SCT Baseball Round 1 Rewind: Dominant Pitching Highlights Opening Round

The first two rounds of the Shore Conference Tournament is a chance for teams to unleash their pitching aces and Shore Regional made sure to do just that by turning senior left-hander Ryan Barham loose on St. Rose Wednesday in the opening round of the tournament.

As dominant as Barham was while striking out 14 in 6 2/3 innings, Shore’s 14^th win in a row was a one-sided game because the Blue Devils lineup was ready to hit its opponent’s ace.

Facing University of Pittsburgh commit and Purple Roses senior right-hander Peter Nolan, Shore put up four runs in the first inning, racked up 12 hits and rolled to a 9-0 win over St. Rose that earned the Blue Devils a Saturday date with Ranney in the SCT round of 16.

The win also improved Barham to 4-0 on the mound while extending the longest winning streak in the Shore Conference this season. Shore lost a regular-season game to Raritan Thursday to snap the streak, but will have senior Liam Hennelly on the mound Saturday at Ranney, with the Blue Devils looking to advance to the SCT quarterfinals.

“We’ve had great energy and we’ve been carrying it to each game,” Barham said. “Everyone has been doing their job. We’re pitching well and we’re putting runs on the board when we need them.”

Senior catcher Riley Smaltini opened the scoring with an RBI ground-rule double to left-center, senior shortstop Andrew Barham followed with an RBI single through the right side, and seniors Braden Calandriello and Trevor Doremus each drove in a run before the end of the first inning to stake Shore to a 4-0 lead that was more than enough run support for its left-handed ace.

“I think we’re just better overall against faster pitching,” Ryan Barham said. “We crank up the machine in the cage during batting practice, so that helps.”

Doremus, Hennelly, Andrew Barham and sophomore second baseman Luca Delonardo each contributed two hits, with Doremus also adding an RBI double in the third inning and Andrew Barham a second RBI single in the fourth with extended the lead to 9-0. Seven of the runs were charged to Nolan, who suffered his second loss of the season.

“I was expecting a pitcher’s duel,” Ryan Barham said. “To put up seven runs in the first three innings, I wasn’t expecting that. I knew we could hit him, but I was thinking it was going to be lower-scoring.”

Ryan Barham was the only hitter in the Shore starting lineup without a hit Wednesday, but he still managed to drive in a run. He also took care of the other half of the game, during which he struck out 11 through the first four innings.

“I was really working my fastball, mixing up speeds,” Barham said of his outing. “I dropped a couple curveballs in there to get some strike threes, so that combination was really working for me.”

St. Rose put at least one runner on base in each of the first six innings, with Barham working around six hits and two walks, but he ended the game by striking out the first two batters of the seventh inning on seven pitches to end his outing with exactly 110 pitches. Junior Cole Warner surrendered the 100th hit of Nolan’s high-school career – an infield single to the shortstop hole – with two out in the inning before inducing a game-ending ground out to Calandriello at third base.

Like many teams still playing in the Shore Conference Tournament, Shore is also engaged in a race to accumulate power points for the NJSIAA Tournament, for which the power-point cutoff is Saturday. The Blue Devils are trending toward the No. 4 seed in Central Jersey Group I and still have a chance to move as high as No. 2 in the seeding as they seek their first sectional championship since winning the overall Group I championship in 2014.

As he showed Wednesday, Ryan Barham gives Shore a chance in any tournament setting. For the season, the left-hander is 4-1 with a 1.20 ERA in 40 2/3 innings with 16 hits, 16 walks and 71 strikeouts. After a loss to Red Bank and a no-decision vs. Manasquan in his first two starts of the season, Barham is 4-0 in five starts with a 0.66 ERA in 31 2/3 innings, including 56 strikeouts against only nine walks.

“If I can throw, I definitely want the ball,” Ryan Barham said. “I have confidence in all our pitchers, so I think we can beat anybody. If I can pitch, I want to be the guy.”

 

Moylan, Toms River South Get Back on Track

Aiden Moylan took the ball in last year’s NJSIAA South Jersey Group III championship game vs. Toms River East and since that night, he has assumed the role as the Indians’ big-game pitcher.

With that responsibility comes some hard times, which Moylan experienced facing a loaded Brick Memorial lineup in the Ocean County Tournament final on May 5. Moylan pitched a no-hitter in his previous start and shut out Brick memorial through four innings, but the Mustangs broke through for three runs in the fifth on the way to hanging seven runs on Moylan in 5 1/3 innings of work.

Wednesday marked a chance for Moylan to wash the taste of the OCT final out of his mouth, which is exactly what he did. The junior left-hander fired a two-hit shutout with nine strikeouts and three walks in a 5-0 Toms River South win over No. 21 seed Marlboro.

