Mustangs baseball going for another OCT title

Brick Memorial High School's baseball team, which plays Toms River South this weekend in the Ocean County Tournament, has been in three other county tournament finals and won all three.

The game will be played at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Lakewood Blue Claws' home field of First Energy Park in Lakewood.

The last tournament finals in 1996 were sparked by Jeff Pierce, who went on to pitch for Rutgers University before a brief head coaching stint at Brick Memorial. His successor - Rich Bishop - was an assistant coach at Brick Memorial under Doug Ross when theMustangs won their two other titles in 1988 and 1990, the latter team also a finalist in the Shore Conference Tournament.

Bishop recalls that star pitcher George Collins graduated off that 1988 season and went on to play atWilliamPaterson. Pitcher Alan McTigue was unbeaten on that 1990 team, and his 10 victories that season is still a school record. McTigue teaches in the Howell system, a crafty lefthander back then who struck out 17 in the county championship game against Central Regional.

"This team reminds me of those teams, scrappy with pitching, with good defense and that could hit," said Bishop.

John Roca, who is 3-1 with a 2.60 ERA, is expected to take the mound for 13-12 BrickMemorial against a 17-5 Toms River South team ranked No. 6 in the state that beat the Mustangs in both Shore Conference A South games, 3-1 and 6-0. In the first game, Brick Memorial twice left the bases loaded. In the latter game, it was a scoreless standoff until the fifth inning.

Toms River South beat No. 1 seed and 18-2 Toms River North, 3-1, in its semifinal game.

But Bishop said he may choose to make a lot of pitching changes- as many as one each inning - as he has Brendan Melody and lefthander Ryan Patrick, who was near the top of the Shore in ERA in late April.

"They have outstanding pitching, with four or five seasoned pitchers," said Bishop. "We can't strike out and we have to execute."

"We've been feeling great. We have a lot of momentum that we want to keep going into Saturday," saidMelody as Brick Memorial has one other regular season game this week against Toms River East. "I think we can beat South. We have to come out strong with our bats."

Staying sharp is essential "because sometimes we get lackadaisical," said Melody, who bats .330 with three home runs and 15 RBI while playing in the outfield when he's not pitching.

First baseman Jose Ramos has hammered a team-high .370 batting average followed by center fielder/pitcher Evan Mancini at .350. Bran Duckworth also has hit well since working his way into the lineup around midseason.

It's part of a late-season surge in which Brick Memorial eased the pain of missing qualifying for the NJSIAATournament by twice stunning Jackson, the No. 1 seed in Group IV, Central Jersey in the state tournament. The first came in the county tournament two Sundays ago, 6-5, and then in a regular season game, 6-4, last week. In the latter game, Melody fired his fastball for nine strikeouts while Tim Spaulding hammered a two-run double.

In the county tournament, Brick Memorial also beat Point Pleasant Beach, 8-1, in the opening round and hammered Central Regional, 10-3, Tuesday last week in the semifinals. Brian Staub drove in four runs with a pair of doubles and Spaulding pitched 3 2/3 innings of sharp relief of starter Justin Short. Trailing, 3-2,BrickMemorial took the lead in the fourth inning on run-scoring singles by Duckworth andMike Spinelli before Jose Ramos grounded in another run. Staub then connected for his two doubles as Brick Memorial had an easier time with Central than its 3-2 regular season victory.

Spinelli said afterward that it's a matter of theMustangs hitting better with runners on base than they have in previous games.

But on the following day,BrickMemorial lost in the Shore Conference Tournament to a 15-8 Barnegat team, 8-1, inwhat has been a season of ups and downs. "They're a good teambutwe had just beaten Central andwe came out flat and did not hit the ball," said Bishop. "And then we beat Jackson (6-4) in our next game."

But playing somewhere in a tournament this late in May does not shock Bishop, whose team opened its season with a three-game sweep against formidable out-of-state opponents in Florida.

"I know we could play," said Bishop. "Some gameswe come out flat, and you can't do that inASouth because the competition is incredible.We got to the final and two Toms River teams were knocked out. We're real happy and proud to be there."