Friday, May 13

(This post could not be posted on Friday due to technical difficulties)

Toms River South and Jackson Memorial played four times during the 2010
Baseball season with the Indians winning three of those games, including the championship games of the Ocean County and Shore Conference Tournaments.

The Indians split a pair of regular-season games with Jackson and went on to win the Class A South title as part of a 26-4 season.

The Jaguars clearly have set their sights on reversing those results this spring and already have two wins over South and have secured the division title. Now the two teams are on a collision course in the Ocean County Tournament with both winning their quarterfinal round games Thursday.

Top-seeded South pounded Manchester 11-4 as Steven Petrosino rapped-out four hits and drove in three runs and Mitch Dressing added three hits and knocked in a pair of runs. Winning pitcher Chris McKenna helped his own cause with two RBI’s as the Indians improved to 13-4 and will host Brick tomorrow in the semifinals. The Green Dragons used a Tim Carney grand slam to help them oust Central 10-5.

As for Jackson…well the second-seeded Jaguars had to fight back from an early 5-0 deficit to beat Toms River North 7-5. Chris Russo drove in four runs to get them back in the game and then Joe Ogren led off the bottom of the 5th with a home run to snap a 5-5 tie and send Jackson into the semifinals against Lacey. Brandon Holup pitched five shutout innings of relief as Coach Frank Malta’s team improved to 15-3 and will host the surprising Lions tomorrow afternoon.

Should both South and Jackson prevail tomorrow it will set the stage for another meeting in what has become the shore’s best rivalry. Malta, in his 7th season at Jackson has built a very good program and of course in his 34th season Ken Frank’s Indians are the measuring stick for everyone else. Showing no signs of slowing down, Frank’s career record of 745-233 is a testament to the fact that players come and go but he and winning remain the constant.