The No. 12 seed Indians scored all their runs in the bottom of the third thanks, in part, to RBI knocks by junior Logan Sowa, junior Anthony Abatemarco and senior Evan Schmidt.

The win also snapped a four-game losing streak for Toms River South, which dropped a division game vs. Central that cost the Indians the outright Class B South division championship before losing to Brick Memorial in the OCT championship game. Toms River South then dropped games to Wall and Jackson before bouncing back with Wednesday’s win over Marlboro.

Next up for Toms River South is a trip to Rumson for the round of 16 against the No. 5 seed Bulldogs, who will be seeking to end their own two-game losing streak after dropping games to both Red Bank Catholic and Jackson.

 

One-Hit Wonder

Landon Hoyle sports a 1.73 earned-run average this season and leads a 13-8 Point Pleasant Boro team with 36 1/3 innings, but being the team’s workhorse has not yielded himself nor his team wins in most of his starts. The junior left-hander entered the SCT first round vs. No. 19 St. John Vianney with a 2-4 record and for most of the game, Hoyle again was minimizing his opponent’s output while his offense failed to capitalize.

St. John Vianney scored an unearned run against Hoyle in the top of the second inning and the Panthers eventually answered with the tying run in the bottom of the third inning on a two-out RBI double by junior catcher Frank Czaplinski. While that run got Hoyle off the hook, it did not give him much margin for error while navigating the remainder of the game.

Fortunately for Hoyle and his team, he did not need much support. Hoyle did not allow a hit through six innings while keeping St. John Vianney to one run, setting the stage for his team to take the lead on a bases-loaded walk drawn by senior second baseman Nick Carmino with two out in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Hoyle then took the mound in the seventh looking to complete the tournament no-hitter and started the inning by rolling up a ground out to Carmino at second base. He then got a ground ball from Tyler Shpiro to the left side, but it was deep enough in the hole at shortstop for Shpiro to leg out the Lancers’ first hit.

After losing the no-hitter, Hoyle induced a pop out and ended his one-hitter with his seventh strikeout of the day to complete the game on 97 pitches and record his third win of the season.

Even with Hoyle – arguably the team’s best pitcher – sporting a losing record, the Panthers have balanced that out with solid contributions from a deep pitching staff that also includes senior right-hander John Loizos (4-2, 1.90 ERA0, junior right-hander Aidan Dombrowsky (5-1, 2.42 ERA), junior Ryan Kowalewski (two saves, 1.17 ERA) and freshman right-hander Owen Hart. Loizos is likely to take the start Saturday, when Point Boro takes another shot at No. 3 Brick Memorial after losing to the Mustangs, 7-0, on Monday.

 

Seeing Red

Southern Regional has taking down some of Ocean County’s best teams this season, but the Rams had no answer for Freehold Township senior ace Jackson Redmond.

In Southern’s defense, no team has had an answer lately for the right-hander and Seton Hall University commit.

On Wednesday, Redmond continued his recent tear by pitching a four-hit shutout on just 73 pitches with five strikeouts and no walks, leading the 17th-seeded Patriots to a 3-0 road win over No. 16 Southern. After his latest shutout, Redmond has now pitched a seven-inning complete game to win each of his last five starts and in those 35 innings, he has struck out 51 without issuing a single walk. The three runs Redmond has allowed during the five-start stretch are all unearned.

Freehold Township scored single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings against Southern senior Anthony Woods, who allowed one earned run on seven hits with six strikeouts and no walks. Sophomore Kobe Dancel doubled and scored a pair of runs, junior Skylar Garcia delivered an RBI double to make it 2-0 in the fourth and senior catcher Nick Schicchi singled home a run in the fifth for a 3-0 lead.

Freehold Township started the season 1-5, with Redmond going 0-2 in his first two starts with a 2-0 loss to St. John Vianney and a 5-4 loss to Rumson-Fair Haven. Since then, not only has Redmond been untouchable, but the Patriots have gone 10-5 and will take their shot at top-seeded Red Bank Catholic at Count Basie Park on Saturday afternoon.

Golden Ticket

The last of the five dominant starts on the mound during the first round of the SCT came Thursday in Manalapan, where junior right-hander Jagger Golden shook off some early defensive miscues behind him and some misfires of his own to pitch 6 2/3 one-hit innings with nine strikeouts in a 4-1 win for the 10th-seeded Braves over No. 23 Red Bank.

A pair of errors on back-to-back batters led to a Red Bank run in the top of the second, which came after Golden set down the side in order in the top of the first. In the top of the third, Golden worked around his first walk and in the top of the fourth, he allowed a single by Matt Huss, then struck out two while senior catcher Robert Cruz picked him up by throwing out a would-be base-stealer at second base.

