By Wayne Witkowski
Matawan Regional High School baseball, which is in hot contention for its first division championship since 2011 when it won a share of a division championship for the first time since the 1970s, refocuses its bid this week.
The Huskies lost, 4-2, to Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) April 29 in the opening round of the Monmouth County Tournament. Andrea Dalatri and Joe Sparber each lined a two-run double when CBA erased a 2-0 deficit to score six runs in the sixth inning.
“There are no moral victories, but they’re a perennial Shore powerhouse,” coach Bob Carnovsky said. “We lost with one bad inning and still fought back with the tying runs on base in the seventh inning.”
The Huskies face a daunting challenge playing three Shore Conference A Central Division games in four days this week. They met Saint John Vianney High School May 1 and Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School May 3 before hosting Shore Regional High School May 4. After that is a game May 9 at Raritan High School, which is tied with Matawan for first place in the division at 7-1. Matawan won an earlier meeting against Raritan, 1-0, and suffered its lone league loss to Holmdel High School, 6-1.
Matawan is off to its best start since the 2013 team opened the season 14-4.
However, the fast start was unexpected with a whopping 16 players graduated off last year’s team and another 10 graduated the previous season.
“We’ve lost 26 players out of the program the last two years, and we had only three position players coming back as starters, so we didn’t know what to expect this season,” Carnovsky said. “But the kids felt differently and didn’t believe we should be down in the ratings, that our possibilities will be pretty good. We’re battle-tested and have found different ways to win every game.”
That includes a walk-off, run-scoring double by catcher Mike Trapani with two outs in the 12th inning against Freehold Township High School — a much larger Group IV school that comes into this week 6-5. Matawan is a Group II school.
Two returning starters — shortstop Tom Collazo and second baseman Antonio Martinez — have turned 10 double plays. Both are seniors along with the other returning starter, first baseman Jake Burlew, who also is one of two senior left-handed pitchers. John Carelli is the other.
Kyle Gamble has gotten in a lot of work as another senior pitcher. Sophomores Jackson Hercek, Chris Gendi and Dan Hirujo also are expected to carry even more of the load once the Shore Conference and state tournaments begin.
The staff is not overpowering, but it relies on coaxing hitters into making contact to a solid defense for reliable outs. Hercek is the anchor of the outfield in center field and also has good speed batting leadoff. The other two outfield spots have had players rotating into the lineup. Stephen Salot rounds out the infield at third base.
