By Jeff Appelblatt
As much as Freehold High School baseball coach Jon Block doesn’t like to think about weather affecting his team, there are certain things he’ll continue doing in hopes that it won’t — starting with the group outings of cleaning off the field at the high school.
“Everybody’s got to rake,” the coach said after his team defeated Marlboro High School, 10-0, in Freehold April 7. “That’s one of the reasons we played today. Everyday we take care of our field. We take care of our house.
“We wanted to play bad. It took a lot of work to get this [field] ready to go.”
Just two days prior, Freehold Township High School was supposed to have hosted the Colonials. But because the field at Freehold Township was extremely wet and the one in Freehold was better managed, the game was switched to Freehold, where the Colonials pulled out a 5-1 win.
“Each team has won at their home field the last few years,” Block said after the win against Freehold Township. “We felt good when the game got switched to our field.”
The way the team has been playing was key in the wins. Even when Freehold only poked six hits against the Patriots, it still scored five runs.
“We did a lot of things on the bases that led to us scoring five runs,” Freehold’s coach said. “I don’t care how many hits we’re getting when we’re scoring five runs.”
Block is confident that his pitchers will be fine when the batters cross home plate that often. Against Freehold Township, Tom Holdorf, who struck out eight, was throwing a no-hitter into the fifth inning. He wound up surrendering a hit and a run, but it was more than a strong enough day for the senior, who handed the game over to his bullpen. Dane DellaValle and Matt Granato continued what Holdorf did. In two innings, they gave up just one hit and struck out three.
Dan Chiusano didn’t need his team to have a breakout game at the plate while he was on the mound against Marlboro, but he surely accepted it. To get to 10 runs, Freehold smacked 10 hits, highlighted by a home run from Patrick White, a triple by Phil Marcantonio and a pair of doubles from Mark Costanzo.
“I just love how this team is a lot more mentally tough than in past years,” Chiusano said after throwing a complete game shutout vs. Marlboro, striking out seven along the way. “We come out to every game, and we know that we could compete.”
Chiusano would have preferred his team to have scored some of those runs on opening day instead. He gave up only one run to Christian Brothers Academy (CBA), but the run he gave up was the only one scored that day in the 1-0 victory for CBA.
The senior will only continue thinking forward.
“We’re a lot more tough this year,” Chiusano said. “I definitely see us going deep in the tournaments and making a run.
“If our pitching and our hitting continue at this pace, then I could see us as a top contender.”
Block couldn’t disagree with his ace. He only had good things to say about the win, though he won’t rush to think about tournament time yet.
“We probably played our best game since last year — early last year,” he said after beating Marlboro. “It was a great game. We got some big hits. A lot of great things happened.”
It was quickly proven that Freehold won’t always score 10 runs, but as long as it gets a few across the board, the team could be in good shape.
The day after the win vs. Marlboro, the Colonials defeated Shore Regional High School, 2-1. DellaValle gave up only two hits in the complete-game outing, fanning six. Leadoff man Nick Aiello tried to give his pitcher some runs, going 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a stolen base. But it took until the final swing of the game for Aiello to give his pitcher and his team the victory. Aiello’s third hit knocked home Granato and made it three straight victories for the Colonials.
Freehold had a rematch with CBA April 10. Meanwhile the team will go up against Neptune High School April 12 in Neptune at 3:45 p.m.
Then it’ll be time for the team to work on the field at Freehold again. The Colonials will host Colts Neck High School at 10 a.m. April 13.
