Jaguars hope hitters get hot after strong county opener

JACKSON MEMORIAL

By WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Correspondent

Jackson Memorial High School baseball coach Frank Malta couldn’t hide a smile after his team batted in the fifth inning of its Ocean County Tournament opener against Brick Township High School in what he hopes is a breakout for his hitters.

“We have not been swinging the bats for a week, week-and-a-half. We haven’t been hitting the ball hard,” Malta said. “I had to smile. We needed that.”

Kyle Johnson, Matt Crispe and Nick Dabrio lined run-scoring doubles in a fiverun rally that erased a 3-0 deficit, and Jackson Memorial went on to a 9-3 victory. Johnson finished with three hits for three RBIs, and Matt Guarino pitched six strong innings. Brandon Janofsky provided relief, as Jackson Memorial (12-4) avenged a 3-2 loss to Brick Township in Shore Conference A South Division action.

Jackson Memorial plays host to Barnegat High School in the second round of the county tournament on May 9 at a time to be determined.

Despite an 8-3 A South record, Jackson Memorial sits in a three-way tie for first in the division with Toms River High School North and Toms River High School East. Jackson Memorial added to that logjam by avenging a 5-3 loss to Toms River North earlier in the season with a 4-1 victory on April 23.

“It’s crazy this year,” Malta said. “This is different from other years. Everybody is beating everybody.”

Credit Jackson Memorial’s survival to a pitching staff that includes Guarino and Janofsky, a three-game winner. They came into the weekend with ERAs of 1.01 and 1.21, respectively. Guarino had a 29:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his first 20 innings pitched. Chris Hawryluk has a 2.29 ERA with his 2-1 record.

Prior to the Brick Township loss, Jackson Memorial’s ERA was 1.86, which compensated for its uncustomarily modest .261 team batting average. Going into the weekend, Dabrio was the Jaguars’ only .400 hitter (.405), followed by Mike Petrizzo (.368, six RBIs) and Janofsky (.340), who has six stolen bases. Guarino’s nine RBIs led the team through the first 14 games.

“We’ve gotten hitting from Dabrio, Guarino [and] Petrizzo, but we need the other guys in the bottom of the order to do well,” Malta said. “We feel more comfortable when we’re hitting consistently. We hope this is a start back. It makes things a whole lot easier if we swing the bats. Our pitching has been very good, which has made us who we are at 12-4. It’s been huge. They’ve been keeping us in games.”

Perhaps the only time those phases of the game got sloppy and cost Jackson Memorial a chance for a victory was in the Brick Township loss, when a bases-loaded walk let in the tying run and the winning run came in on a wild pitch, both in the sixth inning. Crispe grounded in a run, while Joe DeMaio hit a sacrifice fly, to give Jackson Memorial its runs in a typical display of the slumbering bats of late, as the Jaguars got only two hits off Brick Township’s starter over the first five innings.

This is a big week for Jackson Memorial’s bats to get hot, with A South games scheduled at Southern Regional High School on May 5, followed by a home game against Toms River High School South on May 7 and a road game against Toms River East on May 8, all at 3:45 p.m. Earlier in the season, Jackson Memorial beat Southern Regional and Toms River East by 4-1 scores and Toms River South by an 8-1 score.