Top photo caption: The CBA baseball team celebrates after defeating Rumson-Fairhaven for a record ninth Shore Conference Tournament title. It was a championship that seemed unlikely after injuries led to a slow start for the Colts. Photo by Larry Levanti/https://larrylevanti.com/
By Rich Fisher, Contributing Editor
It was Apr. 27 and the Christian Brothers Academy, Lincroft, baseball team had just suffered a 13-0 loss to Red Bank Catholic to drop to 6-7.
Part of the rough start was a challenging schedule, along with several key injuries.
Coach Marty Kenny Jr. had a talk with his squad after the RBC loss and told them no one was feeling sorry for them after they had won a South Jersey Non-Public A title last year and Monmouth County and Shore Conference tournament crowns in 2024.
“I told them we have to get tougher,” Kenny said. “We had to go out and compete.”
But secretly, Kenny was not practicing what he preached.
“With what our expectations were for this year – we had eight guys back who contributed to the last two years – and to go through what they went through, I didn’t want them to feel sorry for themselves but I kind of felt sorry for them,” the coach said. “I knew how much was built up for this group and for a couple kids to not play for their senior season or lose half of their senior season, there were times certainly where I felt upset for this group.
“But I had to realize I have to coach who I have to coach. This isn’t a lost year by any means, and we just tried to rally the troops and compete.”
They rallied all right. After a win over RBC and a third loss this year to Ranney in the MCT, the Colts went on an 11-game winning streak that included a Shore Conference Tournament title and second straight trip to the SJ Non-Public championship game.
CBA (18-9 record) never completely got over its injury problem with Division I pitchers, as Dylan Iwanyk (Michigan commit) was shut down after May 1 and Shane Loggie (Virginia) missed the entire season. Seniors Danny DiTullio (Northeastern) and Dan Pardini (Penn State) both suffered fluky lower body injuries early in the season and when they returned, the Colts started galloping.
Pardini emerged as the ace with a 4-0 record, including a win in the SCT final over Rumson-Fairhaven and 4-2/3 scoreless innings against Immaculata in the South Jersey semifinal.
“He really took the ball and ran with it,” Kenny said. “I don’t know if anyone would have predicted what he’s done. As he’s gotten healthy and come back, he’s been outstanding, but we kind of saw it in preseason, even his first start in California, his stuff had really jumped, we were pretty excited about it.”
DiTullio was the most consistent starter and has the most maturity among the pitchers.
“With him you know you’re getting a competitor, a guy who throws strikes and mixes things up,” Kenny said. “He’s really done what we’ve come to know of him over these four years. He can throw a fastball, breaking ball and change-up any time in the count to any hitter and keep you off balance.”
Also stepping up were juniors Declan Doogan, who won the SCT game in relief, and Luke Grbic.
“Doogan has another great arm,” Kenny said. “He’s been our finisher this year, that was a position we envisioned him in. And a guy like a Luke Grbic has really helped settled us down.”
Pacing the offense were Northeastern commit Colin Hoverter (.313 average), juniors Alex Fiore (.315), Michael Knox (.393), Dylan Reynholds (.380) and Ryan Wetmore (.353), and senior Thomas Jefferson commits Jared Matejicka (18 RBI) and brother Jayden Matejicka (.364)
Kenny felt the key to his team’s turnaround was remaining afloat during the injuries. He told the Colts if they can stay around .500 until Pardini and DiTullio got healthy, they could turn it around.
“Our goal was to survive those games and not let the season fall apart,” Kenny said.
They not only kept it together, they thrived; winning a record ninth SCT by beating R-FH 12-0 behind three hits apiece by Fiore and Jayden Matejicka, a hit and RBI by Jared Matejicka, and two hits and two RBI by Ryan Wetmore.
Of all the SCT titles won by CBA, Kenny felt this one felt special considering all the early adversity.
“It definitely felt earned,” he said. “I felt really proud of the kids.”
After rolling past Camden Catholic and Union Catholic in the first two games of the South Jersey tournament, CBA was locked in a scoreless battle with top-seeded Immaculata in the semifinals.
In a storybook effort, Fiore was hit in the face by a pitch in his first at-bat. After some anxious moments, he stayed in the game and in the top of the eighth blasted a solo home run to give CBA a 1-0 victory.
“His brother was a hockey player for us,” Kenny said. “He has that kind of mentality.
“He certainly was scared when he got hit in the face, as anybody would be, but he wanted to stay in. He’s done well in big games for us.”
The Colts’ run ended with a 6-0 loss to St. Augustine in the sectional final, but it could not detract from the perseverance shown by a talented team that was spinning its wheels over the first 15 games.
“I told them after the Red Bank Catholic loss ‘Things haven’t gone how we wanted it to but we gotta figure this out,’” Kenny said. “To their credit, they did.”
