American Legion baseball gives young players an opportunity to work on fundamentals and for high school coaches to look at the prospects to see where they fit in for next spring.
But Brick Memorial will have many familiar faces from its 13-14 season that ended with a 2-0 loss to Toms River South in the Ocean County Tournament and included a berth in the Shore Conference Tournament. Only two seniors in the field – catcher Tom Murray and center fielder/pitcher Evan Mancini – graduate this year. But three pitchers also graduate – John Roca, Sean Breeden and Ryan Patrick – although many others return on the deep staff.
“I have very high expectations for next season,” said junior first baseman Jose Ramos, the second leading hitter on the team with a .340 batting average to Mancini’s .370. For this group of juniors, we were state champions in [Brick American] Junior League, and we have a lot of skills. Now that we’ll be seniors, we should be a really good team.”
“Hopefully, they’ll keep improving,” said coach Rich Bishop, who will manage the American Legion team that opens its season on June 11 against Monsignor Donovan. Ironically, BrickMemorial lost to Toms River South in theAmerican Legion Ocean County playoffs championship game last summer. “We have to cut down on the number of times we strike out. I thought our hitting would be better, although our pitching was excellent with a 3.6 ERA and very few walks. The kids threw strikes.”
That sporadic hitting petered out a bit against Toms River South in the county championship at the BlueClaws’ FirstEnergy Park, with only two hits in the game and a triple play off a liner hit by Brendan Melody that retired base runners at first and second base in the second inning.
“But then again, they’re the Number 1 team in the Shore and Number 5 in the state, so we didn’t do badly against a topcaliber team,” said Bishop.
Toms River South (23-5), which lengthened its win streak to 12 with the victory, actually needed to play small ball for its runs, since Roca allowed only one hit in 4 1/3 innings. The first run scored on a walk, a bunt single, a wild pitch and a squeeze where the ball could not be played in time to any base. A balk by Roca let in the second run.
“We played tough to the end,” said Ramos. “We were looked down upon by teams and felt we could win those games. I thought we started to hit [during the Ocean County Tournament] and our pitching was there.”
Jason Promisel, a sophomore with a strong arm, could replace Murray, but junior Ken Curan and sophomore Glenn McGinnies also can play at catcher, which will make for a lively scenario during the preseason workouts next March. Mike Spinelli, who sat out the Ocean County Tournament championship game with a hamstring injury, will move fromleft field to Mancini’s spot in center. Melody is a fixture in right field. Either Brian Duckworth or Jon DelValle can play in left. Duckworth saw a lot of action when he played there for part of the season and also DH’d.
Ramos looks solid at first base for next season.
“Fielding is the strong part of my game. I’m very happy with how I fielded,” said Ramos. “Individually, I thought I played very well and played hard every game. I hit the ball well but was in a little bit of a slump, but I came on very strong this year.”
Prior to this season, Ramos received private instruction from hitting guru Tom Sitaris at Play Ball Sports in Lakewood.
“I used to drop my shoulder a lot, but now I have opposite-field power, so when I came around on the ball, I hit it hard,” said Ramos. “I always tried to come through and the guys looked to me like that.”
Justin Gordon played well at second base, and Brian Staub was solid at shortstop, although Andrew Nelson and freshman Brian Rytelewski are in the wings. Tim Spaulding is back at third base when he isn’t on the mound for late-inning relief work.
But it will be hard to replace Roca, Sean Breeden and Ryan Patrick, who had one of the better ERAs in the Shore for much of the season, although there was good depth withMelody and Spaulding in themix, and Bishop also believes there are some good prospects on the junior varsity.