Redbirds, Spartans meet with a title on the line
BY DOUG McKENZIE
Staff Writer

Part of the charm of the NJSIAA state tournaments are their tendency to create match-ups between teams that know very little about each other.

And often, those match-ups come with championships at stake.

Such is the case with today's Central Jersey Group III title game between the Ocean Township and Allentown High School baseball teams.

Ocean Township, the defending sectional champion, enters the final as the prohibitive favorite. Despite getting the fourth seed in this loaded bracket, there were many that had penciled the Spartans into the final before the tournament even began, and for good reason - this is their third straight title game, with many of the same players who took part in the previous two.

Allentown, on the other hand, is the "Cinderella story" of the bracket. The sixth-seeded Redbirds (16-5) are playing great baseball, using what second-year head coach Brian Nice calls a "small-ball approach" to win a number of close games over the past few weeks.

Having already beaten the likes of third-seeded Northern Burlington, 6-5, and second-seeded Wall, 2-1, the Redbirds will not be intimidated by the Spartans when the two teams meet.

After all, the pressure, according to Nice, is on Ocean.

"We're playing with a care-free attitude at this point," he said. "We're playing with house money, with nothing to lose."

Nobody expected Allentown to be here, the coach added, and if the Spartans are the next team to take the Redbirds lightly, they may also be the next team to find themselves knocked off .

"To some degree, yes, I think maybe some people have looked past us," Nice said. "If they've just been looking at us on paper, I think we've surprised some people."

Against Wall on Tuesday, the Redbirds used a dominant pitching performance from Ethan Perro and Anthony Gambino to thwart the Crimson Knights, as the pair combined to toss a no-hitter against a solid Wall line-up. Perro did most of the work, throwing six brilliant innings, in which he struck out six and walked three.

After admitting to his coach that he was tiring late, Perro handed the ball to Gambino, with a 2-0 lead. Gambino made things interesting by walking the lead-off man in the seventh, and allowing him to advance to third on two wild pitches. The junior righty then struck out the next batter, before allowing a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 2-1. Gambino then ended the game by inducing a ground-out.

Allentown got its first run in the third inning, when Thomas Koontz hit an RBI groundout with the bases loaded. Logan Gallagher knocked in the winning run in the fifth with an RBI single to left."

The Redbirds had 10 hits overall, and found a way to win their 10th straight game, and reach the sectional finals.

"We're playing like a team like you wouldn't believe right now," Nice said. "I told these guys when the state playoffs started that we needed to play small ball, and they've done just that. They've played tremendous defense, and we've had some great pitching, and we're scoring just enough."

Ocean Township has looked every bit like the team to beat, and won a very difficult game on Tuesday at West Windsor-Plainsboro North, 8-7, to reach the title game once again.

This one was back and forth for most of the game, with both teams showing the ability to find offense from throughout their line-ups.

"We were up 2-0, then down 4-2, the tied at 4-4, the up 7-4, up 8-4, and eventually we were able to hold on, 8-7," said head coach Del Dal Pra.

Senior Eric Hinkle knocked in the first two runs with a single in the first, while junior Dave Kaczka tied the game at 4-4 with a hit in the fourth inning. That set the stage for senior catcher Keith Weincofsky's two-out, three-RBI double in the sixth that gave the Spartans the lead once again. Ocean added what proved to be the game-winner in the seventh when Tony DeSantis knocked in a run with a successful suicide squeeze.

Senior Kyle Norman went six and two-third innings to get the win and improve to 8-0 on the year, while sophomore Jamie Rosenkranz came in to record the save.

With the win, Ocean improved to 22-4 on the year, but it was far from easy.

"They were very good," Dal Pra said of WWPN. "I've got a feeling we're going to see them again next year because they've got a lot of very good juniors on that team."

Ocean's ability to win in a hostile environment speaks for the team's confidence in itself.

"We've got a confidence and swagger," Dal Pra said. "We know it's not going to be easy - like today - but we're confident we'll get it done.

"I've noticed, for the past few years, these guys expect to be here," the coach added. "After Memorial Day is over, you don't always have practice the next day, but these guys expect to be playing. It's a tough, battle-tested group of guys."

Against Allentown, Hinckle will get the start, and Ocean will need a strong outing from him, as their pitching depth may be an issue before the week is out.

"We've got a Shore Conference quarterfinal (Wednesday), a possible Monmouth County Tournament game with Wall on Thursday, the sectional final on Friday, and if we win Wednesday, a Shore Conference semifinal on Saturday," the coach said. "We feel good, though. Most teams are in a similar position this time of year, although Allentown is not."

In fact, Nice said he will use whoever is necessary against Ocean, though Chris Kubik will get the start.

"After that, it's all hands on deck," Nice said. "We'll be all right. We've got plenty of arms."

While Perro is the ace of the staff, Nice said that Kubik is a solid No. 2 who is certainly capable of throwing a big game.

"They're really more like a 1 and 1A, really," he said.

What makes the match-up so intriguing is that neither team really expected to be playing each in this spot.

"We know a lot about Wall, and not much about Allentown," Dal Pra said. "So I sent one of our coaches to the game (Tuesday), and told him if Allentown loses he'd be pretty much wasting his time. But he called me when it was over and told me they won, so it was certainly worth the trip."

Nice admitted that he was going to have to do some research before the game to learn about Ocean.

"We don't know a whole lot to be honest with you, at this point," he said following Tuesday's win. "I'm making some calls tonight to see what I can find out. ... I know they've got the catcher who can hit, and some other big offensive players."

However, Nice added that with the way his team is playing of late, it would be dangerous to think that his team doesn't match up well with the Spartans.

"If we keep playing solid defense, getting timely hits and pitching well, there's no telling how far we could go," he said.

Allentown faces one of the very best teams in the state in Ocean Township later today. On paper, they don't match up very well with the Spartans.

But they don't play the game on paper.

Shore girls knocked out in

sectional semifinals

The Shore Regional girls softball team's pursuit of a state sectional crown came to an end on Tuesday with a 6-0 loss to Governor Livingston.

Shore entered the game knowing it had its work cut out for it, as the top-seeded Highlanders feature one of the very best pitchers in state history in Capri Catalano. In fact, Catalano enterded the game needing just one strikeout to break the state record for career Ks, previously held by Freehold Borough's Ashley Forsyth (1,281).

It didn't take Catalano long to do it, as she struck out Ally Roma to start the game (one of her 21 strikouts on the day).

With the win, the Highlanders (24-1) earned a shot at the CJ Group II title against Delaware Valley, who beat Matawan, 2-1, in the other semifinal.

Shore finished the year at 17-6.

With Shore out of the picture, Red Bank Catholic entered yesterday's action as the only local softball team still in the hunt for a sectional crown. The Caseys were to mee St. John Vianney in the Non-Public South A semifinals. SJV has beatn RBC twice this season already.