By Wayne Witkowski
It’s a matchup for the Shore Conference Tournament (SCT) championship that many baseball fans eagerly hope materializes: the portfolio players of Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) in search of a third straight title against the offensive onslaught of Middletown High School South, whose coach boasts as the best in the Shore Conference.
Both teams had to win their games in the semifinals June 1 in a doubleheader at Count Basie Field in Red Bank for that to happen.
The championship game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. June 5 at First Energy Park in Lakewood.
Middletown South (22-5) had to beat Toms River High School South (22-7) in the first game. CBA, which is 19-8, had to prevail against Red Bank Catholic (RBC) High School (21-6), which had lost five of its last eight games after an 18-1 start in the second game.
It was the first time Middletown South played Toms River South from the Shore Conference A South Division — regarded as one of the toughest divisions in the state. CBA beat Red Bank Catholic, 4-0, May 11 for its third straight Monmouth County Tournament championship, as University of North Carolina-bound pitcher Lucas Dalatri hurled a one-hitter, smacked two hits and drove in a run. CBA put the victory away with two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.
The Colts have been in the SCT semifinals the past four years.
Three of those four teams still are alive in the state tournament except for Middletown South, which had an eight-game win streak ended in a 3-2 loss to Wall High School in the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group III quarterfinals on a misplayed ball in the last inning. Both of the Eagles’ runs came off solo homers — the second one by John Zega for his 10th this season with a solo shot in the sixth inning, which came an inning after Ben Porpora unloaded his blast.
CBA, which is defending its Non-Public A state title, had a state tournament matchup against St. Augustine Preparatory School (16-7) the day before the RBC game. St. Augustine lost its previous two games — one to Gloucester Catholic High School in the Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic quarterfinals — but has either shut out or held teams to one run in nine victories.
Over the past three years, the Colts have been 29-1 in tournament play.
CBA’s Marty Kenny said he has coached against the same team four times in the same season in his Hall of Fame career only twice before — against Middletown High School North, which it beat all four times this season, and Manalapan High School a few years ago. But he is confident his players will respond this week.
“They’re ready for this,” said Kenny, who is keeping his team focused on playing one game at a time. “In tournament play, we’ve pitched well and battled better at the plate and forced the issue on things. We’ve played pretty good defense in the tournaments.”
Kenny said he is not sure who will start against RBC. It depends on the outcome of the St. Augustine game, which Ken Campbell gets the start in. If CBA wins that game, Kenny is not certain who will start against RBC. But if CBA loses to St. Augustine, it will play solely for the SCT title, and Dalatri will start against RBC.
Middletown South, meanwhile, has to bounce back from its state tournament loss.
“That [game against Wall] was one of the more difficult losses in my career. It comes down to winning two games now. That would be a truly historic season,” Middletown South coach Ryan Spillane said.
Spillane has had his share of achievements in recent years, but his team has not won an SCT title in 20 years. The Eagles will start seven-game winner Ian Scheuer, who is headed to Manhattan College, with Jon Martin ready in relief.
“He always gives us a chance. He’s always gotten in at least five innings in every game,” Spillane said of Scheuer, who relies on a fastball, curveball and changeup. “He’s come a long way.”
The loss to Wall typifies the downside of the Eagles’ season: spotty errors on defense, which needs to be in top form because the pitching has been solid and the hitting has turned Middletown South into what Spillane calls the strongest offensive team in the Shore Conference by the numbers.
“Defense is the one thing we struggled with all year,” Spillane said. “We lost three of five games because of that. We have a lot of wins, but [defense] has been been disappointing. We’re more than capable of beating anyone as long as we’re doing what we’re capable of.”
Kenny shares that belief.
“Pitching has been pretty good — probably our most consistent thing — and we’ve been inconsistent on defense,” Kenny said. “We’ve made errors at key times and have not hit as well as I thought.”
The odds could be in Middletown South’s favor should that matchup with CBA in the SCT come about. Beating a team is tough enough three times in a season in high school baseball as CBA has done against Middletown South with 3-1 and 3-0 wins that decided the Shore Conference A North Division championship and a 6-5 victory in the Monmouth County Tournament. Middletown South’s vaunted hitting was subdued in those games, but beating the same team four times in a season is a tall order in a clash of two quality teams.
CBA is led by a pair of .500 hitters. Brandon Martorano, who is headed to North Carolina, collected four hits and two RBIs in an SCT quarterfinals victory, 4-1, over Middletown North. Dalatri, who is 5-0 on the mound, pitched five innings of three-hit relief.
Martorano leads the Colts with 21 RBIs, and Nick Hohenstein follows with 18.
As for Middletown South, Zega and Austin Markmann have been reliable hitters, and both made the all-division team along with Zach Schild, Jeremy Joyce and pitchers Scheuer and Martin.
Zega tripled and drove in two runs in an SCT quarterfinals victory, 7-5, over Colts Neck, and Ryan Ruziecki hit a go-ahead, two-run home run in the sixth inning to lead the Eagles. Schild went 2-for-2 with a double and an RBI, and Markmann added a double and an RBI. Closer Joe McLaughlin tossed 1.1 shutout innings to earn the win.
