Hurricanes’ bid for title falls one game short

Locals fall to Pt. Pleasant in series that went

the limit

By tim morris

Staff Writer

Not just yet. That was the message that the Point Pleasant Merchants delivered to the rapidly rising Monmouth Hurricanes last week in the Jersey Shore Baseball League championship series.

The Merchants, long the dominating team in the summer baseball league, were pushed to the limit by the Hurricanes, made up of primarily area players who just completed their freshman year in college.

The Hurricanes made huge strides in 2001 in just their second year in the league. After battling for a playoff spot in their debut season, the Hurricanes won the National Division title with a 24-6 record. They backed the regular season title up with a victory over the division’s defending champions, the World Net Clippers, in the playoffs, setting up a rendezvous with the Merchants for the JSBL title last week.

"Our season began with a double-header in Point Pleasant and it ended, fittingly, in Point Pleasant," Hurricane skipper Mike Maiorino said.

Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, it spelled defeat both times. They had opened the campaign dropping a double-header to the defending champions, and it would prove to be one of the few missteps all year by the eventual National Division winners. The season ended in the third and decisive game of the JSBL playoff series with the Merchants winning behind former Toms River North star Jason Arre. His three-hitter at Point Pleasant Boro High School led the Merchants to a 3-0 victory that completed a comeback from a first-game loss at home to the upstarts.

The Hurricanes had threatened to pull off a major upset when their ace, Mike Maddelena, from The College of New Jersey via Leonardo, bested one of the league’s most consistent winners over the years, Frank Gualtieri, who is the head coach at Freehold Township High School, 3-1, in 10 innings in the opening game of the best-of-three series last Thursday.

Maddelena was brilliant in holding the Merchants to a single run and six hits in the extra-inning game that improved his overall record to 11-1.

"Mike has had a great season for us," said Maiorino.

With that big road win, the Hurricanes were just a win away from the championship.

It would prove to be an elusive victory as the Merchants flexed their pitching muscles over the next two games, winning 6-1 and 3-0 to take the series.

On Friday night at Liberty Oak Park in Freehold Township with the chance to win the game at home, the Hurricanes wasted a potential big inning in the first, scoring just once. The Merchants then seized control with a four-run second and went on to the 6-1 win as Monmouth University’s Jim Carone (Point Pleasant) topped his Hawk teammate Freehold’s Andrew Palmieri, a St. John Vianney grad.

With the title on the line, the Merchants had their ace, the hard-throwing Arre, on the mound. Bryan Kelly of Mercer College pitched well enough to win, but with Arre putting up goose eggs, there was no margin for error. The big blow in the game was a third-inning, two-run home run off the bats of Toms River South all-state star Jeff Frazier.

"Our Cinderella story came to an end," noted Maiorino. "We knew we were up against it. I think that we were deeper in pitching, but their top three did the job.

"We had our chances in the last two games, but we didn’t capitalize on them," he added. "We just didn’t hit. In a way, I think that 10-inning game took a lot out of us emotionally. I think it took a toll on us."

Despite the set-back, Maiorino knows his young team took major strides this year. In league and tournament play they were 44-14. It all adds up to a bright future for the team that Maiorino plans to keep intact next year.

"The guys played better than expected," noted Maiorino. "We had a fine season. We’re only going to get better. We have a group of hard-working, dedicated players. It will be interesting to see their improvement after another year of college ball."

The Merchants could hear the Hurricanes’ footsteps this year, and they know that they are a team on the rise. Just how much longer they can hold the Hurricanes off is the question to be answered next summer.

The Hurricanes reached the championship series by defeating their Liberty Oak Park neighbor, the World Net Clippers (20-12), in the National Division series in two straight games.

Pitching was the order of the day in the 6-0 and 9-4 wins for bragging rights to LOP.

Maddelena was at his best tossing a complete game shut-out in the opener as Hofstra University’s Jason Gumnitz (via Manalapan High School) smacked a pair of doubles to pace the Hurricane attack.

In the Game Two, the Clippers, anxious to defend their title and get back to the finals, jumped out to a 2-0 lead. But starter Bryan Kelly held the fort from there on, enabling the Hurricanes to mount a late-inning rally, led by Gumnitz (whose double was the only extra base hit of the game); Anthony Buffone, the Christian Brothers Academy grad who is now playing for the University of Maryland; and Brookdale Community College’s Joe Muscillo from Long Branch, who have come up with clutch hits all year for the Hurricanes.

Lefty Chad Mayles, of Howell High School and BCC, won the game in relief.

The Clippers, who have several area players on the squad as well, defeated the Middletown A’s (15-10) in the first round of the playoffs to advance to their meeting with the Hurricanes for the National Division title.