Brick Mem. baseball faces tough tournament week

Brick Memorial High School's baseball team faces a crucial week to qualify for the NJSIAA tournament by the May 8 cutoff and the Shore Conference Tournament by the May 12 cutoff.

"This week will make us or break us," said coach Rich Bishop.

The Mustangs are 4-5 overall, 2-3 in Shore Conference A South.

What makes it tougher is that a game against unbeaten Jackson Memorial that was postponed by the weather was rescheduled for this week. In fact, Brick Memorial plays Jackson Memorial, the No. 2-ranked team in one state poll, on back-to-back days.

"We're going against some high-powered pitching and defense this week," Bishop said.

If that doesn't make it tough enough, Brick Memorial has played only two games in 10 days going into this week. After coming back from a three-game trip to Fort Pierce, Fla., in which the team won two of three games, it beat Southern in extra innings two Saturdays ago. Games were washed out early last week, and Brick Memorial did not return to action until Saturday, when it lost to Toms River East, 4-3.

"That really hurt, because we came back from Florida with some momentum that we continued against Southern, and then we were off for a week," Bishop said.

Add to that, first baseman Jose Ramos will be out indefinitely from a dislocated elbow that happened in a tag play against Southern, and the challenge gets even tougher. But Bishop said there are players who can fill in capably there, such as Steve Zrowka.

Brick Memorial was slated to play Toms River North on April 27, then Lacey on April 28, before the home and away games against Jackson on April 29 and 30. The team takes on Howell at the BlueClaws' FirstEnergy Park in Lakewood on May 1 and travels to another formidable team on May 2: Toms River North.

Along with that challenging schedule, the Mustangs then go on the road to play Brick Township High School on May 7 before the teams square off again on May 10.

"Not one of our pitchers has thrown 17 innings yet, which you need [rested pitching] when you have a schedule like this," Bishop said. "High school baseball is a short season, and you have to get hot quick."

And Bishop said his team must reduce its errors, and his pitchers must cut down on their walks allowed, aside from reliever Tim Spaulding, who has allowed only one walk in 10 innings and again showed good control against Toms River East with two innings of one-hit ball.

"He did a fabulous job keeping us in the game again," Bishop said.

Brian Duckworth reached on an error before he and Jon DelValle scored on backto back errors in the first inning of that game. Toms River East tied it in the bottom of the first inning and added two in the fourth inning before Jason Promisel drove in Brick Memorial's final run. Anthony Gearity took the loss, allowing all four runs on five hits, with five strikeouts and four walks.

Brick Township High School, meanwhile, lost any hope of making the postseason when it fell to Toms River North, 10-1, and Toms River South, 11-7, last week to slip to 1-8. But coach Jason Groschel found a young prospect up from the junior varsity in sophomore Tim Carney, who hit two home runs while batting 4-for-4 for four runs batted in against Toms River South.

"I was getting good reports on him hitting well on the jayvee level from jayvee coach Chris Hughes, that he has a lot of power and is aggressive," Groschel said. "We've been looking to score some runs and looking for a spark."

Carney, a right-handed hitter who can play third base and first base, was inserted in the clean-up spot as the designated hitter and lived up to the role, hitting the first two home runs for the varsity team this season. Carney's solo home run trimmed Toms River South's 5-0 lead, and his two-run homer cut the deficit to 8- 3. Cody Schnebel, a sophomore, continued his consistent hitting and had two hits and an RBI, as did Troy Reynolds.

Nick Vitale also had two hits in both games and doubled in the run against Toms River North. Karl Rex threw well in relief of losing starters Sean Salsano against Toms River North and Dan Boyle against Toms River South.