The Point Pleasant Beach baseball team was defeated by Lacey, 10-0, in a five-inning mercy rule game in the Ocean County Tournament at the G. Harold Antrim Varsity field on Saturday afternoon.
Point Beach was befuddled by the dominance of Lacey’s Pat Jensen, who dominated both at the plate and on the mound.
Jensen homered twice and took a no-hitter into the game’s final inning before Point Beach’s Sean Driskill singled with one out in the fifth, the Gulls' only hit.
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“He dominated us today,” said Point Beach head coach Ty Hawkins. “He’s got a good arm and has real good life on the fastball and locates it. We weren’t able to do anything offensively.”
Jensen wasted no time helping himself in the top of the first inning.
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The lefty slugger turned an offering from Point Beach starter Joe Scerbo and belted the pitch just over the right-center fence and the reach of centerfielder R.J. Barnes for his first home run of the game.
Scerbo was placed on a strict pitch count in order to allow him to throw in Tuesday’s night game against Keyport at BlueClaws Stadium in Lakewood for the Shore Conference Class B Central Public School title.
The hurler settled down to throw two consecutive scoreless innings, but ran into trouble in the fourth inning.
The righty hurler started the inning by hitting leadoff man Ryan Reitmeyer and that was followed by a Anthony Marotta double.
With runners at second and third, Hawkins opted to intentionally walk Jensen to load the bases for Matt Cecere.
Cecere responded by smashing a single to left that was misplayed by Alan Nieto, and rolled all the way to the fence, clearing the bases.
Following Cecere, Scerbo struck out Victor Kochanowski for the first out of the inning, but Hawkins decided to remove the righty in favor of Chris Janosko.
“We had Scerbo on a strict pitch count to set him up for Tuesday,” said Hawkins. “Today was essentially a side session for him. Since Mater Dei lost to St. Rose, Tuesday’s game is for the Public School championship. We wanted to make sure he was ready to go for that.”
Janosko escaped the jam in the fourth unharmed, but was touched up for two runs in the fifth, courtesy of a two run homer by Jensen.
“Their guy (Jensen) was able to do it all today,” said Hawkins. “You just have to tip your cap sometimes.”
Lacey was able to cap off the scoring in the top half of the fifth by sending 10 to the plate and scoring four runs against the third Point Beach hurler, Nieto.
“Our guys came in, got their work in, and did the best they could,” said Hawkins. “We knew we were a little shorthanded with the pitching going into today, but we didn’t want to jeopardize anything for Tuesday. “
Despite the defeat, Point Beach seeks to win the Class B Central Public School title.
“It’s a great opportunity for our kids,” said Hawkins. “I know it’s something they are looking forward to.”
