Triple Play Sinks Brick Memorial 11-8 Against Toms River East

Triple Play Sinks Brick Memorial 11-8

Against Toms River East

By: Ryan Civello 4/29/16

A game ending triple play is what it took for Toms River East to hold off the Mustangs comeback in the 7th inning with a final score of 11-8.

Brick Memorial started the game off with a bang, as they scored four runs in the first inning to take the lead. Seniors Dylan Evans and Andrew LaRosa both walked and then Brian Markoski hit a RBI double to score Evans. Senior James Donlon came up next and singled up the middle to make it a 2-0 game. Memorial made it 4-0 when they had the bases loaded with two outs and Senior Teddy Gonzalez doubled to right field.

Starting for the Mustangs was Senior Noah DeAlmeida, who gave up one run in the first inning, as East cut into Memorial’s lead 4-1. Walks are what got DeAlmeida into trouble, as he walked the first two batters of the game and then Senior Cole Robbins had a RBI single.

Junior Darren Scholl started for East, but only went 1 2/3 innings, giving up four runs, five hits, and walking four batters. Junior Fletcher Gest came into pitch and was able to get out of the inning, by striking out Senior Nick Reyes with the bases loaded.

DeAlmeida ran into trouble in the bottom of the 3rd inning. East’s Sophomore Doug Pombo singled to start the inning. DeAlmeida walked the next hitter and hit back-to-back hitters to make it 4-2. Senior Nick Lavecchia delivered a huge bases clearing triple to give East its first lead of the game 5-4. East added another run on a sac fly off of Memorial’s Junior Ray Lutick, who came into pitch for DeAlmeida.

DeAlmeida only went 2 1/3 innings, giving up 5 runs, on three hits, walking four and hitting two batters.

The score remained 6-4 going into the top of the 6th inning. Gonzalez lead off the inning with a single and with two outs LaRosa came up with a big hit to cut the lead to one run. Markoski had an infield single, but the inning ended when East threw out LaRosa, who was leaning off of second base too much.

The game got wild in the bottom of the 6th inning when East put up five runs and added to their lead 11-5. With one out Senior Tyler Idzinski walked and was able to advance to third on a throwing error when Lutick threw it away trying to pick off Idzinski. Pombo singled in Idzinski to make it 7-5, followed by a walk by Cole Robbins. Pombo scored on a throwing error by Senior Dave Clarke that soared into the Mustangs dug out. Senior Conner Robbins hit a sac fly to centerfield to make it 9-5. Another error by the Mustangs scored one more run and then Sophomore Brad Brush hit a home run to make the lead even larger 11-5.

The Mustangs didn’t go down without a fight, as they fought and clawed their way back into the game and gave themselves a chance to tie the game and maybe take the lead.

Donlon lead off the inning with solo shot over the right field fence to trim the lead to 11-6. Toms River East took out Gest, who pitched excellent in relief going 4 1/3 innings and only giving up one run. Things got interesting as Toms River East was having trouble closing out the game, and they had to bring in another pitcher after a single by Reyes and back to back walks to Senior Dylan Nolan and Clarke. Senior Jared Pollaro came into pitch and also struggled to record an out.

After walking in a run and an error by their third baseman, the score was 11-8 and the Mustangs had their top of the lineup due to bat. Evans came up to bat with the tying run on first base and after fighting off a couple of pitches with two strikes, he smoked a line drive right to the first base man who stepped on first base and then threw it to second base for a game ending triple play. It was one of the craziest endings to baseball game you will ever see.

The Mustangs have dropped three straight games as they fall to 9-5 overall. East improves 6-7 with a much-needed victory.

The Ocean County Tournament starts tomorrow and Brick Memorial is the 2-seed and will take on the 15th seed Southern Regional at 11:00 A.M.