Manasquan Stomps Red Bank Catholic Behind Muly's 16 Strikeouts, Sheehan's Bat

Photo above: Thursday's hero's of the game, Tommy Sheehan and Connor Muly

MANASQUAN – Senior righty Connor Muly tossed a complete game one-hit shutout, striking out a career-high 16 batters and senior Tommy Sheehan was 4-for-4 with a home run, three doubles, two RBI and four runs scored as the Warriors rebounded from Wednesday’s tough loss to Wall to beat Red Bank Catholic 8-0.

Thursdays’ win against the Caseys keeps the Warriors alive in the battle for the Class B North title after losing three straight entering the game.

“After our three-game losing streak we knew we were a little flat and would have a tough time winning the division if we lost today,” Muly said of his team’s chances coming into the game. “After this game we’re going to just keep winning and see what happens.”

With the likelihood of all games being rained out Friday, Manasquan (10-7, 9-4) will enter the weekend a half a game behind division leader Monmouth (13-4, 9-3) and a half a game ahead of third place Wall (12-5, 8-4) in the B North race. The Warriors have one divisional game remaining while Monmouth and Wall each have two.

“After yesterday, I was pretty much p….. off,” Sheehan said of their 4-3 loss to Wall in which he took the loss. “Coming into today’s game I wanted to do anything I could to help the team win after that tough loss yesterday. Everyone’s been beating everyone (in the division) so you never know.

“Connor’s done a really great job,” Sheehan added. “We’re just looking to carry that in to these next few games and into the post season, states and Shore Conference.”

The Old Dominion University-bound Muly (4-1) had the Caseys hitters baffled throughout the game keeping them off balance with a combination slider and changeup down-and-in to righties and a fast ball low-and-away to lefties. He left one exasperated RBC batter after another shaking their heads in bewilderment as they headed to the dugout after being victims of another strikeout.

“He was crazy good; unbelievable,” Manasquan head coach Bob Waldeyer said of Muly’s outing. “He’s just been an automatic for us as far as going out there and giving us a quality start every time he goes; every time.”

Red Bank Catholic first baseman Mike Veit led off the game with a solid single through the 5-6 hole in the top of the first but that would be as good as it would get for the Caseys as Muly mowed down the next three batters giving them a glimpse of what they were about to face.

He set the side down in order innings two through four including six strikeouts then struck out the side in the fifth in between a walk. He briefly lost the plate in the sixth when he hit the leadoff batter before walking the No. 2 hitter but regained focus to strikeout the next two batters before inducing a soft ground out to second to get out of the inning.

Manasquan put up a run in the bottom of the first when the Notre Dame-bound Sheehan banged a long two-out double off the top of the right field wall and came home on an RBI single by sophomore third baseman James Harmstead.

The Warriors tacked on another three in the third stringing four hits together to start the inning. Sophomore Ethan Thompson led off the inning with a single and Sheehan drilled a double into the left-centerfield gap putting runners on second and third. Harmstead then dropped an RBI single into short left before senior catcher Adam Schreck cracked a long double into the gap in left-center bringing in Sheehan for the second run of the inning.

Freshman designated hitter Alex Galvan brought home the third run of the inning chopping an RBI single past the shortstop for a 4-0 lead.

In the fifth, Sheehan led off with his third two-bagger of the game, bouncing a shot off the left field wall followed by a one out Schreck bad-hop single and a walk to sophomore right fielder Ricky Flynn to load the bases.

Galvan then walked bringing home Sheehan and knocking RBC starting pitcher Blaise Panzini out of the game. Junior righty Jacob Birnbaum entered in relief to face Galvan with the bases full of Warriors and promptly gave up a line-drive RBI single into center by senior left fielder Dan Del Guercio to push the lead to 6-0 after five.

Sheehan completed the scoring in the sixth with a towering, no-doubt two-run homer that sailed way beyond the right-centerfield fence giving Manasquan an 8-0 lead entering the top of the seventh.

“I’ve really been working on my swing and just been seeing the ball well,” said Sheehan, who’s four hits Wednesday raised his batting average over the .500 mark. “I’ve been able to put the good part of the bat on it."

“Tommy’s just tearing it up,” Waldeyer said of his slugger. “I was a little worried about his focus after his tough loss yesterday as a pitcher but he was there right from the beginning – that’s what senior leaders do.”

In the meantime, Muly, who ended up throwing 112 pitches, seemed to be getting stronger as the game wore on setting the side down in order in the seventh including his final two strikeouts that put an exclamation point on his jaw-dropping performance.

“When he was throwing in the first inning we said it looks like he’s actually throwing harder,” said Waldeyer referring to Muly’s increasing arm strength. “His curve’s always been excellent but his velocity as we’re getting into the season is getting a little higher and at the end of the game he was throwing as hard at 105 as he was throwing at pitch two.”

Muly faced only 25 batters in the game, four over the minimum 21 batters for a seven-inning game. If you were to say he dominated would be a understatement, he was more than that, he was brilliant.

Manasquan is scheduled to play Middletown South Tuesday in Middletown in its final B North contest while Monmouth has games with Middletown South and Ocean remaining on its division schedule and Wall has Ocean and Long Branch left to play in the division.

“Yesterday was a tough one to lose,” said Waldeyer. “We talked to the team about it before the game and told them today was the type of game where you can come out really flat or try to man up and do what you need to do. Today they did a great job of coming out and doing what they needed to do against a terrific Red Bank Catholic team.

“Today we gave ourselves a chance,” Waldeyer added referring to his team’s divisional hopes. “It gave us a chance to get some momentum back. It’s been a little disappointing this week because we were in the lead and just had a couple of tough losses to some really good teams but with this win we still have a chance.”

The Warriors banged out 14 hits with Galvan going 2-for-3 with two RBI, Thomson 2-for-4 along with two runs scored while Harmstead and Schreck both finished 2-for-4 with Harmstead adding two RBI and Schreck a double, RBI and run scored.

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