No Ordinary Day at the Park

Toms River North head coach Ted Schelmay and his coaching counterpart on Thursday from Toms River South, Ken Frank, have more than 50 years of head coaching experience in the Toms River baseball rivalry and in all of those years, neither has seen anything quite like what both witnessed on Thursday evening at Toms River High School North.

The Mariners squandered a six-run lead in the top of the seventh inning before rallying in both the bottom of the seventh and ninth innings to claim a wild 16-15 win in nine innings over Toms River South, earning a season series split with their cross-town rivals while moving into a tie for second place in the Shore Conference Class A South division.

“That’s probably the craziest game I’ve ever coached in and it’s certainly the craziest game I can remember between these two teams,” said Schelmay, currently in his 18^th season as the head coach at Toms River North. “Our team never stopped fighting, they’re guys never quit and fortunately we were the ones who had the last at-bat today.”

Toms River South scored seven runs in the top of the seventh inning to take a 13-12 lead, but Eric Pecoraro sent the game into extra innings with a long RBI double to centerfield.

“I wasn’t really thinking about (the ball going over the fence) to be honest,” Pecoraro said of his key hit. “I just wanted to get to second base and giving us a chance to win the game there.”

After the Indians went up 15-13 with two runs in the top of the ninth, Toms River North again responded with consecutive RBI singles by Mike Daniels and Brett Fontenelli to tie the game at 15. The winning run scored when Nick Brebner’s ground ball to shortstop turned into the throwing error at the second base bag that enabled pinch runner Greg Holland – running for Daniels – to score from second base with the winning run.

“This is the best game I’ve ever been a part of,” Pecoraro said. “We’ve lost some tough games, but we believe in one another and we believe in this team, so we never felt like the game was lost. We just kept fighting.”

Toms River North junior second baseman Scott Buxbaum broke a 6-6 tie in the bottom of the fifth when he hit a bases-clearing double and scored on a wild pitch to give his team a 10-6 lead, which became a 12-6 lead after Toms River North scored two more runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Toms River South, however, went right to work in the top of the seventh, putting the first seven batters of the inning on base. Mariners pitching ace Ben Musicant entered the game attempting to record the final three outs, but hit the first two batters of the inning – Mitch Dressing and Dan Scheller – on the first two pitches of the inning and was promptly lifted in favor of sophomore Ron Marinaccio, who started the game in left field.

With those seven straight batters who reached, Toms River South cut the deficit to 12-11, but Marinaccio retired the Indians’ top two hitters, Kyle Perry and Steve Petrosino, for the first two outs of the inning.

Dressing then came to the plate for the second time in the inning and delivered the go-ahead, two-out, two run double to leftfield on a three-ball-two-strike count to score R.J. Devish and John Nogiewich to give Toms River South a 13-12 lead after they entered the inning trailing by seven runs.

Indians first baseman Dave Egeland and Nogiewich each had RBI singles in the seven-run seventh inning, and the Indians got a break on an R.J. Devish bases-loaded groundball hit back to Marinaccio that he threw to the plate in order to start a possible double play. Catcher Adam Chiaravalloti had to jump to catch the throw from Marinaccio and his right foot came wide of the base, allowing the run to score.

To make matters worse for the Mariners, Chiaravalloti’s low throw to first got past Daniels and allowed a second run to score, all without Toms River North recording a single out. That made it 12-10 and Nogiewich dropped in a bloop single to pull South within 12-11.

“We didn’t play a mistake-free game, but we played a competitive game and that’s what we’re looking for,” Schelmay said. “Mistakes are going to happen, but you’ve got to keep playing and keep competing and that’s what our guys did today."

Pecoraro, Buxbaum and Marinaccio led the offensive attack for Toms River North. Pecoraro, the senior centerfielder, went 4-for-6 with three doubles, three runs scored and three RBI. Buxbaum finished 3-for-5 with a double, triple and four RBI, including the second of back-to-back triples by him and right-fielder Tyler Lawrence in the second inning. Toms River North had nine extra-base hits in all Thursday.

Marinaccio finished 3-for-5 with a double, triple, three runs scored and two RBI, while also earning the win with three innings of relief. Sophomore Karl Blum worked the first six to set himself up for the win, but did not factor into the decision.

Perry led the Indians by going 3-for-6 with a triple, an RBI and two runs scored, and played leftfield, centerfield and catcher in the game. Perry’s triple led off the game, but Blum worked out of the early jam by striking out the next three hitters to escape without surrendering a run.

Toms River North handed Toms River South its second straight loss after the seventh inning, with the Indians losing 4-2 to Jackson Memorial on Monday after taking a 2-0 lead into the sixth inning. The win is also Toms River North’s fifth straight since losing three in a row, two of which the Mariners have won in the last at-bat. They rallied from a 6-3 deficit to beat Lacey 7-6 on Saturday.

“We lost to some really good teams and those were tough losses, but we never lost confidence in what we were doing,” Pecoraro said. “Winning games like this gives you a lot of confidence. We’re going to be in tough games the rest of the way in order to accomplish what we want, we’re going to have to win more games like this.”

Well, maybe not quite like this.