Shore rallies to post upset
By: Rudy Brandl
State playoff heartbreak and disappointment continued to plague the Manville High baseball team.
For the third consecutive year, the Mustangs were eliminated in the first round of the Central Jersey Group 1 playoffs. The most recent post-season setback may have been the most difficult to swallow.
Manville (13-4) played well enough during the regular season to earn the No. 2 seed, which guaranteed home field advantage all the way to the sectional finals. Despite taking a 4-1 lead in last Friday’s CJ 1 quarterfinal game against No. 10 Shore Regional, the Mustangs couldn’t take advantage and move on.
The Mustangs had everything going their way early in the game. Although they didn’t take full advantage of their scoring opportunities, the Mustangs took a 4-1 lead after four innings and had their undefeated ace pitcher on the mound.
Junior right-hander Eddie Gryzeski was rolling along, baffling the Shore hitters with a combination of a dancing curveball and sneaky fastball. Gryzeski recorded six strikeouts in the first four innings, including one to escape a mini-jam in the top of the fourth when the visitors got on the board for the first time.
Disaster struck in the next two innings, when Shore Regional took advantage of six walks and a few good bounces to score seven unanswered runs to claim an 8-4 victory. The Blue Devils advanced to the CJ 1 semifinals against No. 3 Bernards, while the Mustangs saw their fine season end with another frustrating post-season loss.
"It just got away," said MHS skipper Steve Venuto, whose team was knocked out by Keyport and Highland Park in the previous two years. "We had a couple bad innings and a couple of calls that were tough to swallow. Things happen when you get to the post-season. You can’t make mistakes. It’s the playoffs."
Gryzeski (7-1) became frustrated with the umpire’s suddenly tight strike zone in the top of the fifth. The Manville ace also experienced trouble with his footing on the muddy mound. He walked three of the first four batters, with the lone out coming on a sacrifice bunt.
"He was very inconsistent," Gryzeski said. "I threw a ball right down the middle and he didn’t call it a strike."
With the bases loaded and one out, Mike Dilone grounded one just to the third base side of the box. Gryzeski slipped to the first base side of the rubber and couldn’t come up with the ball cleanly, so he fired to first for the second out while a run scored to make it 4-2.
If Gryzeski had gloved the ball right away, he could have started a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning. Instead, Shore’s Mike Simone smacked a game-tying two-run single up the middle just out of the reach of shortstop Sean McCarthy. That was Shore’s only base hit of the inning.
One big hit, two more walks and a huge error cost the Mustangs the lead in the top of the sixth. Gryzeski retired the first batter but gave up a booming double to Anthony Dalia before walking Marc Hyndsman.
McCarthy fielded Timmy Bonnett’s sharp grounder and tried to rush his toss to second to start a double play. However, the toss was wild and rolled into right field, allowing Dalia to score the go-ahead run. Gryzeski followed by issuing his eighth walk sixth in the last two innings before Venuto came in for relief.
"I wasn’t really tired," Gryzeski said. "Things just started getting to me and I couldn’t really clear my head."
"It was a tough situation," Venuto added. "He wasn’t getting any calls and there were tough conditions out there."
McCarthy came in with the bases loaded and immediately fell behind Dilone, who nailed a 2-1 fastball to deep right-center for a bases-clearing triple. Dilone was stranded at third but did enough to produce an 8-4 lead.
Manville took advantage of Shore mistakes early in the game, scoring all four runs with some help. McCarthy reached on an error to lead off the bottom of the second. McCarthy scored all the way from first base when Shore starter Joe Gallo air-mailed a pickoff attempt into foul territory.
The Mustangs made it 2-1 but should have had much more in the third. Jon Gangwer reached on an error and moved to second when Gryzeski bounced out. Jimmy Thomaszfski drilled an RBI single to center and Robert Snyder singled to put runners at the corners. Snyder stole his way into scoring position with one out. Gallo retired McCarthy and Steve Anderson to end the threat.
"We left too many guys on base," said Snyder, who led the Mustangs with two hits. "We needed to drive the ball and score more runs. You’ve got to produce when guys are on base."
Manville scored twice in the bottom of the fourth to take a 4-1 lead. Jon Pfoutz roped the first pitch for a sharp single to left and stole his way to third base. Glen Liszczak walked and Gangwer laced an RBI double to right field. Gryzeski reached on a fielder’s choice for an RBI that scored Liszczak, but the Mustangs couldn’t add any more runs to their lead.
The Mustangs had the beginnings of a rally in the bottom of the fifth but a controversial call took them out of a potential big inning. Snyder drilled a single to left and McCarthy walked to set the table. Shore tried for a double play on an Anderson grounder but settled for a force play at second base.
However, the umpire ruled that McCarthy’s hard slide interfered with the double play and called both men out. So, instead of having runners at first and third with one out, Manville had a man on second with two away.
"They said it was a malicious slide that prevented the double play," Venuto said. "You can argue that call all you want, but we had a 4-1 lead and let it get away. They got those four runs, the momentum changed and it got away."
The Mustangs tried to rally but couldn’t recapture the emotional edge they had early in the game. MHS went down in order in the sixth inning and managed only a leadoff single by Gryzeski in the seventh before suffering elimination.
"We got too concerned with what the umpire was calling," Snyder said. "You can’t let that bother you. You have to work through it."
"It’s frustrating," Venuto added. "I really wanted a shot at Bernards."

