Sports
Red Bank Catholic Opens Season With 9-1 Win over Matawan
Caseys ace John Poccia tosses six innings of two-hit shutout ball for first win of the season
Photo above: Red Bank Catholic pitcher John Poccia in Friday's opening-day win
RED BANK – Entering the season ranked No.11 in the state and No.2 in the Shore Conference, Red Bank Catholic has had a ton of expectations heaped upon them, so it was important for this veteran team to get off to fast start with a win on opening day.
They did just that behind senior right-hander John Poccia’s gutsy opening day performance as the Caseys beat Matawan ace Adam Elliot – a three-year starter and All-Division pick – 9-1 Friday at Count Basie Fields.
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“I think we played well early and set a tone from the start,” Red Bank Catholic head coach Buddy Hausmann said. “Poccia did a good job letting us play defense, he kept us in the game and I thought we did a good job defensively behind him.”
Senior centerfielder Dom Caraballo helped the cause going 2-for-4 with three-run double in the second inning and an RBI single in the Caseys three-run fourth, while senior catcher Doug Facendo added a triple in the third, an RBI sacrifice fly in first and a RBI ground-rule double in the fourth with two men on that bounced over the 370-foot mark in centerfield.
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In picking up his first win of the season, Poccia tossed six innings of shutout ball allowing two hits while striking out four and walking one. In his six innings of work he faced only 20 batters and threw a mere 52 pitches facing just three batters in four of his six innings worked with only one batter advancing as far as second base the entire game.
“We had the scouting reports so I knew what to throw to every guy,” Poccia said. “I hit my spots when I needed to, kept the pitch count low, kept us in the game and our hitters came through today. My two-seamer (fastball) was definitely my out pitch today. I ran it in on a lot of guys and got a lot of ground-ball outs. After last year’s disappointment we wanted to start out strong and get off on the right foot.”
After Poccia set the side down in order in the top of the first, senior shortstop Evan Madigan laced a sinking line-drive double to centerfield leading off the bottom of the first. Madigan advanced to third on a groundout and scored on an RBI sacrifice fly to centerfield by Facendo for a 1-0 lead after one inning.
The Caseys loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the second on two errors by Matawan shortstop Tom Collazo and a walk before Caraballo pulled a line drive down the right field line that rolled to the fence clearing the bases to give the Caseys a 4-0 lead.
With Poccia sailing along in complete control, Red Bank Catholic added two more runs in the third to make it 6-0. Facendo hit a long fly ball that Matawan centerfielder Makel Caldwell ran down but failed to make the play turning it into a triple before junior third baseman Anthony DeRosa sacrificed pinch runner Connor Caizza home. Senior right fielder Mike Spinelli followed with a booming triple in the left-centerfield gap that rolled to the fences before scoring on a fielder’s choice.
In the fourth, Red Bank Catholic chased Elliot off the mound after junior second baseman Aaron Ahn’s single with one out and one run already in put runners at first and second. Facendo then sent reliever John Carelli’s first offering to the wall with his RBI ground-rule double before DeRosa sacrificed Ahn home with short fly down the right field line for the Caseys final run of the game to make it 9-0 lead.
Matawan scored a meaningless run in the top of the seventh off Casey reliever Jack Ipsen on a hit batsman, single and RBI ground-rule double by Jake Burlew.
The Caseys looked sharp in all phases of the game on Friday, pitching, defense and an offense that displayed some timely hitting behind their anticipated power.
“This year we got the target on our back,” Hausmann said. “Everyone’s going to be coming at us trying to knock us off so it was a nice way to start the season.”
Caraballo finished 2-for-4 with a double and four RBI and Facendo was 2-for-2 with a triple, double, sac fly and two RBI while DeRosa added two RBI sacrifice flies and Spinelli a triple.
