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Mannino’s No-Hitter, Northern Burlington’s Bats Stop Toms River East

Matt Manley|June 9, 2025|Last Updated June 16, 2025

COLUMBUS, N.J. — The Northern Burlington baseball team is the state’s most prolific home-run hitting team in 2025, both because of its deep, powerful lineup as well as its unusually short outfield fence all the way around its home field.

Those dimensions came into play Monday, when the Greyhounds pumped their season-total for home runs at home to 30 on the season, but the short porch was no problem for Northern Burlington senior right-hander Luca Mannino. For the final nine outs of his outing vs. Toms River East in the NJSIAA Group III semifinal, the fence could have been at the pitcher’s mound and it would not have mattered.

Mannino was a third-strike wild pitch away from a perfect game in the state semifinal, instead settling on a five-inning no-hitter with 10 strikeouts as Northern Burlington rolled to an 11-0 win over Toms River East — moving on to its first Group III final in 10 years while ending the Raiders’ best season in 19 years.

“(Mannino) was very good,” Toms River East coach Keith Smicklo said. “Very mixing and matching his pitches, very good velocity. He was very tough and they hit. We fell behind in some counts, we had to challenge them with fastballs and they made us pay, especially playing at this place. I can’t do anything but tip my cap to them. They were good today.”

Mannino — a Rowan University commit — breezed through the first three innings on only 31 pitches while facing the minimum nine batters and striking out three. Toms River East senior right-hander Mason Pentz, however, matched him on the scoreboard by keeping the Greyhounds’ potent lineup from scoring thanks to a ground-ball double-play in each of the first two innings and an escape job with bases-loaded and one out in the third.

Pentz started his outing by hitting centerfielder Nick Dromboski on the first pitch, but then induced a 1-6-3 double-play back to the mound. He then fired a four-pitch strikeout for a seven-pitch first inning. The second inning was just as easy for Pentz, who got a sparkling play by sophomore third baseman Joey DiMeo on a charging stop-and-throw for the first out, followed by a single by Jimmy Musser and another 4-6-3 double-play to end the inning. In two innings, Pentz had faced the minimum on 15 pitches.

After Mannino completed his third inning of work in the top of the inning, Northern Burlington made Pentz work hard to get out of the bottom of the inning. The senior right-hander, though, was up to the task, as he loaded the bases with one out, then finished the inning with a strikeout and a fly-out to rightfielder Lucas Melton.

The bottom of the third also included a relay from freshman centerfielder Carson Frazier to senior second baseman Dan Nafziger to senior shortstop Matt Ferrara that caught Northern Burlington sophomore Logan Downey trying to stretch a single into a double leading off the inning.

“I thought Mason pitched well early,” Smicklo said. “He made some pitches, got us out of some tough jams with a couple of double-plays. We had a nice relay to throw a kid out. I think they just got to him. They were getting on his fastball a little bit. I give them all the credit. They are really good.”

In the top of the fourth, Mannino took his outing to the next level. Facing the top of the Toms River East’s order, Mannino struck out the first two batters of the inning, the got Ferrara to chase a pitch in the dirt for his third strikeout of the inning. The ball, however, got for enough away from catcher Liam Velit that Ferrara made it to first base without a throw — the only base-runner Mannino would allow in the game.

Velit’s inability to corral the wild pitch cost Mannino a chance at a perfect game, but it presented a new opportunity for a similarly-rare feat. Mannino struck out Nafziger on a borderline pitch around the knees for his fourth strikeout of the fourth inning.

“I have such a great team behind me that knows how to hit the baseball all season long,” Mannino said. “It gives me so much confidence as a pitcher on the mound to do what I do.”

Mannino said he did not feel like he was about the throw a near-perfect game while warming up prior to the first pitch, but once he got into game mode, that changed.

“My arm was okay, but it wasn’t feeling a hundred percent,” Mannino said. “Once I threw that first pitch in a real game, I felt good. Everything just went away and I felt like I was in a zone.”

While he watched his team struggle with facing Mannino, Smicklo could appreciate Mannino’s ability, particularly because Smicklo also played baseball at Rowan, where Mannino will play next season.

“I think that gets overlooked sometimes — the DI (Division I) thing,” Smicklo said. “Being a kid that played Division III Baseball myself, he knew how to pitch. He threw his breaking ball for strikes at any point. If you can throw your breaking ball at any time in high school for a strike, and then have enough velocity to gas it up, you’re going to be tough to beat.”

Northern Burlington’s bats finally broke through for the game’s first run in the bottom of the fourth inning and once the Greyhounds cracked the code, the runs flowed. Velit started the inning with a leadoff walk, followed by a hit-and-run by Jimmy Musser that set up the Greyhounds with runners on the corners and none out.

Nick Filipponi then broke the tie with an RBI double to right-centerfield to plate a run and put runners on second and third with none out.

