900 Wins For Toms River South Baseball Coach Ken Frank

TOMS RIVER, NJ — As Joe Schifilitti's final strike crossed home plate, the Toms River South baseball team burst from the dugout to celebrate their 12-2 victory over Point Pleasant Beach.

Victories have been hard to come by this season for the Indians, and each one is special. But Saturday's victory was extra special as it gave head coach Ken Frank his 900th coaching victory.

Fittingly, it came on the field named in his honor and in front of his family — both his blood family and his baseball family.

Frank, the winningest baseball coach in New Jersey, reached this latest milestone a year later than expected when the 2020 baseball season was lost to the coronavirus pandemic. The achievement was every bit as sweet, however, as he choked up a bit while acknowledging everyone who played a role in reaching 900.

"I've got to thank my mother and father," he said, pausing as he glanced skyward to acknowledge them.

"And 50 years with my wife who up with all this nonsense after a game," he said.

Frank said at least 20 of his former players were in attendance, including Mike Garrity, who pitched in the very first victory Frank recorded as head coach back in 1978. One had flown up from South Carolina for the day, and two others had flown in from Houston to help Frank celebrate another milestone. Frank became the winningest coach in New Jersey when he recorded his 755th victory in 2012, and reached 800 in April 2014.

"Any player that ever put on a uniform here," he said, "whether you batted .500 or never got an at-bat, you're always an Indian."

Frank also acknowledged his current players, who have been working through a season that got off to a rough start but has slowly improved. On Saturday, however, the Indians (6-10) made sure the victory was not in question, scoring a pair of runs in the first inning and three more in the third inning to take a 5-1 lead.

In the fourth inning, the floodgates opened. The Indians sent 11 batters to the plate and scored seven runs, starting with a two-run home run over the right-field fence by Ryan Mackle.

In the field, Toms River South shut down Point Pleasant Beach. In the second inning, the Garnet Gulls (7-8) had scored one run and had two runners on with one out when Chris Clark fielded a grounder and started the first double play to get the Indians out of the inning. The Indians turned another double play in the third inning. In the fifth inning, as Point Beach was trying to extend the game, third baseman Austin Beard fielded a grounder down the line and dove for third to tag the base for the force for the second out, before Schifilitti finished the game with the strikeout.

"You would have beaten the Yankees today," Frank said to his players after the game. "You were not going to be denied."

Frank also thanked the administration of the Toms River Regional School District, which has allowed him to keep coaching even after he retired from teaching in the district 12 years ago.

"I've been blessed," Frank said.

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