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Brick Memorial Captures First Shore Conference Baseball Championship

Matt Manley|May 25, 2025|Last Updated June 3, 2025

LAKEWOOD — To a man, the players and coaches on the Brick Memorial baseball team acknowledge the program’s recent checkered history when it comes to winning in a tournament — whether the NJSIAA Tournament or the Shore Conference Tournament. The latter had not seen Brick Memorial in a championship game since 1990 until Sunday night, when the Mustangs took on a Red Bank Catholic squad going for its fifth title in six seasons.

When junior first baseman Dan Golembiewski belted a three-run double to give the Mustangs their first lead in the top of the third, the Brick Memorial dugout was convinced Sunday night would not be another tournament failure. With two out in the bottom of the seventh, their faith was tested.

With the tying run on third base, the winning run on second and his command of the strike zone starting to waiver, senior Brayden Nalducci had to find one more out to bury that stigma and cement his and his team’s place in Shore Conference history.

After scoring the go-ahead run on a wild pitch in the top of the seventh inning, Nalducci recorded the final three outs in the bottom of the inning to seal an 8-7 Mustangs win that clinches Brick Memorial its first ever Shore Conference Tournament championship.

“I’m so happy for them because I feel like the last several years, we have never gotten over the hump,” Brick Memorial coach Evan Rizzitello said. “We had all of the talent, all the potential and we just never got over and it all clicked this year, so far.”

“It proves that talent comes from everywhere,” Nalducci said. “Any team can beat any other team at any time. And I do believe we’re the best team in the Shore and we proved it today.”

Brick Memorial is the first public-school team since Toms River North in 2018 to win the SCT and first team outside the trio of Red Bank Catholic, Christian Brothers Academy and Toms River North to win an SCT title since Jackson Memorial in 2012.

“To go through CBA (Christian Brothers Academy), to go through RBC, to get it done with our kids, in this day and age, the way things are is really, really special,” Rizzitello said. “It hasn’t really sunk in that Brick Memorial just won the Shore Conference Tournament, but it’s really special.”

After falling behind, 1-0, in the bottom of the first inning, Brick Memorial grabbed the 3-1 lead on Golembiewski’s booming bases-clearing double to the gap in deep right-centerfield in the top of the third and did not trail the rest of the way.

“My first at-bat, (Luke Meyers) blew me away a little bit (with the fastball) and the umpire was calling pitches a little bit outside, so I adjusted,” Golembiewski said. “Second at bat, he blew the fastball by me again and I knew he was going to come back with it, so I was ready for it.”

Golembiewski’s shot to the gap likely would have cleared the fence for his seventh home run of the season at a standard high school field but the three runs on one swing was plenty to fire up the Mustangs dugout.

“I was thinking double,” Golembiewski said. “This is the biggest field we’ve played at. Anywhere else, it’s probably gone, but I’ll take a double with three RBI’s any day.”

“He has always come through for us in moments like that,” Nalducci said of Golembiewski, who hit a game-winning home run in an extra-inning win over Old Bridge on Friday. “Seeing him in a moment like that is huge. Kid deserves it. He’s the hardest worker on the team and then seeing him come up with and giving us the momentum back and the lead, it was just huge.”

RBC, however, did rally from deficits of 3-1 and 6-3 to tie the Mustangs and put the pressure on Brick Memorial’s trio of pitchers — junior left-hander Brody Moore, sophomore left-hander Zach Pirnik and Nalducci.

Junior Charlie Stumberger drove in each of the first two RBC runs with RBI ground outs in both the first and third innings and the Caseys pulled even, 3-3, on a two-out RBI double by junior Drew Cannon that scored senior A.J. Sciametta all the way from first after Sciametta drew a two-out walk.

Brick Memorial regained the lead in the top of the fifth on two-out RBI single by junior catcher Joe McGlynn that scored second baseman Dan Popovitch after the senior drew a one-out walk and reached second on a wild pitch following a strikeout. Senior Ryan Prior took over on the mound for Meyers after the McGlynn single and, after walking a batter, got out of the jam by inducing a fly out.

The Mustangs added on in the top of the sixth on a two-out two-run single by junior shortstop Tyler Garbooshian to push the lead to 6-3.

RBC mounted a rally in the bottom of the sixth — starting with back-to-back singles by sophomore Luke Lonczak and A.J. Sciametta, with Sciametta’s coming on a bunt. Cannon grounded into a fielder’s choice that erased Sciametta at second base and put runners on the corners and Garbooshian could not squeeze a pop-out by sophomore Luke Scaturro in shallow left-centerfield, allowing Lonczak to scored with RBC’s fourth run.

Rizzitello then called upon Pirnik to relieve Moore on the mound and the top of RBC’s lineup due to bat. Senior Dylan Passo reached on an infield single to load the bases and senior shortstop Max Dantoni delivered a game-tying two-run single to right, knotting the game at 6-6.

Pirnik bounced back with a key strikeout and after a walk that once again loaded the bases, Pirnik fanned his second batter of the inning to keep the game tied.

“Zach is emotionless,” Rizzitello said. “When he gets the job done, he shows a little bit of emotion, but we know he’s never going to be upset, a call is never going to take him out of a game, giving up a big hit is not going to take him out of a game. We have a lot of confidence in him and we’ve had since day one when he was a freshman.”

