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Dragons Keep Streak Alive, Defeat Southern 2-1

Sean Henry lifted the Brick Dragons varsity baseball team over the Southern Regional Rams with his RBI double in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Sandwiched between the their battle with Brick Memorial on Sunday and Shore Conference Tournament play beginning this Saturday, it would have been easy for the Brick Green Dragons baseball team to overlook the Southern Regional Rams. After all, the Dragons were standing at 14-4, winners of nine straight coming into Thursday's game.

Through nine innings, it looked as if the Dragons did fall into a trap game. However a stellar collective pitching performance kept the Rams quiet and set the stage for the Dragons' 2-1 victory over the Rams.

Tim Carney came on to pitch the the top of the eigtht and ninth, and twice got out of one out jams with back-to-back strikeouts.

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"Once they scored a run, I had to call in Tim (Carney)," said Jason Groschel, Brick head coach. "We needed him to hold the fort down and he did just that."

Bill Berg and Carney would have back-to-back hits in the top of the ninth to lead off the inning. It was the first pair of consecutive hits all day. Henry followed up batting clean-up and belted a walk off double to right center field to give the Dragons the 2-1 win.

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"We came out flat today for whatever reason, maybe because we have been inside the last couple of days with all the rain," said Groschel. "We couldn't get anything going, some hard hit balls but right at people – we just couldn't get base runners."

The Dragons' run in extra innings was the only earned run all game.

In the bottom of the third inning, centerfielder Nick Vitale hit a ball deep in the outfield. After reaching third with a triple, an errant overthrow allowed him to score and put the Dragons on the board with a 1-0 lead.

Later, in the top of the fifth, an overthrow at first base allowed the Rams to set up with a runner on third and no outs. Following a strikeout, the Rams plated their run with a ground out to short stop.

Four pitchers took the mound for the Dragons on Thursday, with junior Brandon Kieslor getting the start. Kieslor pitched three scoreless innings, striking out three and inducing five ground outs. Kieslor escaped danger in the third inning after hitting two batters in a row, but got a Ram to ground out to third with two outs.

A.J. Esposito pitched two innings, allowed an unearned run and struck out two, including setting the Rams down in order in the top of the fifth. Dan Mnich surrendered one hit in his two innings of work, while striking out two and getting a key pop up to third base to end the top of the seventh with a Ram on second.

The aforementioned Carney pitched the final two innings, twice pitching himself out of trouble.

The collective effort limited the pitch counts for all four to be used for Saturday, the second round of the Shore Conference Tournament (Brick secured a first round bye).

"Well be ready Saturday," said Groschel. "All of our pitchers will be able to go seven if needed, we'll make a decision later of who it will be."

Groschel was not concerned with the lack of offense today.

"Not at all," said Groschel. "That's baseball, it's our first time back on the field in a while."

Brick tallied seven hits while holding the Rams to four.

Carney was the only Dragon with multiple hits, going 3-for-4, and Sean Henry was the only Dragon to draw a walk, going 1-for-3 with a walk and a run batted in.

Bill Berg scored the game-winning run.

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