Manalapan erased the 1-0 deficit with two runs in the bottom of the fourth on back-to-back RBI hits by juniors James Vitucci and Jayden Prokopenko, with Prokopenko doubling in the go-ahead run.

Over his final 2 2/3 innings, Golden issued five walks, which was the primary cause for his pitch count reaching 110 before he could complete the game. Golden did not, however, let those walks lead to runs and with Vitucci coming on to strike out the final batter of the game, Manalapan advanced to a round-of-16 game Saturday at No. 7 Howell behind Golden’s overpowering, one-hit outing.

 

It Takes a Village

Vitucci’s relief help and 3-for-3 game at the plate for Manalapan was just one example of a team getting a lift from someone other than the starting pitcher in a winning effort.

Lacey entered Wednesday as a No. 22 seed at No. 11 Manasquan, but did not have to face Warriors senior ace Chase Kaplan, who pitched Monday’s win over Donovan Catholic to win the division.

The game went off-script for Lacey when Manasquan took a 7-3 lead and knocked out senior left-hander Zach Lodge, forcing Lions coach Adam Taha to go to senior right-hander Andrew Hollister. In five complete innings, Hollister allowed no runs on one hit and three walks while striking out three, giving his team a chance to rally.

With Hollister settling the game on the mound, Lacey rallied at the plate, starting with a two-run triple by senior Evan Greenberg to cut the deficit in half in the top of the fourth. Junior Nate Baran tied the game in the fifth with an RBI double and senior shortstop Brayden Messina delivered an RBI single through the middle to give the Lions an 8-7 lead. Senior Russell Davies then checked in with his second RBI in as many innings by lifting a sacrifice fly that capped the scoring.

Hollister pitched around baserunners in each of the final three innings to close out the game and send the Lions to the round of 16 as the only team seeded higher than No. 17 to advance. Lacey will travel to No. 6 Christian Brothers Academy on Saturday.

Colts Neck senior Jack Dugo did not need five innings of coverage to pitch his team to the next round, but he had to work around nine hits by Middletown North to get through his five innings before turning the game over to classmate Ryan Spencer to close it out. Dugo struck out seven with two walks and kept the Lions to two runs in five innings, then Spencer finished the game strong with one hit and two walks in two scoreless innings, including four strikeouts.

Colts Neck’s offense gave its pitching duo early support in the form of a two-run double by senior centerfielder R.J. Conover, plus an RBI single by Joe Pignatelli in the bottom of the first. The Cougars held on for their third win of the year over Middletown North and will take their shot at No. 2 Point Pleasant Beach on Saturday in hopes of advancing to the SCT quarterfinals.

Wall senior right-hander John Catanio did not need any assistance on the mound in his team’s 4-1 win over Barnegat, but he did lean on his defense and some big-time hitting from one of the Crimson Knights’ talented sophomores.

Catanio pitched a complete-game two-hitter with two strikeouts and just one error committed behind him, meaning Wall converted 17 of 20 balls in play into outs, including one double-play. Senior catcher Will Hague also helped out his pitcher by throwing out a would-be base-stealer at second base to end the top of the sixth inning.

Barnegat scored in the top of the first to take a 1-0 lead, but sophomore Luke Dana got the run right back with a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the third. He later led off the bottom of the fifth with a double and scored on a go-ahead two-run single by Hague, who made his presence felt at the plate, as well as behind it.

Wall’s victory over Barnegat earns the Crimson Knights a third meeting with Toms River East, with whom they split during the regular season in Class A South divisional play.

 

Hello, Goodbye

It is rare enough for a player to belt two home runs in a game, so it is even more uncommon for a player to drive in the first run of the game with a home run and the final runs of the game with another.

Toms River East senior Lucas Melton did just that on Wednesday, socking a solo home run to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead on No. 25 seed Keyport in the bottom of the first inning, then drilling a three-run shot to end the game in the bottom of the fifth, giving the No. 8 Raiders a 13-1 win via the 10-run rule.

The two homers gave Melton seven home runs on the season, tying him with Brick Memorial’s Dan Golembiewski for the Shore Conference lead.

 

Shore Conference Tournament Round-of-16 Predictions

(1) Red Bank Catholic over (17) Freehold Twp.

(8) Toms River East over (9) Wall

(5) Rumson-Fair Haven over (12) Toms River South

(4) Ranney over (13) Shore

(3) Brick Memorial over (14) Point Boro

(6) CBA over (22) Lacey

(10) Manalapan over (7) Howell

(15) Colts Neck over (2) Point Beach

 

First-Round Picks Record: 7-2