Monmouth Holds Off Middletown North In Crucial B North Clash

Photo above: Monmouth junior Charlie Kelly on the mound in Wednesday's 5-4 win over Middletown North

MIDDLETOWN – Senior left fielder Mark Abrams dropped an RBI single into shallow centerfield in the top of the seventh for what eventually proved to be the game-winner and senior Mike Valerio came in to shut the door in the bottom half of the inning with the bases loaded and two outs and the Falcons clinging to a 5-4 lead.

Monmouth starting pitcher, Charlie Kelly, went 6 2/3 innings for the win but ran out of steam in the seventh before head coach Paul Crivello turned the game over to junior lefty Ricky Voss to face left handed batter Jason Timmons with two outs and the bases stacked in a 5-3 game.

Voss then beaned Timmons sending Tyler Ras home to make it a one-run game, 5-4, prompting Crivello to hand the ball over to the right-handed Velerio to get the final out with the bases still full of Lions.

Velerio made the pitch he needed to Ryan Rozinski getting the rising freshman on a grounder to short that turned into a much closer play at third then it needed to be for the game-ending out.

Kelly improved his season record to 3-1 allowing four runs (3 earned) on nine hits with three walks while striking out three on 97 pitches.

“You know, I just try my best, my arm was getting a little tired,” said Kelly. “Coach has a lot of confidence in me but he made the right call taking me out; I knew Mike was going to get it done.”

“Charlie showed up and did his job today,” Crivello said Kelly’s gutsy performance. “I was looking to get him a complete game, he looked great, he was working great, but his pitch count got up there a little bit. Once he hit 97 (pitches) I figured I’d go to the lefty-lefty matchup to see how that turned out and move forward from there.”

Kelly got out of a one out, bases loaded jam in the bottom of the sixth that eventually turned out to be the key play of the game. After Timmons walked to load the bases, Rozinski sent a Kelly offering into centerfield that junior Justin Scotto made the play on with Brendan Doherty tagging and attempting to score from third.

However, in one swift motion, Scotto made the catch and threw a dart towards home that one hopped to the catcher and nailed Doherty as slid across the plate for an inning-ending double play.

“If there was a game-changing play today, that was the one,” Crivello said of Scotto’s heroics. “He was just able to throw a strike to the catcher; that was absolutely a huge play for us. It got us a little momentum and enabled us to get a couple of extra runs in the seventh which turned out to be the key runs.”

Scotto also made a heads-up play to score a run in the seventh after leading off the inning with a single to left field. With one out, the Lions intentionally walked catcher Josh Jackson putting runners on first and second. Cleanup hitter Paul Birzin then grounded into a 4-6 fielder’s choice out as Scotto alertly raced all the way home from second.

“Justin’s been great all year for us, he was a blessing in disguise when he came here,” Crivello said of Scotto, who transferred from Robbinsville this season. “We’re so happy to have him here with us; he’s such an important role to our team.”

Monmouth scored three runs in the top of the second with only one hit – a double by Abrams - taking advantage of some wildness from Lions starting pitcher Garrett French, who walked three batters and hit one in the inning. Junior Liam Kile had a RBI sacrifice fly and two runs came in on an error and hit batsman.

Abrams finished 2-for-4 with a double, RBI and run scored while Scotto was 1-for-2 with an RBI and one run scored.

French took the loss for the Lions (8-8, 6-6) going five complete innings allowing three runs (one earned), two hits, three walks while striking out six on 91 pitches.

“They’re a very tough team with the last two games going down the wire,” Crivello said about his opponent. “For the most part our guys capitalized on some key hits and we were able to go ahead and finish the game but it was a lot closer at the end than I would’ve liked. But they fought to the last pitch and overcame a late rally by a very good team.”

With No.3 Wall beating No.6 Manasquan Wednesday, fourth-ranked Monmouth is now in sole possession of first place in Class B North with two divisional games left to play for each team. Red Bank Catholic is lurking in fourth place just two games off the pace.

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