Green Dragons softball team bound for states

One Brick team with strong hopes of getting into the NJSIAA tournament came into this week with its back to the ball, and another that hadn't made it in five years secured its spot.

ERIC SUCAR staff Brick Township High School's Heather Figula hurls the ball to a Southern Regional High School batter during the game at BTHS on May 1. The Brick Township High School girls softball team secured its spot with four victories last week to hike its record to 9-5 with four games left to the May 8 cutoff for the NJSIAA Tournament. Those games include a May 6 Ocean County Tournament opener against Southern Regional and back-to-back games against Brick Memorial High School scheduled for today at Drum Point Complex and Friday at Brick Memorial in a makeup game postponed by the weather.

"It looks like we're in and I'm glad for the girls," coach Ed Lowe said.

Brick Memorial High School's boys baseball team came into the week at 6-9. They needed to sweep its three scheduled games against Pinelands Regional on May 4, on May 5 at home against Southern Regional, and today at Brick Township High School, with Tim Spaulding taking the mound for that game. The Mustangs also have an opening game in the Ocean County Tournament on Saturday and play Brick Township High again on Sunday evening at the BlueClaws' FirstEnergy Park home field in Lakewood starting at 4 p.m. And with rain predicted early this week, coach Rich Bishop expected to be scrambling to reschedule games.

"The weather's hurt us," Bishop said. "We lost four nonconference games to rainouts. We don't have much flexibility now. We couldn't get on a roll. We were up and down, but we're a dangerous team."

Both teams share one thing in common: Both beat highly regarded teams from Jackson Memorial High School last week.

Brick Township High School's softball team had an impressive 6-0 victory over the Jaguars, ranked No. 13 in the state, to show that it, indeed, merits a spot in the state tournament. Heather Figula pitched a five-hitter and had a solid defense behind her, while Nikki Binetti broke it open with a bases-clearing double with two out in the fourth inning.

"It was a big win for us as a program," Lowe said.

Figula homered in back-to-back games, and Emma Erbig hit her third homer of the season and continued to hit over .500. But the team ended the week and a five-game win streak in a 1-0 loss to Toms River East on Saturday.

"We had opportunities but did not capitalize," Lowe said.

The Brick Memorial boys baseball team handed Jackson Memorial its first loss of the season, 4-2, on April 30 after losing to the same Jackson Memorial team the previous day, 7-2. Anthony Gearity went the distance with a five-hitter bolstered by six strikeouts and only two walks and also led off a three-run fifth inning with a solo homer. Justin Gordon, who had three hits, and Brian Staub, who clubbed two, had runscoring singles with two out in the rally. Kevin Krotulis earlier knocked in a run with one of his two hits.

But whatever Brick Memorial gained in the victory over Jackson, it lost in the next two games. It dropped a 1-0 decision to Howell on May 1, as Spaulding allowed four hits over the distance, with four strikeouts and one walk.

"We came off games against two high-powered pitchers, and Howell threw a junkball pitcher at us," Bishop said.

Brick Memorial had only three hits in the game and had three runners thrown out stealing. Brian Duckworth lined a double.

"That game hurt us," Bishop said. "It set us back."

The Mustangs lost to high-powered Toms River North, 7-3 on May 2, to slip to 4-6 in Shore Conference A South. Staub lined a run-scoring double and went 6-for-14 with four doubles and three RBIs last week.

"He really came on, and now he's hitting over .340," Bishop said.

The exciting week began April 27, when Mike Rytelewski's single up the middle in the last inning drove in the game-ending run in Brick Memorial's 2-1 victory over Lacey Township. It was the second walkoff hit for the sophomore.

Andrew Nelson got the win in relief after pitching out of a basesloaded jam with none out in the top of the seventh with two strikeouts and another batter grounding out to Justin Gordon at third base. Duckworth led off the first inning for Brick Memorial with a homer.