Rizzitello’s pitching decisions Sunday night carried extra weight because they potentially impacted which arms the Mustangs will have available in this week’s NJSIAA Tournament, which begins on Tuesday and continues with the sectional quarterfinals on Thursday. With 96 pitches on Sunday, Moore will not be eligible to pitch again until Friday, while Pirnik (18 pitches) and Nalducci (28) stayed comfortably under the 51-pitch total that would have disqualified them from pitching on Tuesday. Red Bank Catholic’s first NJSIAA Tournament game, meanwhile, is not until Tuesday.

“It played into my head, because I try to be a step ahead,” Rizzitello said of the pitching eligibility considerations. “Once I said it out loud to my coaches, my assistant coach, James Mahoney — I won’t say exactly what he said, but he basically said, ‘Screw that, let’s win this championship.’ So we sent Brody back out (for the sixth inning) and going from there.”

Golembiewski once again came through with a key hit when he led off the top of the seventh with a single through the left side of the RBC infield. The Mustangs then broke out a hit-and-run with Nalducci at the plate and his ground ball to the vacated shortstop position was enough to set up Brick Memorial with runners on first and second and none out.

Senior centerfielder Jimi Popp then bunted the ball to Prior’s right and the right-hander could not pick it up in time to flip the ball to third base, with Popp easily beating the play at first. Prior, however, induced a 3-2-4 double-play ground ball to Passo at first and catcher Aidan Funk’s return throw to first completed the double play and moved Prior within one out of escaping the bases-loaded, no-out jam.

On the second pitch of the next at-bat, however, Prior fired a pitch in the dirt that Funk blocked, but could not keep within his reach. The ball rolled back toward the mound and Nalducci sprinted to the plate, diving in with the go-ahead run. Sophomore Michael Figner then hit a towering fly ball to deep left field that was dropped, allowing Popp to score what proved to be the winning run.

“He’s got great speed, he’s a big kid, he’s strong, he’s fast,” Rizzitello said of Nalducci. “Their catcher didn’t pick up the ball right away and once I saw that he didn’t see the ball, I felt pretty good he was getting in there.”

“I tried to startle him (Prior) a little bit,” said Nalducci of his base-running approach on third base. “I tried running down the line while he was in his wind up to try to get him to see me. He ended up throwing the pitch away and I didn’t even see where the pitch went. I just saw it was out in front of (Funk) and I knew I had to go.”

Nalducci mowed down the first two batters of the bottom of the seventh on strikeouts, but lost the plate while issuing back-to-back four-pitch walks. After a visit to the mound by Rizzitello, Nalducci got back in the zone with his curveball and induced a ground ball by Passo to second base. Popovitch fielded the ball, but his toss to Garbooshian at shortstop was off the mark, loading the bases with two out. Nalducci then dropped the ball while on the mound — a balk that allowed a run to score and the winning runs to move into scoring position with two out.

“Starting the inning, I knew we still had a lead, I knew I could let up something small,” Nalducci said. “I just trusted my stuff, trusted my fielder’s behind me and it ended up working out.”

“I wasn’t even worried,” Golembiewski said. “I knew he was going to lock in and get it done. He just put on a little show before he did.”

Nalducci jumped ahead in the count against Dantoni and on a 1-2 pitch, the RBC shortstop skied a fly ball to centerfield. Popp settled under it and squeezed it for the final out of Brick Memorial’s first ever SCT title and first tournament championship of any kind since winning the Ocean County Tournament championship in 1996.

“It’s huge,” Rizzitello said. “Any time you do something that’s never been done, that’s really, really impressive, so I’m just really proud of these guys. We knew we had a really talented team coming into this year. We didn’t know how it was going to go down. Our coaches have been great. We’re just really, really excited right now.”

“In previous years, we always seemed to fall apart or managed to lose games we should have won,” Nalducci said. “We haven’t won a state game in who-knows-how-long and we’re trying to change that this year. But the first ever Shore Conference Tournament — I have so much faith in this team and so much faith in everyone on it. We really proved we’re the best team in the Shore.”

Box Score

Brick Memorial 8, Red Bank Catholic 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Brick Mem (19-6) 0 0 3 0 1 2 2 8 8 4
RBC (18-7) 1 0 1 1 0 3 1 7 7 1

Pitching

Brick Memorial IP H R ER BB SO PC
Brody Moore 5.1 5 6 5 3 4 96
Zach Pirnik (W, 7-2) 0.2 2 0 0 1 2 18
Brayden Nalducci (SV, 3) 1 0 1 0 2 2 28
Red Bank Catholic IP H R ER BB SO PC
Luke Meyers 4.2 3 4 4 3 6 75
Ryan Prior (L, 3-3) 2.1 5 4 3 3 2 46

Top Hitters

Brick Memorial Game Stats
Dan Golembiewski 2-3, 2B, BB, 3 RBI
Tyler Garbooshian 1-3, BB, R, 2 RBI
Joe McGlynn 1-2, BB, HBP, RBI
Brayden Nalducci 1-4, R
Jimi Popp 1-4, R
Michael Figner 1-4, R
Luke Douglas 1-4, R
Red Bank Catholic Game Stats
Max Dantoni 2-4, BB, 2 RBI, SB
Dylan Passo 1-3, BB, HBP, 2 R, SB
Drew Cannon 1-3, 2B, 2 R, RBI
A.J. Sciametta 1-3, BB, R

 

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