Hawks Land Hard, Look to Rebound

Manchester High School's baseball team began the season with one of the hottest pitching staffs in the Shore Conference thanks to juniors Tim Rogers and Adam Zingaro.

But after storming out to a 4-0 start, the Hawks have lost four straight games, during which Manchester has averaged only two runs per game. During the first three games of the slide, Manchester scored just one run in 21 innings, while the pitching has held firm by giving up an average of four runs per game.

Outside of three bad innings in those three games, Rogers and Zingaro have allowed a combined two runs in 18 innings.

“We’re an OK team,” Manchester coach John Musolf said. “The other teams in our division are OK teams just like us, and that means no one is good enough to just step on the field play, less than their best and win a bunch of games. We have to play well for seven innings every game in order to be a very good team, which I still think we can be.”

Zingaro pitched his team past Shore Conference Class B South rival Brick, 6-2, last week and did so despite being hit on his left knee with a line drive by the second batter of the game. The win improved Manchester's record to 4-0 and gave them a leg up in the race for the division title.

“Our pitching is going to keep us in every game,” Musolf said. “I feel really good about our pitching and I like the rest of our team, too. We’ve just hit a slump offensively and we need to dig our way out of it.”

Since the Brick win, Manchester has dropped games outside the division to Jackson Liberty and Brick Memorial on consecutive days last Friday and Saturday, then made it three in a row in a 4-0 loss to Central Regional on Wednesday.

Rogers took the losses to Jackson Liberty and Central with his offense giving him no run support in either game. He shut out Jackson Liberty for the first five innings before surrendering three runs – only one of which was earned – in the sixth inning of a 3-0 loss. In that game, Jackson Liberty sophomore Tyler Pallante pitched a one-hitter and took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before Manchester senior Jon Roszel hit a double.

Rogers was not as sharp in his outing vs. Central, giving up four runs in five innings. That game notwithstanding, Rogers has been one of the Shore Conference’s most dominant pitchers, throwing two complete games in wins over Barnegat and Pinelands and striking out 10 despite the loss at Jackson Liberty. In the 7-1 win over Pinelands on April 11, Rogers was one out away from a no-hitter and ended up settling for a one-hitter and his second win of the season.

Zingaro meanwhile gave up one run through the first six innings against Brick Memorial on Saturday, but the Mustangs tagged him for four runs in the seventh to break a 1-1 tie and win 5-1.

“My word to the guys is always ‘compete,’ ” Musolf said. “You have to be willing to compete, and when you compete for every inning of every game, sometimes that means going into the seventh inning tied and scoring some runs to win the game.” 

The offense finally woke up on Thursday against Marlboro, but the defense committed two errors in a seven-run eighth inning by the Mustangs that propelled them to a 14-7 extra-innings win.

The Hawks scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game at seven and send it to extra innings, highlighted by a two-run double by Quadeer Johnson.

Thursday was the first game not started by either Zingaro (2-1 record) or Rogers (2-2), so Musolf is hoping the offense will be there next time either of his two top pitchers take the mound again.

With Roszel, Rogers, and catcher Aaron Kane posting some gaudy offensive numbers through the first three games, the ingredients are there for Manchester to turn things around.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Musolf said. “We have work to do, but we’ll get it figured out and we’ll be right in the thick of things.”