Baseball: Denton, Monmouth Take Down Wall in SCT Pitcher’s Duel

WALL TWP. — After pitching with his team’s postseason life on the line Saturday at Wall High School’s 18th Ave. athletic complex, Monmouth Regional senior Collin Denton said he wanted to finish his high-school career pitching “under the bright lights” in the biggest possible games — both figuratively and literally.

Denton could have done that at one of the local powerhouse teams of Monmouth County, but Denton didn’t simply want to pitch in big games. He wants to pitch in big games playing with his friends at his hometown school. Saturday at Wall, Denton not only delivered Monmouth its first Shore Conference Tournament win in seven years; he also boosted the Falcons’ chances to play in the NJSIAA Tournament.

Denton and counterpart John Catanio battled through seven scoreless innings before Monmouth finally broke through in the top of the eighth, giving its ace the runs he needed to win a 3-1 pitchers’ duel over the Crimson Knights and reach the SCT round of 16 for the first time since the 2018 season.

“In my four years at Monmouth Regional, I have never really gotten to play under the big lights in front of the big crowd,” Denton said. “I think we’re just taking every game one at a time and today was one of those days where I’m going to go all out and give it everything I’ve got. I want to win so bad. I want to win for Monmouth and all my friends.”

In his 7 2/3 innings of work on Saturday, Denton allowed one unearned run on six hits without walking a batter and struck out 10, improving his record to 5-1 and giving him wins in five straight decisions.

“We’re so confident with him (Denton) on the mound,” said sophomore Eddie Segarra, whose two-run single in the bottom of the eighth proved to be the game’s biggest hit. “He is such a good senior leader and a great teammate and he brings the energy every day, especially when he is on the mound. We always want to play hard and do everything we can out there when he is pitching. It doesn’t matter who we are playing, we know we are going to win when Collin pitches.”

Each team threatened in the first inning, then went cold at the plate thanks to the two starters on the mound. Catanio — who went toe-to-toe with Denton as a sophomore last year in a 2-1 Monmouth win during the regular season — pitched his best game of the 2025 season Saturday, recording the first two outs of the seventh and striking out 11 before handing the ball over to coach John Rochford with 113 pitches. Catanio allowed just three hits, one walk and a hit batter in his 6 2/3 scoreless frames.

Will Theobald slams a 2-out double to the gap and steals 3rd, but John Catanio ends the top of the 5th with a swinging K. Still 0-0. pic.twitter.com/GLATRLh7kC

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) May 10, 2025

“We faced him last year in an opening-day scenario and he just shoved,” Denton said. “He comes out, throws strikes, attacks the zone and makes us work. Through the first couple innings, I didn’t know what we were going to do. I struck out a couple of times and we struck out a lot as a team, which is not like us. But I feel like Coach (Paul) Crivello prepared us for today, (assistant) Coach Scott (Simpson) prepared us for today and we just knew we were going to come out and play today.”

As he has been all year, however, Denton was up to the task. The St. Peter’s University commit surrendered back-to-back singles by freshman Jackson Soos and junior Austin Harr to start the game before working his way out of first-and-third, no-out jam with a pop-out, strikeout and ground out back to the mound. From there, Denton struck out the side in order in the second inning before navigating his way around base-runners throughout the game. The second and seventh innings were the only innings in which Denton retired the side without Wall reaching base.

“The first inning has usually been the rough one for me,” Denton said. “A lot of infield hits, a little bit of errors, so when I came out today and gave up no runs in the first, I knew after that it was going to be smooth sailing.”

Wall’s best scoring opportunities after the first inning and prior to extra innings came in the fourth and sixth innings. In the fourth, Catanio lined a ball off Denton right arm and reached on an errant throw to first after shortstop Beckett Langdon fielded it off the ricochet. After a Denton strikeout, freshman Chris Knight lined a single into left-centerfield to put runners on the corners with one out. Denton dug in for another strikeout, then allowed Knight to steal second while he was still holding the ball.

With runners on second and third and two out, Denton struck out his third batter of the inning to keep the game scoreless heading to the fifth.

“Pitching with guys in scoring position is pretty fun for me,” Denton said. “Hitters are going to try to do too much or try to slap hit, and with me, you can’t slap hit because I have a good slider. I’m just confident. People don’t score on me. That’s not me being cocky, but people don’t score on me so I knew they weren’t going to score in those situations.”

Wall gets runners to 1st and 3rd with 1 out in the 4th but Collin Denton strikes out 2 in a row to get out of it. Going to the 5th, Monmouth and Wall still 0-0. pic.twitter.com/qBEpNTOu9x

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) May 10, 2025

In the bottom of the sixth, Catanio again led off by reaching on an error, which allowed him to get to second base. Denton then induced a ground out to third baseman Connor Keefer that forced Catanio to stay at second. Catanio then tried to steal third base with one out, but Denton and the Monmouth dugout foiled the plan with an inside move toward second base, which caught Catanio in between second and third. Catanio made his break for third, Denton flipped the ball to Keefer who tagged out Catanio, according to the field umpire. Both Catanio and Rochford — who was coaching third base — were adamant that Keefer missed the tag on Catanio, who halted his slide just before the base, popped up, and touched the base with his other leg in an attempt to avoid the tag.

With Catanio erased, Denton rolled up one more ground ball, which Langdon gobbled up at shortstop and fired to first for the final out of the inning.

