By Rich Chrampanis
LINCROFT – Red Bank Catholic opened the preseason as the No. 1 ranked baseball team in the state. Ranney took over the top spot during the regular season.
And in last week’s Monmouth County Tournament championship at Brookdale Community College, both teams showed that they are without a doubt among the best in the Garden State.
Ranney won the school’s first MCT crown with a thrilling 6-5 victory that saw the Panthers rally with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning after RBC took the lead in the top of the frame with two runs.
Both teams had uncharacteristic miscues in the first inning, resulting in each team scoring two runs apiece thanks to errors. In the final six innings, both teams played championship-level baseball.
Ryan Costello gave the Panthers a 4-2 lead in the second after crushing a pitch to right center field that would have been a home run in almost any ballpark in the area. Costello settled for a two-run double.
A key moment of the game came in the fourth inning when the Caseys loaded the bases. Ranney starter Marcello Mastroianni squared off against dangerous leadoff man Alex Stanyek who hit a sky-high pop-up just in front of home plate. Mastroianni and third baseman Diego Tavarez converged on the moon shot and nearly collided. The ball went off Tavarez’s glove but he made a bare-handed grab to record the third out. With the runners in motion, the play saved at least two runs, possibly three.
The Caseys chipped away at the deficit thanks to Matt Brunner’s RBI single to left in the top of the fifth inning. Stanyek delivered a gutsy performance on the hill, reaching the 110-pitch limit after the sixth inning. Ranney’s AJ Gracia came on in relief of Mastriaonni and pitched a scoreless sixth. But RBC came to life in the seventh. Catcher Shane Andrus smashed a ball over Glen Cantalupo’s head in center field. The RBI double tied the game 4-4 and Brunner gave the Caseys a lead with a bloop single to shallow center field. With a two-run rally, RBC was three outs away from winning the Monmouth County championship.
But Ranney showed its resilience when it mattered the most.
Gracia gave up the two runs on the mound but quickly gained redemption: The Duke commit cranked a beautiful swing into the gap in right-center. Just like that, with an RBI double, Ranney tied the game 5-5. The next batter, Costello, jumped on the first pitch from reliever Steve Svenson with a base hit to right. Gracia slid in head first and Ranney won the Monmouth County title in an instant classic.
“Coming into that at-bat I wasn’t nervous at all,” Costello said. “I felt good in the box and I knew I was going to walk it off. It feels surreal. I just transferred to the team this year and I love it.”
The transformation of the Ranney baseball program mirrors what the basketball program did a few years back when it won the Tournament of Champions.
Last year’s Panthers team won a state championship and is still in play for the rare “triple crown” of county champion, Shore champion, and state champion. Having one championship secured has Ranney excited about the coming weeks on the diamond.
“Everyone knows the story,” Gracia said. “We weren’t exactly the best baseball program until our class got here. We’re trying to write a new book for our program and prove to everyone that we’re going to be around for a while. It obviously feels great to get this one off our back and we still have two tournaments to go to try and complete the legacy.”
The article originally appeared in the May 18 – 24, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
