No shortage of offense with Holbrook all-stars

BY MIKE WHITE Staff Writer

BY MIKE WHITE
Staff Writer

The Holbrook 15-16-year-old all-star team has demonstrated an ability to score through its first two games of the District 18 tournament.

Holbrook, which is 1-1 in the double-elimination tournament, has notched a total of 25 runs in two games. In the opener, Holbrook registered a decisive 10-2 victory over Berkeley. That was followed by a wild 16-15 loss to Brick American.

Holbrook is scheduled to square off against the winner of the Jackson-Lakewood game 8 p.m. Friday in Toms River.

Coach Dave Citron likes what he sees from his offense, but was quick to add that the errors and mistakes need to cease if Holbrook is to have a chance at winning the event.

“We’re hitting the ball extremely well,” Citron said. “We have strung together a bunch of hits at keys times to give ourselves comfortable leads in this tournament. However, we need to be more consistent defensively. We made a couple of mistakes in the Brick American game that hurt us.”

In the win over Berkeley, Holbrook clung to a 2-0 lead before breaking the game open in the fourth inning. Holbrook scored five times in the frame to build an insurmountable 7-0 lead.

“We had scored a pair of runs in the first inning that gave us a little breathing room,” Citron said. “But it was the fourth that sealed it for us. We put together a bunch of hits and gave ourselves a cushion to work with.”

The five-run fourth inning was highlighted by a three-run homer by Chris Castronuova, who also came on in relief of starter and winner Tanner Ogilvie to pitch a 1-2-3 sixth inning before the game was stopped due to lightning.

Not ordinarily a power hitter, Castronuova has hit two homers this season, both of them coming in clutch situations, Citron added. Castronuova smacked grand slam in the regular-season seminal playoff game to lead Holbrook to victory.

“He can do a lot of things with the bat,” Citron. “He has demonstrated the ability to hit for power and average. He has got great speed, so he has also bunted for base hits on numerous occasions.”

Ogilvie was brilliant, tossing five innings and scattering two hits and striking out five. Both runs were unearned.

“Our pitching did a fine job,” Citron said. “Both guys were sharp and threw strikes. When you have a lead like that, you want to make the other team put balls in play. We made the plays behind them.

Marx Asta, Pat Joseph and Dan Spall all chipped in with two hits. Spall drove in three runs, including a two-run single in the fourth.

Citron cited the defensive play of catcher Cory Carr.

Holbrook squandered a huge lead in the final inning to lose to Brick American.

“That was a tough loss,” Citron said.

Holbrook led big and early in the game. Holbrook scored nine runs in the first inning and appeared to be on cruise control as starter Mark Matthews tossed four innings and left with a comfortable 12-4 lead.

Dave Kalash was 2-for-3, including a two-run homer. Asta had three hits and hit a two-run shot, while Carr was 3-for-5 with a double.

“This team is scoring plenty of runs,” Citron said. “We just need to focus a bit more defensively.”