NBC falls to Colts Neck on walk-off in sectional final

COLTS NECK » The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletics Association Central Jersey Group III Tournament baseball final between Northern Burlington and Colts Neck will be remembered as a very good game with a rather strange ending.

Friday’s game, which was played through an annoyingly persistent light rain until the last inning, headed into the bottom of the seventh tied at 2-all.

Cameron Knapp, the leadoff hitter for the topseeded Cougars, promptly singled. Christian Rice tried bunting him over, but with two strikes, doubled to right field instead.

At that point, Rick Doppler, head coach of the seventh-seeded Greyhounds, went out to talk to junior right-handed pitcher Ryan Boyd about whether he wanted to walk the next batter or try to pitch to him.

The visitors elected to intentionally walk Brad Salamone to load the bases for cleanup hitter Dave Cohen.

Left-handed swinging Cohen jumped on the first offering and sent it soaring toward the 336-foot sign on the right-field fence. The ball appeared to leave the field, at least from Northern Burlington’s perspective in the first-base dugout. But the home team’s players and fans on the third-base side could not tell for sure. So when Cohen got to second base, he was mobbed by his faithful.

The umpires promptly ruled that the only run which mattered was Knapp’s run, giving Colts Neck a 3-2 victory instead of what would have been, 6-2, had Cohen been able to finish rounding the bases.

“No, I did not think it was a grand slam, not even close,” Cohen said. “When I was rounding first, I thought it was a single. I didn’t know. I’m so shellshocked right now.”

“Whether it was 20 feet over the fence or just short of it, I told our players they will remember that whole sequence of at-bats for the rest of their lives,” said Cougars head coach Mike Yorke, whose team captured its first sectional crown. “I’m super happy for Dave. He’d struggled earlier this season, but still there’s no one else I’d rather have up in that situation. He’s a heck of a hitter.”

As CJ III champions, Colts Neck (22-6) advances to play in Monday’s state semifinals against the winner of today’s 11 a.m. South Jersey showdown between second-seeded Ocean City (17-7) and top-seeded Mainland (23-3), a game which was postponed because of rain Friday.

After having its ninegame winning streak snapped, Northern’s 20-6 season comes to a close following sectional final appearances in 2019 and 2021 (with no season in between because of COVID-19).

“I take my hat off to (the Cougars) because they’re really tough to score on,” Doppler said. “In the end, their pitching outlasted our pitching.”

The home team opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning when Cohen led off with a true single off Greyhounds’ junior starting pitcher Richie Brown-Loudin.

With one out, Joe Cilea singled to put runners at the corners before courtesy runner, Nick Villani, stole second base. Blaze Masterson then laid down a suicide squeeze bunt to plate Cohen before Ben Goldman singled in Villani for the 2-0 jump.

Northern Burlington wasted little time in responding against Colts Neck left-handed starter Anthony Gubitosi. Even though Gubitosi had struck out six in the first 2 2/3 innings, Marco Mannino and Drew Wyers came through with two-out singles, then C.J. Fredericks singled them in on a 3-2 pitch to tie the score in the top of the third.

“That was a really good confidence boost for us,” 6-foot-9 junior first baseman Fredericks said. “I have to give props to the starting pitchers and relievers for both teams. They pitched well.”

Brown-Loudin and Boyd matched Gubitosi and reliever Collin Kratzer into the seventh when Knapp made a diving stab in center field to rob Marco Mannino of a hit for the third out, keeping Wyers and Fredericks from batting in the top half of that inning. Knapp’s catch also seemed to ignite the closing surge in the bottom of the frame.

“You never want to be on this side of the postgame talk,” said Fredericks, one of 13 Greyhounds who return next season. “One pitch is all it takes to decide a game. That’s part of the beauty and, unfortunately, the heartbreak of baseball.” No.Burlington(20-6) 002 000 0 — 2 5 0 Colts Neck (22-6) 020 000 1 — 3 7 0

2B: Rice (CN); RBIs: Fredericks 2 (NB), Cohen, Masterson, Goldman (CN).

WP — Kratzer; LP — Boyd (1-1).