Pentz bounced back with a strikeout for the first out and Brent Walulak followed with a fly ball into centerfield that Frazier appeared to have a beat on. Frazier, however, ran out of room and Walulak’s fly ball cleared the centerfield fence for a three-run homer and a 4-0 Greyhounds lead.

Pentz recorded one more out in the inning before junior left-hander Jonathan Pallman came on to finish the inning with a strikeout. Mannino responded to the run support by striking out the side in order again in the top of the fifth.

The top five batters in Toms River East’s order combined to go 7-for-15 with two home runs, five runs scored and four RBI in Thursday’s sectional final win over Toms River South. On Monday, Mannino held that same group to 0-for-10 with seven strikeouts.

“Once I got through that first inning, I built a lot of confidence, because I knew their one-through-three are really good hitters,” Mannino said. “Once I got through them, I knew was going to have the confidence to keep going.”

Velit further deflated Toms River East’s hopes when he roped a two-run homer two batters into the bottom of the fifth for a 6-0 Northern Burlington lead. The junior catcher could not save his pitcher’s perfect game in the fourth inning, but according to Mannino, the offense at the plate was a fair trade-off.

“He’s got to hit me a home run,” Mannino said of his catcher’s debt to him, before remembering that he already hit one in the bottom of the fifth. “That’s right, he hit one already. So we’re good. He gave me an extra strikeout, so I should give him something.”

Liam Scallon came on and recorded two outs before freshman Jaden Freeze singled home Filipponi to make it 7-0. Nick Dromboski beat out an infield single for another RBI hit and after he stole second base to put the game-ending run in scoring position, Rutgers commit Cole Marchetti made Dombroski’s trip home easy with a three-run blast to right-centerfield.

The three home runs raise Northern Burlington’s season total to 35 as a team, with 30 of them coming on the Greyhounds’ home field. During the NJSIAA Tournament, Northern Burlington has slugged 10 home runs in five games — all at home.

One of those five wins was a 9-8 win over Brick in the sectional quarterfinals in which the Greyhounds erased a 7-0 deficit to beat the Green Dragons with three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning in a walk-off victory that saved their season.

“Seven runs in an inning is crazy to think about at this point of the season, but it’s not even surprising for us,” Mannino said. “It’s something we have been doing all season. It’s something that we expect at this point and something we know we can do at any point in time. We go back to the Brick Township game, when we were down, 7-0. We know this team can come back, so we are never down.”

Northern Burlington advances to play in its first NJSIAA Group III final since 2015 and will go for its first ever state championship Saturday at DeMeo Field in Hamilton. when the Greyhounds take on defending Group III champion Morris Knolls.

Toms River East, meanwhile, wraps up its best season since 2006 — the last year the Raiders win a sectional championship. In 2025, the Raiders won their second straight Ocean County Tournament championship, reached the 20-win mark and ended a 19-year sectional championship drought by beating rival Toms River South in a South Jersey Group III final that revitalized baseball in Toms River.

Five of the batters in the starting nine and two of the pitchers that appeared on the mound Monday for Toms River East are due back in 2026, but the seniors that are set to graduate made major contributions this season. The Raiders’ Nos. 2 through 5 hitters in the order — Catcher Gavin Toth, Ferrara, second baseman Dan Nafziger and outfielder-slash-second-baseman Mike Vaccarino — were all seniors and the top two pitchers (Nafziger and Pentz) were seniors as well.

“It’s been fun,” Smicklo said. “This senior class has been with me for three years. They all played young, as sophomores. They are a great group of kids, they worked their tails off, they believed in everything we taught them and we’ve seen them grow and succeed as the years have gone by. They won two Ocean County titles, a state sectional, so I’m proud of what they did. They brought East Baseball back and we do have a good group of young kids, so I think we’re going to be around for a couple years.”

 

Box Score

Northern Burlington 11, Toms River East 0 (5 Innings)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
TR East (20-7) 0 0 0 0 0 X X 0 0 0
No. Burlington (27-2) 0 0 0 4 7 X X 11 15 0

Pitching

Toms River East IP H R ER BB SO PC
Mason Pentz (L, 6-2) 3.2 8 4 4 1 4 60
Jonathan Pallman 0.1 3 3 3 0 1 20
Liam Scallon 0.2 4 4 4 0 0 18
Northern Burlington IP H R ER BB SO PC
Luca Mannino (W, 8-0) 5 0 0 0 0 10 61

Top Hitters

Northern Burlington Game Stats
Brent Walulak 2-3, 2B, HR, R, 3 RBI
Jimmy Musser 3-3, 2B, 2 R
Nick Filipponi 2-3, 2B, 2 R, RBI
Nick Drombowski 3-3, HBP, R, RBI, SB
Liam Velit 1-2, HR, BB, R, 2 RBI
Cole Marchetti 1-4, HR, R, 3 RBI
Jaden Freeze 1-2, BB, R, RBI

 

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