Lucchetti helps Brick avenge loss to Mustangs

BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY JERRY WOLKOWITZ staff Above, Brick Township’s Doug Gleason beats the throw to second base during the Green Dragons’ win over rival Brick Memorial on Sunday in Lakewood. At left, winning pitcher F.J. Lucchetti fires a pitch to home plate. LAKEWOOD — F.J. Lucchetti and Jordan Marsch helped Brick Township’s baseball team avenge a bitter 16-7 pounding by Brick Memorial earlier in the season with a 5-1 victory Sunday before a large gathering at FirstEnergy Park.

Under a beautiful spring sky and typical spring temperatures after a rainy Saturday, Lucchetti struck out seven and walked only one, while scattering five hits over the distance. The sophomore left-hander, who is 3-2, stayed around the plate, throwing only 89 pitches to get the victory over Brian Streilein, who allowed seven hits.

Streilein (2-2) also showed sharp control with three strikeouts and one walk, as he threw only 81 pitches over the full seven innings.

But it was the defense that made the difference — Brick Memorial’s four errors that let in three runs in the first inning, and Brick Township’s 6-4-3 double play that ended a bases-loaded threat in the home sixth inning. The Green Dragons turned two double plays, the first coming in the fourth inning after the first two batters reached — Rob Russo on his second hit of the game and Jay Frank on a walk.

It gave Brick Township its first victory in the annual clash on the Lakewood BlueClaws’ home field since 2001 (the 2002 game was postponed by rain and was played elsewhere).

Brick Township went to 5-6 and Brick Memorial saw an end to its two-game win streak in slipping to 6-6.

“We had a lot of errors the first time we played them and didn’t play up to our potential. We were too relaxed,” said Marsch, who lashed a single, double and triple, the latter hit in the fifth inning after Chris Hine had also tripled to stake the Green Dragons to a 4-0 lead. Another Brick Memorial error in the seventh inning on Jay Wilson’s ground ball allowed Marsch to score after he lined his double.

Brick Memorial, meanwhile, again had a costly bad inning, as it has had in many of its other losses, while Brick Township got off to its typical fast start.

“That makes you get control of the game. It helped us out a lot,” said Marsch.

“We capitalized on that. That’s high school baseball, when you get mistakes to go your way,” said coach Tom Webber.

Lucchetti made it stand up in his second straight strong performance, the other one a sterling 5-2 victory over Toms River East when he bolstered a six-hitter with six strikeouts and did not walk a batter.

“He had a real good game against [Toms River] East and Brick Memorial is one of the best hitting teams in the conference,” said Webber. “He didn’t get himself into trouble and worked ahead of the batters. When you do that, you’re successful.”

Lucchetti allowed a run in the sixth inning on Jay Frank’s ground single through short that delivered Rob Gonzalez, who reached on an infield hit and moved up when Rob Russo’s fly ball was dropped. Mark Cerrachio grounded into a force and Andy Case walked to load the bases before Hine turned Tom Pfeiffer’s ground ball into the rally-killing double play, the Dragons’ second of the game.

“I kept hitting my spots. They hit ground balls and we made the plays,” said Lucchetti, who broke off his fastball and curve with a change-up.

But Brick Memorial bobbled ground balls by the first four batters in the game — Bill Winters, Hine, Marsch and Wilson — allowing Brick Township to score its first two runs before Ryan Pharo hit a sacrifice fly to right.

“That made me feel a little bit better, getting that kind of support,” said Lucchetti

“I’m not going to put it on my teammates. They did all they could,” said Streilein, who relied on a fastball but also used a slider and change-up. “Our team played good defense overall.”

“He pitched great,” said Brick Memorial coach Jeff Pierce of Streilein, who retired eight straight late in the game before Brick Township scored its final run. “In the first inning, they didn’t make the plays for him. After that, we started making plays.”

And there were some dazzling plays turned in by Brick Memorial later in the game, particularly by shortstop Jay Frank.

“We hit the ball real well. We hit the ball hard and at people, and after the first inning, they made excellent plays,” said Webber.

Webber played down the rivalry aspect but treated it as another key game in the Shore Conference A South that Brick needed to win to reach the conference and NJSIAA tournaments again this year.

“It’s another conference game. I coached Jeff, and I know he’s got a really good team out there and that this is not a traditional rivalry,” said Webber. “We just want to win the game because every team in the Shore Conference is tough. You can’t let your guard down in the conference.”

Brick Township was happy to finally get on the field after soggy weather twice forced postponements of their Ocean County Tournament opener for the defending champions against Manchester on Saturday and again on Sunday morning.

“It was getting very discouraging,” said Webber.