Brookdale Advances To NJCAA Region XIX Semifinals

Photo above: Imperato on the mound in Sunday's second-game 9-1 win over Lehigh Carbon

RED BANK – Second-seeded Brookdale swept a twin bill in Sunday’s opening round best-of-three series against No.7 seed Lehigh Carbon taking the opener 18-5 in five innings then advancing to the NJCAA Region XIX semifinals with 9-1 win in the second game at Count Basie Field in Red Bank.

“I’m proud of the kids, they battled,” Brookdale head coach Johnny Johnson said. “It’s a long day, especially being off the last five or six days without practicing or anything like that; we didn’t want it to go to a third game.”

Sophomore right-hander Mike Imperato (Marlboro H.S.) made sure a third game wasn’t necessary going the distance in Sunday’s series clinching win limiting the Cougars to one run on three hits, striking out 10 and walking two to pick up his fifth win of the season against only two defeats.

Imperato settled down after two first-inning walks, retiring the side in order in the second and third innings before running into his only trouble of the day in the fourth.

After striking out the leadoff batter, he gave up a back-to-back triple and double that led to the Cougars only run of the game. He then got the final two outs of the inning on two ground outs to end the threat and didn’t allow another hit until the seventh inning when a slow roller to short was scored an infield hit.

“I just wanted to come out here and put some quality innings together and help my team out,” Imperato said. “We put up a lot of runs in the first game so I knew we might struggle to score in second game so I just wanted to come out, do my job and keep them off the board. I hung a slider a little to the first guy and the other guy I didn’t think he hit it that hard I thought it was a medium fly ball but the wind out here today was brutal and it just carried on me.

“We got a good bunch of guys here who work hard, know what they’re doing and just want to put their best effort out to help this team win. This was huge getting the first round out of the way. We were off a little while with the rain and we got back into the groove. We’re going to practice hard this week and come out ready for the weekend.”

“He’s stepped up for us for two years now,” Johnson said of his starting pitcher. “He’s come into his own, he’s probably one of the top two pitchers on the staff right now and next week he’s going to get the ball in the first game.”

Recently crowned Region XIX Player of the Year Al Molina returned to his “Glory Days” of playing his high school ball at Count Basie Field – the home field of Red Bank Catholic – for his first time since graduating from RBC two years ago. He certainly felt at home in his return, drilling a solo home run in the first inning to give Brookdale an early 1-0 lead then cleared the bases in Brookdale’s seven-run sixth with a grand slam giving him five runs batted in for the game.

“It felt good, I feel at home here, I played on this turf for a couple of years,” Molina said. “I’m feeling pretty good about this team. One through nine we can swing it, we have some really good pitchers behind us and I think we have a really good shot at getting to the World Series in North Carolina.”

“He’s got a good shot at being National Player of the Year,” Johnson said of his star shortstop. “He’s got a lot of big hits for us this year; he can hit.”

Second team All-Region XIX first baseman Joe Sadler (Holmdel H.S.) went 2-for-3 with an RBI double in the first that extended the Jersey Blues lead to 2-0 and blasted a solo homer way over the left-field fence for a 3-1 for an important insurance run in the sixth before the Blues tacked on another six runs in the inning.

Following Sadler’s eighth home run of the season, Jake Buser and third team All-Region catcher Nick Blaney (Shore Regional) strung together consecutive singles before third baseman Ryan Orender (Wall Township H.S.) drilled an RBI single past diving first baseman Trevor Musselman for a 4-1 lead.

Third team All-Region XIX left fielder Nick Martinez (Wall Township H.S.) reloaded the bases on pop single when the right fielder lost the ball in the sun and an error by the shortstop brought in another before Molina emptied the bases with his team leading 11th homer of the season.

In the first game, second baseman Joey Tesoriero went 3-for-3 with triple, three RBI and a run scored and Buser was 2-for-4 with a home run, double, four RBI and three runs scored.

Martinez drilled a two-run double and scored two runs, Blaney brought home two runs with a double and Sadler was 2-for-4 with a double, two RBI and two runs scored while right fielder Michael Russell had two hits in four at bats with an RBI and three runs scored.

Starting pitcher Danny Serreino – a second team All-Region XIX selection – experienced arm trouble in the first inning and was relieved by third team All-Region pick Pat Knight who entered the game with the bases loaded, no outs and two runs already in.

Knight (6-2) limited the damage in the first getting out of the inning with only one more run in and went on to pick up his sixth win of the season with a brilliant pitching performance coming out of the pen. He went the distance in the mercy-rule shortened five-inning game, allowing two runs (0 earned) on three hits while walking two and striking out seven.

“Pat Knight’s huge,” Imperato said. “First out of the bull pen role is crucial because you never know who’s going to have their stuff or have an off day.To have that guy to come out of the bull pen and be dominant really helps this team a lot.”

Brookdale (35-10) will now face No.3 seed Cumberland County (33-14) in the NJCAA DIII Region XIX semifinals beginning next Friday at host team Cumberland County in a double elimination tournament with Imperato getting the ball in game one.

Brookdale is currently ranked No.2 and Cumberland No.9 in the NJCAA DIII baseball top 10 poll.

“Cumberland’s good, they’re legit,” Johnson said. “All four teams (in the semifinals) can beat anybody in there. It’s a matter of if we come to play, we field the ball and don’t walk anybody; we can hit with anybody.”

“I’m ready for them,” Imperato said. “Bring them on.”

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