers along with 2025 graduates Nick Hayden and Nick Hardy. He wound up finishing second on the team with 32 1/3 innings and his 3.25 ERA was better than that of his two senior teammates. With Dugo, Rude and senior Ronan Kiely backing Spencer up, Colts Neck has a pitching staff to complement its deep lineup and because Spencer is not a starter at another position, the Cougars can play their best lineup when Spencer is on the mound.

“First of all, he’s mature,” Yorke said of Spencer, who was also an All-Shore defender for Colts Neck’s boys soccer team. “We love multi-sport athletes and he has played really important minutes in some big soccer games. You can see the maturity from one year to the next and playing another sport at that level really accelerates that growth. He gets up there and he is throwing strike one on the first pitch a lot more and that makes a big difference. He is throwing three pitches for strikes, his fastball is a weapon and he has looked great.”

Colts Neck’s top five hitters so far consist of four seniors who are third-year starters at the varsity level, plus a returning junior starter in Rude, who is hitting .438 (7-for-16) with Colts Neck’s lone home run so far. Rightfielder Ronan Kiely leads the team with a .600 batting average (9-for-15), which includes a double and a triple. Third baseman Joe Pignatelli is hitting .462 (6-for-13) with a team-high eight RBI and Conover leads the team with four extra-base hits, including two triples, and is the fourth Colts Neck hitter batting better than .400 through five games.

Annunziata has also been locked in at the top of the lineup, going 5-for-16 (.321) with a double and two triples to start the season. Outfielder John Glusko and catcher Matt Clark are two more returning senior starters and Bain has stepped in and performed as a designated hitter.

“We’ve got killers on this team,” Annunziata said. “We’re coming back with a lot of the same kids and a lot of us had good years last year, even two years ago as sophomores. We had a really good offense last year, it just didn’t really click for us at the end. This year, we’re going to show everyone where we’re at and who we are. It’s a much more complete lineup.”

Sustaining its current level of play is just one piece to Colts Neck making a run at a second straight Class B North division title and a second NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III championship in six seasons. The road to the division title will require beating a Rumson-Fair Haven that is off to a 4-0 start and has also exhibited a deep, experienced lineup and a pitching staff that is among the most impressive in the Shore Conference. Colts Neck throttled Rumson by a combined scored of 23-3 in the opening series of 2025, but Rumson has since gained game experience for its current group of sophomores and juniors. The two teams are slated to play on April 16 in Colts Neck, followed by game two at Rumson-Fair Haven on the morning of Saturday, April 18.

A second straight division title would be a noteworthy accomplishment for this senior group at Colts Neck, but the Cougars would like to end their season with the program’s second ever sectional title and first since 2021. Yorke also guided Colts Neck to a Shore Conference Tournament title in 2007, and while that tournament has belonged to non-public powers Christian Brothers Academy and Red Bank Catholic in recent years, Brick Memorial proved to its public-school brethren last year that it can be done.

Winning a tournament championship will require outlasting the likes of CBA, Brick Memorial, Red Bank Catholic and a number of other strong teams from around the Shore Conference and Central Jersey. The Central Jersey Group III section has become loaded in recent years with the emergence of Northern Burlington as a state power, Lawrence as one of Mercer County’s top teams, plus Brick Memorial and Middletown South from the Shore Conference.

Last year, Colts Neck was eliminated by Brick Memorial in the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals, then by Steinert — another blue-blood program in Central Jersey Group III — in the opening round of the state playoffs. That bitter finish to the season set the tone for a busy offseason for Colts Neck’s seniors and when tournament time rolls around, they expect to be included among the championship hopefuls in the loaded section.

“We know Central Jersey Group III is going to be loaded,” Yorke said. “But if Spencer throws like he’s been throwing, Dugo is a tough arm, I feel we can make a run. We’re not going to be the favorite and I kind of like that. I believe in our guys.”