Brick National, American teams play in state tourney BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI Staff Writer Brick National's 11-year-old and Brick American's 9-year-old All- Stars ventured with their Cal Ripken District 2 championships into state tournament play with mixed results. Brick American's 11s, meanwhile, are in a must-win situation in the tournament with the Ripken measurements of 50 feet from the mound to home plate and 70 feet along the base paths (Brick National is playing under 46/60 rules). The team lost its tournament opener, 4-3, to Washington Township and played New Egypt on Monday night in Pennington in a game postponed from Sunday because of rain. Pitcher Kyle Cala lined a two-run double in the fourth inning to stake Brick American to a 3-1 lead before Washington Township rallied for three runs in the fifth inning. Matt Rosace chipped in a runscoring single. "We hit well, played well defensively but one miscue let in the go-ahead run," said manager Ray Mannon. "But we can come back. We have enough pitching." Brick National's 11s beat Stratford, 4-3, in their opening game on a two-run single by Chris Kimbiz in the top of the seventh inning. Stratford rallied for a run in the bottomof the inning before Steve Shockett, who came on in relief in the fourth inning for starter Andrew Jarvis shut the door. Pemberton had a 10-9 lead in the top of the sixth inning of the second-round game when rain forced suspension to Monday evening. Pemberton took a 7-1 lead before Brick National tied it at 7-7 with six runs in the third inning. Pemberton regained the lead, 10-7, before Xavier Gibbs lashed a run-scoring single in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 10-9. Brett Dombrowski and Shockett each had two hits. Nick Moglio, Brendan Weber and Shockett shared the pitching. Brick National had advanced to the states with a 12-2 district championship victory over Point Pleasant. Gibbs lined a bases-clearing triple in the third inning when Brick National broke open a 6-2 lead with six runs. Dominick Nesser lined two hits for two RBIs. Andrew Jarvis pitched the victory, while Tom Leech, who made two sharp plays in right field, and catcher Chris Kimbiz led the defense for manager Al Russo and coaches Bruce Weber, Tom Henry and Brian Ashton. As for Brick American's 9s of manager Joe D'Amato, they were eliminated over the weekend in losses to Mount Laurel, 9- 7, and Waretown, 3-0. Dylan Evans collected three hits and Nick Pipher and Ray Lutick each slapped two against Mount Laurel as Brick National rallied back from an 8-1 deficit to pull to 8-7. Nick Reyes had two hits against Waretown, and Evans, Hunter Carlson and Matt Rush shared the pitching well. "We kept fighting and were two hits from tying Mount Laurel," said D'Amato. "They kept battling. I'm very happy with their performance." Brick American rolled to the District 2 title with a 12-3 victory over Point Pleasant as Reyes belted a three-run homer and Jess Raff and Evans shared the pitching effectively. They also beat Brick National, 14-7, as Evans and Carlson each had three hits and opened with a 13-12 triumph over Bayshore as Rush doubled in the winning run in the last inning.