PISCATAWAY – The Point Pleasant Beach Garnet Gulls defeated the Pompton Lakes Cardinals 10-4 in the NJSIAA Group 1 Baseball State Championship game for the program’s first state championship in school history.
A keyword for this matchup? Revenge. After losing the championship two years ago to the Cardinals, all that was on the Garnet Gulls’ mind was getting them back.
“We wanted revenge,” Senior Tommy Conroy said postgame. The outfielder had a hit and pitched in the final three innings. “We were all hoping Pompton Lakes got there because we just wanted to beat them so bad. And you know, got the job done.”
Pompton Lakes opened scoring right away in the top of the first inning when Jonathan Popovich smacked a single for the 1-0 lead. An error and a double steal play added two more runs, and it was 3-0 just like that.
It was a short tenured lead as Point Beach responded right away with runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. An RBI single from Carson Pfeifer and a pair of two-run singles from Antonio Acevedo and Thomas Slobiski quickly made it a 5-3 game after one full frame.
Things didn’t stop there. An RBI single from Chad McConnell in the very next inning brought the Cardinals within one. After two innings, a total of nine runs were scored between both teams.
In the bottom of the fourth, Point Beach added insurance runs to take an 8-4 lead. A mishap during a play where the ball got stuck in the pad of Pompton Lakes catcher Dylan Hazen advanced a Beach baserunner home, and a pair of RBI singles from Acevedo and Davin Marquez added two more runs.
Point Beach kept the ball rolling the next inning, scoring twice on fielder’s choice plays. Pfeifer was safe at home after beating the throw, and in the next at bat, Acevedo successfully made it to a non-defended first base on a bunt that brought one more run in. It was Acevedo’s fourth RBI in the game.
The Garnet Gulls held on the rest of the way for the 10-4 victory. Not only did they win their first state championship in school history, but they also got revenge on the team they lost to in the same title game two seasons ago.
“We’re different,” Senior Pitcher Bennett Moberg said. Moberg pitched the first four innings of the game. “Two years ago, we lost to Pompton Lakes. I thought that was the best team I’ll ever play on. This is the team that I will always remember, I’ll always be with, and I’m so excited for our reunion.”
This is a long time coming for the Point Pleasant Beach program that worked its way up from the bottom. After playing in less competitive conferences and coming up short in state finals in previous years, they moved up to the Shore-A South Division and finished things off as champions. Garnet Gulls head coach Angelo Fiore, who has been the skipper since 2014, praised the late Ray “Doc” Ellis, the former principal and head coach, for getting him his start and essentially paving the way to what the program is today:
“You know, Ray was the guy who gave me my start. You know, he hired me back in 2008. When he was the principal. He was the principal and the baseball coach, and he gave me my start, recommended me for the job, and he took a chance on me, and, you know, he just passed away this past year, and that’s the 15 that you see us wearing on our sleeves. And, I mean, so thankful for the opportunity that he gave us, and I mean, from where we were in 2014, you guys covered it, you know, from B Central to A South to state champions. That’s a hell of a crazy story.”
