Play No.1 Seed Cumberland County College Today at 11:00 A.M.
By Mike Ready
LINCROFT – Brookdale Community College will host this weekend’s NJCAA Region XIX four-team double- elimination baseball tournament, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary). However, due to incessant downpours, MacLaughlin Field was deemed unplayable and games will now be played on Red Bank Catholic High School’s state of the art field turf.
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Seeded fourth, the Jersey Blues (24-15, 9-6) will take on No.1 seed Cumberland County (43-7, 14-2) in the first game, Friday at 11:00 a.m. All of Brookdale’s games in the tournament will now be played at Red Bank Catholic.
Cumberland is the No.1 ranked team nationally in NJCAA DIII play and swept their two-game series against Brookdale this season, 13-6 and 6-5.
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If the Blues win the Cumberland game, they’ll face the winner of the 11:00 a.m. second-seeded Gloucester County (31-9, 14-2) vs. third-seeded Ocean County (20-10, 9-6) game - played at Ocean County College – immediately following the first game.
A loss would send the Blues into loser’s bracket for a Friday afternoon game, making the road to Tyler, Texas and the national tournament a much more difficult one to navigate.
Game two of the loser’s bracket (pitting the winner of loser bracket game No.1 and the loser of winners bracket game No.1) will be played on Saturday at 12:00 p.m., with the winner moving on to play the winner of the Friday’s winner’s bracket game No.1, at 3:00 p.m. If the team from the winner’s bracket wins that game, they are champions, if the team from the loser’s bracket wins that game, the championship game will be played on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Got that!
Brookdale swept No.5 seed Northampton Pa., 11-0, 8-2, last Saturday in the first round to advance, and head coach Johnny Johnson likes his team’s chances.
“We’re as good as any team in the Region this year,” Johnson said. “Our record doesn’t mean anything right now. We’ve battled injuries and the weather all year long. We’re in pretty good shape now and think we can make some noise in the tournament. This is a great group of kids who’ve worked extremely hard all season long. We have as much talent on this team as any team I’ve coached.”
Johnson, in his 16th season as Brookdale head coach, was just named the 2014 Region XIX Coach of the Year for sixth time in his career. His record stands at 531-201, and he has guided the Blues to two Region XIX titles (2007, 2009) in his prestigious career.
Brookdale holds a .370 team batting average with a ridiculous .984 OPS (slugging percentage + on base percentage). Opponent’s earned run average (ERA) against them is a whopping 7.03 and they’ve slugged 155 extra base hits, including 29 home runs.
They’re led by first team All-Region and All-GSAC selections Jon Roszel (.412 BA, 6 HR, 32 RBI, 1.264 OPS), Nick Vitale (.480, 7 HR, 34 RBI, 18 2B, 10 3B, 1.377 OPS), and Tim Carney (.466 BA, 8 HR, 34 RBI, 1.354 OPS).
Sophomore 3B/2B Ryan Kirman (.424 BA, HR, 26 RBI, 14 2B, 1.020 OPS) was named second team All-Region and All-GSAC and his versatility in the infield has given Johnson the option of playing sophomore Lius Hidalgo at third and moving Kirman to second to solidify the infield.
First baseman Travis Rudic (.437 BA, HR, 28 RBI, 9 2B, 1.083 OPS) and freshman shortstop Spencer Young (.314, 19 RBI, 3B, 8 2B, 25 R) have both had very solid seasons for the Blues as well.
Second team All-Region and All-GSAC pitcher, Jake Winston (6-1), has been the bulldog of the staff and will get the start in Friday’s first game. The lefty has tossed four complete games, given up only nine earned runs in 51.2 innings pitched for 1.57 ERA, struck out 47, and walked only five hitters.
Sophomore righty, Billy Worswick (3-1), gets the nod for the Blues in the second game. He holds a very respectable 3.24 ERA with 36 K’s in 41.2 IP and has three complete games.
It will be either freshman righty Nick Panduri (2-0, 2.96 ERA) or sophomore lefty Tommy Giunta (2-1, 3.49 ERA) in the third game and sophomore Tim Rogers (3-1, 3.49) will be the first man out of the bullpen and could get a start depending on how the tournament works itself out.
Freshmen Casey Cranmer (1-1, 2.57) and Mike Pepio (1-1, 5.03) and Hidalgo will also see action out of the pen. Hidalgo will get the start at third base after drilling two home runs, including a grand slam, and driving in seven runs in last Saturday’s first game.
Gloucester (31-9, 14-2) has won four-straight NJCAA Region XIX titles in a row and are ranked sixth nationally. They boast All-Region XIX pitcher Mike Sullivan (6-0, 0.95 ERA) and the team pitching staff holds an outstanding 3.04 ERA.
