CBA Takes Advantage Of Nine-Run Fourth Inning To Down Manalapan

Photos courtesy of Tom Smith: #24 Blaise Venancio, #44 Breadin Hunt, #1 Anthony Celestre, #15 Nick Hohenstein, #14 Tommy DiTullio

LINCROFT – It wasn’t pretty but nine runs are nine runs no matter how you look at it and Christian Brothers Academy will gladly be the recipient of another team’s lack of execution if it leads to a win.

CBA took advantage of B North rival Manalapan’s sloppy play for a 9-0 win against the Braves, who came into the game with a perfect 5-0 record to start the season.

The Colts (3-0, 2-0) broke a scoreless game wide open on a brutally cold day Monday scoring nine times in the bottom of the fourth inning. CBA cashed in on Manalapan's pitchers inability to find the plate and that led to nine runs on just three singles for the Colts in the inning.

Starting pitcher E.J. Melendez and reliever Anthony Jomo combined to walk six batters and hit two in the inning and first baseman Dan DeBlasio committed a costly error that let in the second run and opened the flood gates.

Senior Nick Hohenstein’s one-out single got the big inning started before senior third baseman Andrea Dalatri and senior first baseman John Dudek both walked to load the bases. Junior left fielder Anthony Celestre then laid down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt down the third-base line scoring pinch runner Joe Escandon and the onslaught was on.

Dalatri, who went 1-for-3 with a walk, RBI and run scored, singled in a run and senior second baseman Jack Harnish brought a run home with sacrifice fly as the Colts sent 15 batters to the plate in the bottom of the fourth. Harnish finished 2-for-3 with an RBI.

Colts starting pitcher, sophomore Braedin Hunt, seemed to be in control before running into some trouble in the top of the third with the game still scoreless.

“Nobody’s at a point where I can run them out there and throw 95 pitches, especially on days like this. We’re looking to split them as much as possible,” said CBA head coach Marty Kenney. “We got out of Hunt what we were hoping. We were hoping to get three clean innings out of him, but he just about got us there. If he straightens out his command he’s going to be very effective. He’s only a sophomore, he throws pretty hard and he’s got a good breaking ball. So he’s another one who’s going to be in the mix.

“We may only have five guys throw this year or we may end up with eight or nine, I don’t know yet.”

After Hunt got junior third baseman Anthony Watters on strikes leading off the third, junior Jake Pellecchia reached on an infield hit and stole second base. DeBlasio then grounded to third for what looked like an out but Dalatri’s throw was high and DeBlasio slipped under the tag on a close play at first.

Pellecchia was out at third attempting to steal for the second out, but a wild pitch by Hunt moved DeBlasio to second. Senior left fielder Robert Gargano then walked prompting Kenney to make a pitching change with Manalapan's number three hitter, Giovanni Ciaccio, who came into the game with eight RBI including three triples and two double while hitting .308, coming to the plate.

Kenney brought in veteran pitcher Blaise Venancio, who was making his first appearance of the season, to get the Colts out of the inning.

Venancio quickly uncorked a wild pitch moving the runners to second and third and Kenney elected to put Ciaccio on with an intentional walk to load the bases. Venancio then got out of the inning inducing a grounder to third that Dalatri cleanly fielded and stepped on third for the force ending the inning.

“Braedin started and he looked pretty good but got into a little jam and they told me in the third inning I was going in,” said Venancio. “So I went in and did what I could to get out of it. I just settled back in after that and once we put all those runs up it was much easier. I threw a little bit behind the dugout to stay loose during the big inning. It’s good to get out here now, finally. I feel good, everything’s working and it’s good to back out there with the boys.”

The left-handed Venancio settled down after that and went another three strong innings allowing just one hit and striking out four the rest of the way throwing 59 pitches in 3 1/3 innings pitched.

“He’s been in tight games,” said Kenney of Venancio. “Last year I think he lost three 1-0 games so he pitched a lot better than his record indicated. His fastball is pretty good right now but his command isn’t quite what it was last year but we’re hoping he gets back to where he was last year with his curve and changeup. We have solid starters and I think we’re going to have five or six other guts who are going to be able to contribute.”

The Colts had a chance to end the game in the bottom of the fifth when they loaded the bases with two outs on a Harnisch single, a walk to Tommy DiTullio and Hohenstein’s second HBP but Dalatri’s pop up to short ended the inning.

Senior Jake Lawrie came in for Venancio in the seventh and set the side down in order including striking out the final batter to end the game.

“Ton of depth, ton of depth,” said Venancio of the Colts pitching staff. “I love it. I think the younger guys are stepping up and the seniors are doing their job – we have great depth in the pitching staff. They can turn the ball over to anyone and they can do the same thing and get the job done.

“They were hyped up, we were hyped up,” said Venancio of Manalapan coming in at 5-0. “They played more games than us but in the long run we out did them today – everyone did a great job today.”

CBA travels to Marlboro today while Manalapan will attempt to rebound at home against Freehold Township with both game’s starting at 4:00 p.m.

“Like I told them, the score does not indicate how they played today,” said Kenney. “They did some things well but they also go a little help and that’s not going to happen game-in-and-game-out. I don’t think we hit the ball particularly well today, we worked out some nice walks but there are areas we need to improve, no question about that.”

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