Story by Guy Kipp TapIntoMiddletown
COLONIA, NJ — Middletown North turned the tables on Colonia after the Patriots had ousted the Monmouth County team from the 2025 state baseball tournament.
Ninth-seeded Middletown North scored runs in each of the first two innings and went on to a 5-1 victory over eighth-seeded Colonia in the first round of the NJSIAA North 2, Group 3 tournament on Wednesday.
Last season, Colonia knocked Middletown South out of the tournament in the quarterfinal round when Cory Pascarella pitched a no-hitter against the Lions. Pascarella is now part of the Monmouth University baseball program.
This year’s ace for Colonia (14-10), Seton Hall University commit Colin Kroner, who had pitched only one inning in the previous three weeks while recovering from an elbow issue, got on the mound for the final three innings of Wednesday’s contest, but by that time, Middletown North (15-10) had a 2-0 lead.
After Lions leadoff hitter reached on an error to open the game, Donovan Murphy plated him with a double to center field to put Colonia in an immediate 1-0 hole. Jack Byers’ RBI single on a groundball through the right side gave Middletown North a 2-0 lead in the second inning after Derek Thomas led off with an infield single up the middle and Brady Kernan moved the runner up with a sacrifice bunt.
Colonia left two runners on base in the second inning without scoring. Then, in the third, No. 9 hitter Joe Synosky led off with a walk for the Patriots. The next batter, Jake Gotti, who has been Colonia’s best hitter most of the season, barreled up a pitch from Lions pitcher Rob Cutolo and hit a long drive to left-center field. But left fielder M.J. Parulis ran the flyball down with his back to the infield deep in the alley. Synosky had been running with the pitch and didn’t immediately see that Parulis had made the catch. Parulis made a relay throw to shortstop Lou Romeo, who relayed to first baseman Ryan Clark to complete the 7-6-3 double play.
Cutolo pitched 4 1/3 shutout innings, allowing two hits and two walks and striking out three. Mason Lisotti and Romeo followed him to the mound.
Dylan Chiera started for Colonia and pitched four innings. He allowed four hits and two runs, one earned, with five strikeouts and one walk. Croner went three innings, allowed two hits, but three runs (one earned) with three strikeouts and three walks.
Paul Asseng went 2-for-3 with an RBI in the sixth inning, when Colonia cut Middletown South’s lead to 2-1. But the Lions scored three runs in the seventh, aided by a passed ball and a dropped third strike. Romeo (on a squeeze bunt) and Thomas each had RBI singles in the seventh.
Middletown North will play at No. 1 seed Chatham in the quarterfinal round at 2 p.m. on Friday.