Long Branch Battled Undefeated Keyport

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

Long Branch sophomore Alexander Lucas #27 had a double and an RBI during the loss to Keyport.

The undefeated Red Raiders varsity baseball team at Keyport High School had a wakeup call during the first inning at Long Branch High School on Wednesday afternoon. The Green Wave had a great start as they retired the Red Raiders batters quickly, then scored two runs in the bottom of the first.

“I really like the way that we competed against a top division team. They came in undefeated and are the division champs and we were able to go toe to toe with them in a back-and-forth game,” said Ben Woolley, head coach at Long Branch.

Keyport was able to score a single run in the top of the second inning and held Long Branch scoreless in the bottom. Top of the third, the Red Raiders scored three runs and again held the Wave scoreless in the bottom of the inning.

The fourth inning, Keyport added three more runs. However, Long Branch was able to score two and going into the fifth inning were down 7-4. For the third consecutive inning, Keyport added another three runs in the fifth, and those were the last runs plated in the game. Keyport took the 10-4 victory and are 11-0 overall and 10-0 in the division.

“They took advantage of some opportunities with runners on base and we kinda didn’t score as many runs as we could have when we had our opportunities, so I tip my cap to coach Kyle Keelen and his team,” said Woolley.

Some of the errors were just minor mistakes, but against a good team those little mistakes can add up. One mistake was an infield pop-up and two Green Wave players collided trying to make the catch. There were also a couple of throws that were not as accurate as they should have been. “We had a great attitude, and were focused for seven innings. We just came up a little bit short,” added Woolley.

Making a great tag at homeplate for Long Branch on a Keyport player is Leonardo Arcos, a freshman catcher.

With that loss the Green Wave drops to 4-7 overall and are 4-6 in division games. The division has Keyport on top followed by Neptune, Lakewood, Henry Hudson, Long Branch, Keansburg, and Asbury Park. “I really like how our team has been resilient. We have been able to bounce back in a lot of these doubleheaders with teams in our division,” Woolley said. Long Branch might’ve lost the first meeting, but then bounced back and won the second game, which they proved against Keansburg and Lakewood.

We also bounced back against Henry Hudson, a team that has been really good this year. I’m very proud of the guys for not dwelling on some tough losses,” added Woolley. This season the Green Wave is getting contributions across the spectrum, from Freshman to seniors. “Our three seniors, Kellen Campbell, Justin Cuevas, and Gary Ribeiro. But we have a lot of young players, eight underclassmen. So with a young team like this and for us to keep bouncing back, it’s a good sign,” Woolley said.

The coach also pointed out that with a young team comes inconsistency. Seniors on the squad are helping the younger players through those tough games. “I have to give credit to my assistant coaches who have done a great job with these players. Hopefully, we can make it into the state tournament for the first time in a long time,” said Woolley.

Dimitri Giannakopolous, junior, was 2-4 scoring twice and stole a base. Also going 2-4 was Cuevas who had two RBIs. On the mound to start the game for Long Branch was Ribeiro, who threw 73 pitches over 3.1 innings. Also getting some work was Kendrick Baez-Oliveras, sophomore, who threw 61 pitches over two innings. Aidan Lopez, also a sophomore, worked 1.2 innings and threw 21 pitches.

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