Spartans overtake Wave in pitching duel

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr
For the second time this season the Spartans of Ocean Township and the Green Wave of Long Branch faced off in a Shore Conference B North divisional baseball game.

And for the second time Ocean took the victory.

Matthew Mincieli (1) a senior at Long Branch threw 76 pitches in 4.1 innings of action against Ocean Township last week. He didn’t give up any runs in the 2-1 loss to the Spartans.

However, unlike the first meeting back on April 12, when the Spartans were in Long Branch and shutout the Wave 10-0, the May 2, game was much closer. Long Branch had the lead for most of the game. In the second inning Long Branch scored their only run on a sacrifice fly by Jordan Pellot.
The game remained 1-0 until the bottom of the sixth inning when Ocean Township’s Mark Butler smacked a go-ahead two run double giving Ocean the 2-1 victory and improved to 8-9 overall and 5-7 in the B North.

It was a pitching battle the entire afternoon. Senior Matthew Mincieli,who can play just about every position for the Wave, was very strong on the mound. He threw 76 pitches in 4.1 innings of work. He only allowed two hits and had six strikeouts. Evan Yerman came in and pitched the last 1.2 innings throwing 37 times allowing four hits and two runs for Long Branch.

At the plate the Wave had James Horniacek going 2-for-3 as their top hitter. Pellot had the one RBI in the loss.

Ocean had Max Winters on the mound. He pitched all seven innings throwing 87 times. He had eight strikeouts, allowed five hits and one run and also committed one error. Ocean improved to 9-10 overall and are 5-8 in division games. Photo

Top hitters for the Spartans in the win were Cole Kelly who was 2-for-3. Butler knocked in both runs for Ocean.

Making the tag at the plate for Ocean Township is Evan Arbeeny (18) who blocks the plate perfectly on James Horniacek (25) of Long Branch.