OCEAN CITY – Opening Day of the Ocean City Red Raiders’ baseball season started with a pitching duel against Vineland High School.
Both pitching staffs did not seem to have any first-game jitters, but it was the Vineland offense that managed to punch through with a 3-0 win on March 26. The two teams combined for six hits the whole game with Vineland’s Don Menzoni delivering the biggest hit of the game.
Vineland put two men on base in the fifth inning. Along with solid base-running the Fighting Clan scored the first runs of the game off a 2-RBI single by Menzoni. Ocean City’s offense did better later in the game getting on base, but never managed a clean hit to bring in a run.
“After the game we talked about the positives and of course about the negatives and things we need to clean up,” Ocean City head coach Andrew Bristol said. “We hit the ball hard and got contact but just hit it at guys.”
Senior Kameron Street got the opening-day start for Ocean City and picked up from where he left off last season. Street struck out three batters in the first inning after racking up 44 Ks as a junior. He exited the game after 4.2 innings with seven strikeouts and the two earned runs by Menzoni.
Josh Lenko came in relief of Street and mitigated any more damage alongside the Raiders’ new catcher, Matthew Johannessen. On Lenko’s first batter, Johannessen caught a runner stealing third base.
Vineland looked to add insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning and loaded the bases via two bunts and a walk. One run scored off a walk to make it 3-0, but the inning swiftly ended after Johannessen made another big play at the plate. He caught a shallow fly ball halfway towards the pitcher’s mound and ran back to home plate in time to get the runner from third out for a double play.
“I thought both our pitching and defense was outstanding today, but it takes three things to win a baseball game – pitching, defense and timely hits,” Bristol said. “If you get those three you win the baseball game and lose if you don’t. Today we did not get the timely hits and had a couple of opportunities slip away.”
Johannessen is one of many positional players new to this year’s Raider lineup. He is joined in the infield with shortstop Wes Andrews and outfielder Cullen Whelan. Freshman Brady Williams rounds out the new lineup led by returning players including Street and Kyle Williams.
Along with Street and Lenko, the Raiders also get another season of Preston Pahang on the mound after his great freshman season. He finished last year with a 1.59 ERA and had the third most innings pitched on the team despite being a freshman.
“I’ve got a lot of new positions out there. It’s a learning curve. With our pitching we can stay in every game and then if we improve with those other pieces as they get the experience, I feel good about it.”
Another loss and then a win
Ocean City’s second game against Vineland was pushed back to Monday, March 30, but the Fighting Clan came out on top again, 6-2 with Pahang taking the loss over four innings.
On Tuesday, March 31, the Red Raiders rebounded with a big 11-1 win over Triton.
Lenko earned the with, picking up 12 strikeouts in six innings of work.
Kyle Williams had a home run and a single. Wes Andrews’ double brought in two runs and Jack Reilly added another double.
Lenko had two singles and earning one each were Brady Williams, Pahang, Street, Cullen Wheelan, Jack Fellows and Johannessen.
The Red Raiders are hosting Schalick at 4 p.m. Thursday and will face rival Mainland Regional twice next week, the first at 1 p.m. April 7 at home and then 1 p.m. April 8 at Mainland.
– STORY by WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel
– PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
