Brookdale Rebounds with 14-4 Win over Raritan Valley

Photo above: #22 Phil DeMarco and #17 Keith Apostolo

LINCROFT – Fifth-ranked Brookdale quickly put Saturday’s disappointing doubleheader loss to Rowan College Gloucester County – ranked No.3 nationally in NJCAA DIII play – behind them with a 14-4 rebound win over DII opponent Raritan Valley.

Freshman Nick DeMaio’s (Toms River North) two-run double in the bottom of the seventh drove in Keith Apostolos (Lacey Township) and Matt Granato (Freehold Boro) for a ten-run mercy-rule victory over the Lions Sunday at MacLaughlin Field.

“The guys bounced back nicely today,” said long-time Brookdale coach Johnny Johnson. “They play a lot a games in a lot of days here and they don’t realize it but they’re kind of worn down, but they really battled.”

Apostolos, hitting second in the batting order, went 4-for-4 with a double, triple, three RBI, three runs scored, walk and a stolen base boosted his season batting average to .362.

“Keith’s (Apostolos) a kid that came out of nowhere,” Johnson said of his freshman shortstop. “He’s a walk-on kid who works hard and is a team player. He got an opportunity to play and he’s been lights out for us. He had a tough game against Gloucester and I challenged him and he accepted that challenge and he stepped up and got it done for us today.”

Apostolos’ line-drive single up the middle in the bottom of the fifth launched an eight-run rally that broke open a close 2-1 game and his two-run triple into the right-centerfield gap finished it off giving the Blues a 10-1 lead.

“I just go in there and try to stay as calm as possible,” said Apostolos of his approach at the plate. “If I hit a home run in my last at bat or strike out I don’t think about at my next at bat. I try to be patient as long as I can, stay back and what ever happens, happens.”

Sophomore left-hander Phil DeMarco (Ocean Twp.) started and gave the Blues exactly what they needed tossing four shutout innings of one-hit ball while striking out four and walking three.

With runners on first and second and no outs in the top of the fourth, the big lefty induced a fly-ball out and 4-6 double play to end the threat and preserve Brookdale’s 2-0 lead at the time.

“Phil pitched great for us down in Florida and hasn’t pitched in a while so I wanted to get four or five innings out of him today,” said Johnson. “He did what we needed him to do today and he’s going to get another start for us down the road. Phil keeps you in the game. If we’re in the fourth or fifth inning with him we’re either winning or he keeps us close.”

DeMarco kept hitters off balance with a variety of off-speed stuff and a fast ball that batters were struggling to get around on.

“I really had to bare down and throw strikes,” said DeMarco. “I wanted to make sure I got the hitters in (batters box) as quickly as possible so I could do the job the team needed. I was trying work off-speed early and blow my fastball by them early then later I has to pitch to contact and it worked.

“I was a afraid if we didn’t get this win today we might’ve gone into a funk because yesterday did kind of screw us up. But we rallied the troops and came together as one yesterday and this morning a said ‘We need to get this job done,’ so clearly we did.”

Freshman right-hander Jarred Rosso entered in the top of the fifth and was the victim of some sloppy fielding by the Blues. He allowed two runs – both unearned – without giving up a hit while walking two in two innings of relief before handing the ball over to freshman righty A.J. Rizzi, who gave up two runs on two hits and a walk in the seventh.

Granato also had a perfect day at the plate going 3-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored while former Middletown South standout Ryan Ruziecki had two RBI and two runs scored in five trips to the plate. Freshman Bradley Brush (Toms River East) went 2-for-4 with a double, run scored and three RBI and former Toms River East first-team All-Shore outfielder T.J. Scuderi had two hits, including a run scoring double.

The Shore Conference was well represented with eight players from Shore schools playing in the game for Brookdale.

Johnson feels his team has both the offense and particularly the pitching to compete for a championship this season now it’s just a matter of putting it all together at the same time.

“If our team comes together like I think it will we’re going to win a lot of games,” said Johnson. “Right now out pitching is good enough to beat anybody in the country. Our hitting is going to come along by the end of the year because this is a young team but our fielding needs work. If we can get our infield play together like we should we’ll go far. The depth of pitching from one down to 19 is better than any team I’ve ever had. We’re just as good or better than any team in the region. We haven’t played our best ball yet and we’re right there.”

“Not only as a team, but myself, I think we’re heading in the right direction,” said Apostolos. “If we have a setback like yesterday we’ll come back even stronger and I think the sky’s the limit for us.”

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