Toms River LL Wins Again, Faces Maryland Next

By Karen Wall
karen.wall@patch.com

Jonathan Giordano and Nick DeRose combined for 12 strikeouts and Jason Kapp hit a three-run home run as the Toms River Little Leaguers beat Colonie Little League of New York 6-4 on Sunday evening in Bristol, Conn.

Toms River, the New Jersey state champion out of District 18 in Ocean County, improved to 2-0 in pool play in the Mid-Atlantic Regional tournament. The 11- and 12-year-olds have Monday off and face West Salisbury Little League of Maryland on Tuesday in a game scheduled for 10 a.m.

It was a bit of a bumpy ride for Toms River on Sunday, however.

Toms River opened with Giordano on the mound, and he was perfect through the first three innings, striking out eight of nine batters on just 40 pitches. After notching his ninth strikeout, Colonie L.L. finally touched him for a hit in the top of the fourth inning, when Jimmy Davis drove a one-out single to center field and Jakob Lemperle followed. But Christian Wood came on in relief of Giordano and got Toms River out of the jam.

In the top of the fifth, however, Toms River got rattled. Colonie’s Greg Wyman and Christian Brennan opened the inning with singles for Colonie, then an error loaded the bases. A second error allowed Ben Farrell, running for Wyman, and Brennan to score. DeRose came on and walked Pauly Montesanti, the first batter he faced, to load the bases. DeRose struck out the next two batters but a two-out error allowed Colonie to put two more runs on the board before shortstop Phil Antoniotti fielded a grounder from Tyler Lambert and tagged second for the out on Ian Parker to get out of the inning.

DeRose finished it off in the sixth, induced a ground-ball out to Antoniotti and striking out a batter before second baseman Vinny Rose caught a line drive from Montesanti to end the game.

Follow the games live on Game Changer by going to the Little League Eastern Regional website and clicking on the game.