BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer
Both Brick high school baseball teams, which had their most exciting weeks in a frustrating season, took opening-round losses in the Ocean County Tournament.
And for Brick Township, it was an odd irony that the same Toms River South team bounced Brick Township out of qualifying for two tournaments in a 40-hour span.
First, Toms River East bounced Brick Township from qualifying for the NJSIAA Tournament at its cutoff with an exciting 3-0 victory on Thursday night.
Eyeing revenge on Saturday morning on its own field in the county tournament, undermanned Brick Township fell behind, 7-1, after two innings before stumbling, 13-3, to Toms River East in a game stopped with two outs in the sixth inning by the mercy rule to slip to 8-11-1. Ray Johnson smashed a run-scoring single and Phil Corde hit a sacrifice fly in the third inning when the Green Dragons pulled to 7-3, but fell behind early with damaging walks and errors and three runs scoring on a passed ball.
Had Brick Township won that game, it would have come back later on Saturday for the quarterfinal round and a chance to even its record at the cutoff for the Shore Conference Tournament. Instead, it came up short again.
“To be in a situation of being one game from making the states and to be in a championship game atmosphere was a tribute to all the boys for what they went through with injuries to players, including our Top 2 pitchers,” said coach Jason Groschel. “A lot of guys stepped up down the stretch. A lot of guys were tired and battered and played every game and it’s a tribute for them to get where they got to. We’ve got only one game left, but I want to try to schedule more because they deserve a better way to close out this season and look back on it than like this.”
Brick Memorial, meanwhile, lost its opening round game of the Ocean County Tournament to Toms River East, 9-5, after cutting a 7-0 deficit to 7-5. It came on the heels of an impressive 10-0 victory over a Monsignor Donovan team with 11 victories, and a 3-2 loss to Toms River North, the No. 4-ranked team in the state, which scored twice in the home seventh, the final run on a sac fly.
“We’ve been playing better [lately],” said Brick Memorial coach Rich Bishop, whose 4-15 team had seven sophomores starting against Toms River North.
“I’m happy with how they’ve been playing lately. If we cut down on errors, we’d be better off because our team ERA is 3.30, but we’re more improved in that regard.”
Jason Gordon, who pitched the first five innings before Evan Mancini finished, lined a run-scoring double. Mike Spinelli drove in two runs and had a double, and R.J. Paggoili knocked in another run.
Earlier in the week, Bill Pettigrew scattered five Monsignor Donovan hits and Brian Staub went 4-for-4 to hike his batting average to .350 and drove in two runs.
Justin Short allowed five hits over six innings against Toms River North, and Ryan Patrick finished.
But it was Brick Township that made the dramatic run when it played four games in four days, winning two of the first three to set up the dramatic Thursday night showdown against Toms River South. F.J. Lucchetti pitched a four-hitter over six innings with eight strikeouts and one walk to fall to 2-4. But the Green Dragons had only two hits – one by Lucchetti and another by Corde.
“A couple of games we’ll play phenomenal defense and not hit the ball,” said Lucchetti, who is headed to Wagner College this fall. “We have some days we’ll play perfect defense and others where we’ll commit eight or nine errors.”
“F.J., like the team, has been up and down because he had a hamstring injury,” said Groschel. “When we played against Memorial [at FirstEnergy Park], he was strictly a pitcher and couldn’t hit because of his injury, and he had a tired arm.
“And we had Chris Sorice start off 3-0 and had a tired arm and couldn’t even play in the field so we had him as a DH [designated hitter]. When your two best pitchers are out, there’s not a lot to expect.”
But the Green Dragons put destiny back in their own hands last week. After squandering a 5-4 lead in a 7-5 loss to Toms River East on Monday, the Green Dragons came back with two victories over Point Pleasant Borough, 7-1, and Lakewood, 8-7, on Thursday to set up the Toms River East showdown later on Thursday night.
Chris Simon batted in two runs with three hits, and John Vitale knocked in two runs to back the pitching of Tim Reddan and reliever Sam Salsano against Point Pleasant Borough.
Then came the decisive victory over Lakewood on Thursday afternoon. Jared Page belted a solo home run that spotted Brick Township an 8-5 lead, and Bob Mattliano and Lucchetti, who relieved sophomore Dan Boyle, helped it to stand up.
Lucchetti and his mates would get on the bus after that game to head to Toms River East, where Lucchetti got back on the mound as the starter. Anthony Nardone belted a two-run homer and Jordan Roshala tagged a solo shot against Lakewood, and Johnson went 4-for-4 and batted in a run.
“We made a real nice run,” said Groschel. “We were under the gun early [on Saturday in the Ocean County Tournament] and threw everything we had because we had three games in the last two days and we didn’t play [good] defense. We gave up too many outs.”
But the team certainly gave all it had to get into that position.