Murray comes through in clutch for Mustangs
BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer

Above, Brick Memorial's Brian Staub is there to put the tag on Brick's Chris Sorice during Sunday's Mayor's Cup game held at FirstEnergy Park in Lakewood. Below, Brick's John Vitale has better luck getting back to the bag before the Mustangs' Jose Ramos can slap the tag on him.

LAKEWOOD - A lineup shakeup moved Tom Murray from catcher to designed hitter and cleanup batter for Brick Memorial's baseball team and it turned out to be a fortuitous move.

The .415 hitter cracked an F.J. Lucchetti fastball on a 1-2 pitch into left field to drive in Mike Spinelli with the winning run as Brick Memorial won the Mayor's Trophy game, 6-5, at the BlueClaws FirstEnergy Park in Lakewood on Sunday evening.

The Mustangs, now 2-7, tacked on three-run rallies in each of the last two innings after Brick Township, now 4-4, dominated the first five innings for a 5-0 lead and a 10-1 edge in hits behind Ray Johnson's two-run single and RBI hits by Jared Page and Chris Sorice, who had three hits. It was redemption for the team that has already suffered three extra-inning losses and hurt itself with errors. This time, the plays were mostly routine outs and only one error was committed.

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"This was a real barn-burner and to beat F.J. Lucchetti, he's legitimate," said first-year coach Rich Bishop of the 6-foot-2 left-hander who went to the mound after a game time decision because he had suffered a mild hamstring pull in practice on Thursday. "They needed this game to give them confidence.

"We made a couple of adjustments in our lineup," said Bishop. "Murray has caught most of the season but we had to keep his bat in the lineup."

Ryan Patrick got the win in three innings of three-hit relief of Jason Gordon. Patrick (1-1) struck out one and did not walk a batter in what Bishop said was his best outing. Gordon gave up eight hits and five runs, three earned. He struck out three and did not walk a batter.

Evan Mancini started the winning rally when he beat out a bouncer to first for an infield hit. Lefty hitter Kyle Heilbraun launched a fly ball that fell in for a triple when it got under the glove of a fully extended left fielder. Brick Township coach Jason Groschel called a timeout to check on his fielders - he drew his infield in - and checked on Lucchetti, who he decided to leave in the game.

"It was a tough decision; he was still throwing well," said Groschel as Lucchetti had 10 strikeouts. "He gutted it out the whole game. You can always second-guess yourself after the game but there are a lot of decisions and that's one of them. When I talked to him, you look in somebody's eyes and you can feel it, and he was confident."

Mike Spinelli then ripped a single to right with one out to tie it. Gordon struck out on a 2-2 pitch and Spinelli stole second. That's when Murray came up, and, with first base open, Groschel elected to pitch to him rather than intentionally walk him with first base open.

"He had a strikeout, a flyout to center and a walk, and the next batter was 1-for-3 and drove in a run in the sixth inning," said Groschel. "And he [Murray] is a lefty hitter."

So it was lefty vs. lefty, as Murray worked the count to 1-2 when he fouled off a pitch before putting the next one in left field for the walk-off hit.

An inning earlier, with two runners on and bunted over by R.J. Poggoili, Patrick cracked a grounder to second that was misplayed as both runners scored. Brian Staub followed with a run-scoring single to pull Brick Memorial to 5-3.

"F.J. was cruising; this was a real tribute to our kids," said Bishop.

"This is what you tell the kids that they don't always understand that you play every pitch, every out, because you never know what can happen. I can't rave enough about these guys, and they're realizing what it takes to win to be intense all the time. They're getting real tough."

Brick Township, meanwhile, was glad to be off until Wednesday after its up-and-down weekend.

"We'll need the time off after this one," said Groschel as Anthony Nardone, Andrew Lombardo and John Vitale each slugged two hits. Both teams go at it again on May 2 at Brick Township.

In a 5-3 victory over Lacey on Saturday, Sorice scattered 10 hits over the distance and helped himself with some nice fielding plays off the mound. Lombardo and Page lined two-run doubles in the first inning. It came after a 13-1 loss on Wednesday to Toms River North that raised some concerns by Groschel gong into Sunday's game.

"We have to hit, our hitting is sporadic," said Groschel after Saturday's game. "We have to put together good at-bats because Memorial hits and we have to put the ball in play and make them make the plays."

Instead, Brick Memorial only needed to make routine plays and committed only one error after an avalanche of mistakes that hurt the Mustangs in their previous eight games.