Through six innings, Denton held the pitch-count edge on Catanio, despite Catanio allowing only one baserunner to reach second base after his 26-pitch first inning. Catanio entered the seventh with 102 pitches, while Denton sat at only 84, which meant Monmouth would be the first team to get a shot at the opponents’ bullpen.

Catanio struck out the first two batters of the seventh before passing the ball off to Knight, who needed just two pitches to record the third out on a groundout to Harr at second base. In the bottom of the seventh, Denton was equally efficient, setting down the side in order on 12 pitches and giving him a reasonable chance to pitch the entire eighth inning.

“I knew we were going to get to the bullpen and we were going to light them up,” Denton said. “Once they brought in the bullpen, you see the energy die down.”

First, however, Monmouth had to get its starter a lead. Senior centerfielder Will Theobald led off the top of the eighth with a first-pitch groundout to Harr at second base, but Knight then walked the next three Monmouth batters to load the bases with one out.

Falcons leftfielder Hunter Oksen hit a ground ball back to the mound that Knight fielded cleanly, but his throw to the plate was high and popped out of the glove of catcher Frank Soos, allowing courtesy runner Liam foster to score the game’s first run. Jackson Soos then made a charging play on a ground ball hit by designated hitter Malik Young-Akbar and fired to his brother at home plate for the force out that kept the score, 1-0, for the time being.

The 1-0 deficit, however, would grow thanks to a line-drive single to centerfield by Segarra that chased home two more runs and gave Monmouth a 3-0 lead. Wall junior centerfielder Jack Murphey nearly made a diving catch on Segarra’s single, but the ball bounced just before it hit the glove of the diving Murphey.

Monmouth scores the game’s 1st run on a bases loaded error and Eddie Segarra gives them some huge insurance with a 2-run single. 3-0 Falcons, Denton will try to close it out in the bottom of the 8th. pic.twitter.com/021Qy5To5j

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) May 10, 2025

“Our mentality as a lineup is everyone has to be ready to come up in a big moment,” said Segarra, who was warming up to potentially replace Denton on the mound before his No. 7 spot in the order came up in the top of the eighth. “My first few at-bats didn’t go how I wanted them to, but I was still confident that if I saw a pitch to hit, I was going to come through.”

Despite the tall task of scoring three runs against Denton, Wall did not go quietly in the bottom of the eighth. Junior Davis Harr reached on an error and Jackson Soos lined a 2-2 slider from Denton down the rightfield line for a double — his third hit of the game. That gave Wall runners on second and third with none out and Denton’s pitch count a 105.

“He doesn’t make outs against me,” Denton said. “I knew I had to attack him and he hit one down the line. They were chasing three runs, so I was just trying to make it a situation where they had to earn their way on and Will got to face some hitters who weren’t having as good of a day.”

Wall is in business in the bottom of the 8th. Error to leadoff, followed by a double by Jackson Soos. pic.twitter.com/DPkytNt5rZ

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) May 10, 2025

Austin Harr struck a fly ball to leftfield that Oksen caught on a dive, allowing Davis Harr to tag up and score from third base to break up Denton’s shutout bid. Denton still had two pitches remaining before reaching the single-game limit of 110 and he used what eligibility he had left to coax Catanio into a pop-up on the infield for the second out.

Theobald came in and Monmouth opted to intentionally walk Wall home-run leader Frank Soos (two home runs) to put the tying run on base. Theobald validated the decision with a four-pitch strikeout to end the game and send Monmouth to Monday’s round of 16 against fourth-seeded Brick Memorial.

Saturday’s SCT round-one game in Wall was also a crucial game for both teams in the chase for one of the final spots in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group II playoffs. The Central Group II field is currently topped by Governor Livingston — the top-ranked public school in New Jersey — and has four Shore Conference teams, along with East Brunswick Magnet, battling for the last three spots in the 16-team field. Monmouth’s win Saturday helped the Falcons pass Wall for the No. 16 spot in the section, which would leave Wall out of the state tournament if the tournament were seeded through Saturday’s games.

Holmdel and Point Pleasant Boro are also in that race as well, with Holmdel currently in the No. 15 spot and Point Boro at No. 18 as of Saturday’s games. Point Boro’s updated 16.3 power points per game — the metric used to rank the teams in each section — would rank no worse than 15th in any of the other 19 sections in the state, but it is currently leaving the Panthers well short of qualifying in Central Jersey Group II.

Both Monmouth and Wall still have work to do to claim a spot in the state tournament and both could make the field at the expense of either Holmdel — the Class C North division c0-champion — or 16-4 East Brunswick Magnet. Monmouth has games scheduled vs. Brick Memorial, Toms River East and Long Branch next week, which will give the Falcons a chance to score major power-point hauls if they can beat either Brick Memorial or Toms River East. As for Wall, the Crimson Knights are scheduled to face Point Pleasant Beach, Middletown South and West Windsor-Plainsboro South next week. The NJSIAA Tournament cutoff date is Saturday, May 17.

While Monmouth has not clinched anything yet, the Falcons increased their chances of playing in the state tournament, which might be unsettling news to any team that has to face Denton in the first round. After Saturday’s performance, Denton is 5-1 with a 0.45 ERA with 64 strikeouts to just seven walks while pitching a Shore-Conference-leading 46 2/3 innings.

“We’re at the point of the season where we are playing every day like it’s our last,” Denton said. “It’s baseball. Anybody can come out and win on any given day and I think we’re in the mindset where we are playing every game like it could be the last one. Nothing is guaranteed so we are just bringing our best every day.”