Baseball Shore Conference Tournament Pitching Preview: Quarterfinals

Through two rounds of the Baseball Shore Conference Tournament, pitching availability has been a reliable indicator of which team will win each game. After a strong correlation in round one, it was almost a direct correlation in the round of 16, with Ocean the only road team winning thanks to ace Tommy Kowaliwskyj’s performance and Colts Neck needing a play at the plate for the final out to escape Central in a game between two teams that did not have their aces available.

For the first time this tournament, weather will be a factor in the quarterfinal round — if not during the game then in shifting the schedule in a way that impacts which pitchers are available for each team. At the time of this post, two of the four quarterfinals have been postponed from Wednesday to Thursday and that might not be the end of it. With the schedule anything but certain, here is how the pitching shapes up for the quarterfinals.

 

No. 9 Ocean at No. 1 Christian Brothers Academy

Both teams have all but one pitcher available to them for the SCT quarterfinals and that won’t change with the game being moved to Thursday or even Friday, should it be necessary. Kowaliwskyj pitched into the seventh inning in Ocean’s win at Manasquan and will now turn Ocean’s SCT title hopes over to the rest of the pitching staff, which has been the strength of the Spartans roster throughout the season. Jack Kelly (vs. No. 10 Rumson-Fair Haven) and Derek Vazquez (at No. 6 Colts Neck) both turned in excellent outings last week vs. Shore Sports Insider Top 10 opponents and both will be options for coach Cip Apicelli. On top of Kelly and Vazquez, the Spartans have dependable left-hander Mike Martin and senior Ben Robinson ready to close after he earned his fourth save of the season by finishing off Manasquan on Monday.

CBA has only two seven-inning complete games on its staff this season and both were thrown by Dylan Iwanyk, including Monday’s one-hit shutout against Toms River South on 96 pitches. Iwanyk has thrown seven-inning complete games in back-to-back outings, with his latest performance keeping the rest of CBA’s loaded staff fresh for the remainder of the week. Junior left-handers Sean Loggie and Danny DiTullio are both at the ready, with seniors Shane Langan and Jack Dufficy first up in relief. With so many quality options – which also including junior Dan Pardini and sophomore Declan Doogan – CBA will probably hold Iwanyk until a potential championship game, especially considering the Colts could be playing a Monmouth County Tournament final early next week as well. CBA’s offense has gone cold over the last week, but it has not had a negative impact on the Colts because of their dominant pitching, led by Iwanyk.

Advantage: CBA

No. 7 Jackson Memorial at No. 2 Toms River East

Jackson Memorial went into Monday’s round-of-16 game vs. Freehold Township with a completely rested pitching staff and rolled the dice with No. 3 starter Brandon Wilson to start the game and closed with Danny Hutchinson. That leaves left-hander Matt Colaneri available to pitch the quarterfinals against Toms River East – a team Colaneri beat in Toms River during the regular season – with Hutchinson and Wilson still available to pitch as well. Not every coach would split the game up like Pat George did on Monday, but he saw a No. 23 seed on the other side and decided to trust Wilson and Chase Kanarkowski with the first four innings in an effort to keep his options open on Wednesday. It was looking dicey with Freehold Township up 3-2 in the fourth, but the Jackson Memorial offense came to life and the strategy paid off.

Toms River East, on the other hand, did not mess around. After losing to Rumson-Fair Haven last Thursday, the Raiders turned to senior ace Dan Nafziger and he pitched his second straight complete game to deliver Toms River East a 3-1 win over the Bulldogs on Monday. It only took Nafziger 80 pitches to finish Monday’s game, which makes him ineligible for both Wednesday and Thursday, but should the weather push the showdown with Jackson Memorial all the way to Friday, he can pitch again. If the weather holds up, Toms River East has its entire staff other than Nafziger available, with Mason Pentz the likely choice for coach Keith Smicklo, with left-handed relief specialist Jonathan Pallman the back-up plan. Pentz defeated Jackson Memorial with a complete game on April 14, so the two likely starters in this one will be pitchers that have had a great deal of success this season against his quarterfinal opponent.

Advantage: Jackson Memorial

No. 6 Ranney at No. 3 Red Bank Catholic

The second of two rubber matches in the SCT is Ranney at Red Bank Catholic and those two teams played around the same time of the schedule that Jackson Memorial and Toms River East did. Ranney knocked off Red Bank Catholic, 4-2, in a game started by Virginia commit Ryan Prior and RBC paid the Panthers back with an 18-3 drubbing at Ranney in which the Caseys hit five home runs. Ranney is coming off a 10-6 win over Point Beach in which the Panthers clubbed six homers and if that is not reason enough for them to feel great about their chances in the quarterfinals, their hottest pitcher is ready to go. Nate Fuller has allowed two runs in 25 innings all season long and in his four starts this season – all in the last calendar month – he is sporting a 0.60 ERA with 42 strikeouts and nine walks in 23 1/3 innings. That includes his last outing, which was a five-inning no-hitter with 13 strikeouts. On top of Fuller, Ranney still has Justin Kauffman available for Wednesday and would add Zach Messina to the pitching options if the game is played on Thursday after both Kauffman and Messina combined for the seven innings on Monday vs. Point Beach.

Red Bank Catholic is in a similar situation with its pitching after keeping Ryan Prior to 60 pitches on Monday, giving him eligibility for Thursday if the game is bumped due to rain. Senior Luke Meyers, meanwhile, is set to be the starter and, like Fuller has been for Ranney, Meyers has been RBC’s hottest pitcher lately. Even after pitching in soggy conditions in Friday’s 11-5 win over Colts Neck in the Monmouth County Tournament semifinals, his numbers as a starter are clean: a 1.10 ERA with 26 strikeouts and three walks in 19 innings. If Prior is not available to close out the game, RBC would likely look toward freshman Sam French and junior Glen Popes after both pitched in relief on Monday.

Advantage: On Wednesday, Ranney; On Thursday, Red Bank Catholic

No. 5 Colts Neck at No. 4 Brick Memorial

Monday’s round of 16 game vs. Central was the game Colts Neck had to piece together on the mound after playing three games in three days to end last week and the Cougars held on for the win in dramatic fashion. After pushing through to the quarterfinals, Colts Neck now has more weapons at its disposal heading to Brick Memorial to face one of the Shore’s top lineups. Nick Hayden just faced another of the Shore’s top lineups in an 11-5 loss to Red Bank Catholic on Friday, when he pitched through wet conditions and came out of the game after three innings. Nick Hardy is also eligible after pitching a near complete game Thursday in a win over Ocean and with the quarterfinal postponed to Thursday, both Ryan Spencer and Jack Dugo will be eligible after each threw 60 pitches in Monday’s win.

Brick Memorial will be down one pitcher Thursday after Zach Pirnik threw over 100 pitches in a complete-game win over Monmouth, but the rest of Brick Memorial’s talented, deep pitching staff will be at the ready. Senior Brayden Nalducci is next up in the rotation, but junior left-hander Brody Moore will also be on six days of rest. Colts Neck will have a higher percentage of its options, but it’s hard to argue against a Nalducci and Moore tandem, with James Martin, Will Montanye and Jaxon Figueroa as alternatives as well.

Advantage: Brick Memorial