Winston Hurls Two-Hitter, Braves Roll Past Jaguars in State Semi-Finals

Last week, Manalapan pitcher Jake Winston pitched impressivley in a 7-3 win over Jackson Liberty in the quarter-finals of the Shore Conference Tournament.

Six days later, Winston one-upped his performance, throwing a two-hit shutout as the Braves blanked the third-seeded Jackson Memorial Jaguars, 3-0, Tuesday afternoon at .

"Anytime we get a pitching performance like that, we have a great oppurtunity to win," Manalapan head coach Brian Boyce said, "We were able to scratch across a few runs, but we got the win."

In the top half of the second inning, Winston hit the lead-off batter, who was eventually thrown out by catcher Chris Baird on a caught-stealing.

Winston would go on to retire the next 12 batters, including the two remaining in the second inning, giving the Braves offense plenty of time to come alive.

Joe Serrapica, who had a tremendous day in the field at third base, lead off the bottom of the third inning with a single to left.

After he was thrown out in an attempt to steal second base, Rich Ricciardi belted a single to right center. Nick Kreiger would then follow by reaching base on an error at second base. Ricciardi would advance to third on the error.

Alex Decastro would then bounce a ball to second, but would beat out the potential inning-ending double play at first place, earning an RBI and giving the Braves the games' first run as Manalapan took the 1-0 lead.

Brian Lamboy lead off the bottom of the fourth with a single to center. He then was sacrificed to second base on a bunt by Marco Ferrante and Winston moved him to third on a deep sacrifice fly to right field.

Derek Kawa came up with a clutch RBI single with two outs to give the second-seeded Braves the 2-0 advantage.

Ricciardi lead off the fifth inning with a single to centerfield as the Braves were back at it again. Ricciardi advanced to third on Kreiger's single to left on a hit-and-run play. 

With runners on the corners, Decastro earned his second RBI of the game on a frozen rope to center field that eventually scored, as Ricciardi got his second run of the game, finalizing the score at 3-0.

"We were able to scratch a couple together and capitalize on some mistakes," Boyce said, "We were able to manufacture three runs." 

The Jaguars got a one-out single in the top of the first, and the runner eventually stole second but was stranded there as Winston came up with a big strikeout.

In the top of the seventh, Jackson Memorial was able to get a lead-off single -- their second hit of the game. The runner moved over to second on a ground ball to first base, but Winston would strand the runner there, finishing the game strong.

He pitched seven innings, striking out four and hitting just one batter.

The Braves will play Wednesday, June 1, at home in the semi-finals of the Shore Conference Tournament against Red Bank Catholic. The Caseys ousted the Braves from the Monmouth County Tournament semi-finals at a home game seven days ago, with a score of 13-7.