Season ends with upsets of three local teams
BY DOUG McKENZIE
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT staff Above, CBA's Jim Laufer connects for a two-run single during the Colts' loss to Bishop Ahr on Friday in Lincroft. Below, the Colts' Ed Daniele waits for the ball while the Trojans' Joe Cruz slides safely back into second base.

All of the expectations in the world can't guarantee anything in the state playoffs.

Just ask the Christian Brothers Academy baseball team, the top seed in the Non-Public South A bracket, who suffered a shocking loss to a 16-6 Bishop Ahr on Friday to fall to 24-4 on the year.

Or the St. John Vianney girls softball team, who just one day after beating Jackson to clinch their third straight Shore Conference Tournament championship, were upset by Notre Dame, 2-0, in the same Non-Public South A tournament, to end their season at 27-4.

Or the Mater Dei softball team, who was looking forward to beating Bishop Eustace and earning a shot at a sectional final, before being upset by the seventh-seeded Crusaders, 6-4, in their Non-Public B South semifinal on Thursday.

Three local parochial teams all expecting to play for titles left scratching their heads at what could have been.

Bishop Ahr's boys advanced to the title game (where they faced No. 2 St. Augustine yesterday at Mercer County Park to determine the sectional champion) behind the arm of Steve Montalbano and the timely hitting of Lee Cavico and Matt Rodriguez in their 4-2 win over CBA.

Montalbano went the distance and allowed just three hits over seven innings. He walked just three and fanned four to improve his record to 5-4 on the season. Facing what many believed to be one of the state's top teams, Montalbano shut down his share of high-powered CBA hitters.

"He's been up and down this season, but he had it all working against CBA," Bishop Ahr head coach Scott Runkel said. "He got ahead in counts, kept the ball down, and the defense did a good job behind him. We made a lot of tough defensive plays, and Steve was certainly on top of his game."

Cavico swung a hot stick going 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI double that gave the Trojans a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Rodriguez belted a two-out, two-run dinger over the 385-foot sign in center field in the sixth inning off CBA ace Jordan Warncke. Warncke came into the contest with a 7-1 record and an ERA of 0.94. Four runs proved to be plenty for Montalbano.

"Matt's homer was a shot that traveled well beyond the center-field wall," Runkel said. "It had to travel over 400 feet. We've played some of these state powerhouses to close finishes, but it's nice to finally beat one of them."

The Trojans ran into St. Augustine in last year's state tournament and played with the perennial powerhouse before St. Augustine struck for nine runs in a two-out rally.

St. Augustine advanced to the sectional final with a 27-22 win over Red Bank Catholic.

Not that the Trojans were overly impressed.

"We've now won four in a row and we feel we're peaking at the right time," Runkel said. "Our hitting went away for a little while but it has come around again, and with our consistency on the mound we feel we can compete with anybody."

SJV's loss to Notre Dame surprised many, as the Lancers appeared poised to make this postseason their stomping ground.

SJV beat Jackson, 3-2, in a thrilling SCT final at Ocean County College on May 31, as Katie DeBlasio laced a two-run, walk-off double down the left-field line to secure the win in the bottom of the 10th inning. DeBlasio came to the plate with the bases loaded and her team down a run, and got the job done, just as Diana Sansevera had all game for the Lancers, holding the Jaguars' explosive offense to just one second-inning run

The Jaguars took a 2-1 lead in the top of the 10th on an RBI ground-out, setting the stage for DiBlasio's heroics.

But SJV could not carry the momentum over against Notre Dame, as Irish pitcher Allie Tamlinson continually frustrated Lancer batters, pitching out of trouble several times.

Sansevera was the hard-luck loser, striking out six and allowing the two runs in the second inning, when a walk, an error and a sacrifice bunt set up Ashley Vinmon's game-winning single to right-center field.

Notre Dame went on to face fourth-seeded RBC (who beat top-seeded Bishop Ahr in the other semifinal) in yesterday's sectional final.

Mater Dei, the third seed in the Non-Public South B bracket, entered its sectional semifinal at 13-7, only to watch Bishop Eustace jump out to a 5-0 lead in the third inning. The Seraphs tried to come back, scoring three times in the fifth inning, before being shut down the rest of the way.

It was certainly a tough two-day stretch for the local teams, putting a disappointing cap on the local high school baseball/softball season.