BASEBALL - SENIOR ALL-STAR GAME: THE BIG 'O'

By Scott Stump - Senior Editor
E-mail: stump@digitalsports.com


     LAKEWOOD - When Henry Hudson's Brian Olofson suited up for Wednesday's Shore Baseball Coaches Association Senior All-Star Game at FirstEnergy Park, he figured he would just keep on doing the same thing he tried to do throughout his high school career - put his small school on the map.
     Sporting the Boston Red Sox hat he has worn all season because his team's hats didn't fit on his head, Olofson stuck out more for his play than his attire as he belted a pair of triples as part of a 3-for-3 day and also made a sliding catch from first base in foul territory to help the Monmouth County squad top its counterparts in Ocean County, 12-4, in Olofson's first and last game in his high school career at the home of the Lakewood BlueClaws.
      "It's definitely good, (because) now everyone knows who (Henry) Hudson is,'' said Olofson, who hit .439 with 20 runs scored, four homers, 15 RBIs and 11 stolen bases this season for the smallest public high school in Monmouth County.
     "No one ever really knew who Hudson was and I was, and it was exciting to play on this field for the first time.''
     Olofson jump-started a scoreless game when he ripped the first pitch he saw off Toms River North righty Zach Brebner for a single to kick off the top of the fourth inning, and it led to a seven-run inning for the Monmouth side. Olofson moved to second on a wild pitch and then scored on the first of two RBI singles in the game by Colts Neck's Chris Coutros for the first run of the game, and then Monmouth took off from there. A hit by Wall's Dan Camano loaded the bases before an error and a fielder's choice brought home two more runs, and then an infield hit by Neptune's Brandon Lewis made it 4-0.
     Manalapan outfielder Pat Flanagan, a first-team DigitalSports All-Shore Conference selection who led the Shore with 47 hits this season, then ripped an RBI single up the middle for his second hit of the game and a 5-0 advantage. Two batters later, Olofson was back up to the plate for the second time in the inning and he promptly crushed a two-run triple to right center field to blow the game open with a seven-run advantage.
      "I was just hoping to get a fastball and rope it on the first pitch,'' Olofson said. "I got it three times (in the game) and hit it.''
      Ocean County recovered to cut it to 7-3 in the bottom of the fourth inning when Central's Chris Simcsuk, who had two hits in the game, ripped a two-run triple off Matawan's Matt Mizerek after a walk by Toms River South's Brian Chrashewsky and a single by Brick's Ray Johnson. The inning ended when Olofson went sliding toward the tarp near the first base dugout to make a nice grab on a foul pop-up.
      Monmouth County pretty much sat on the lead from there, adding a run in the fifth when an RBI groundout by Rumson-Fair Haven's T.J. Geltzeiler brought home his teammate, shortstop D.J. Breckenridge, who had walked, stolen second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. In the bottom of the fifth, Ocean County cut it to 8-4 when Brick's Kurt Loftus smacked a double off St. Rose's Casey Cannon and scored on a pair of wild pitches.
      Olofson had one last bolt of lightning left in his bat when he crushed a shot to right center field off Barnegat's Alex Tynan for a one-out triple in the sixth inning and then scored on the second RBI single of the game by Coutros for a 9-4 lead. Monmouth later pushed across its final three runs in the eighth inning when Monmouth Regional's Matt Slowinski hit an RBI single followed by a single from Marlboro's Jeff Pizzi and then a two-run double by Red Bank's Kyle Grant.
      "It was a lot of fun seeing a bunch of kids I played with in the fall, and I'm good friends with the kids from RFH,'' Grant said about his experience. "I've never seen any of those pitchers (on Ocean County), so I just wanted to go up there and have fun, that's all I was thinking.''
      Fun was the order of the day, as Monsignor Donovan's Andy Gannon sent one last jolt into the crowd by nearly hitting one out to right center field before settling for a double off Freehold's Matt Yuhas in the bottom of the ninth. Yuhas, a righty who is headed to Division I Longwood University, then polished off a scoreless inning to wrap up the 2008 Shore Conference baseball season. The game was then followed by a charity game between a team of Shore Conference alumni and a team of New Jersey state troopers.
      For Olofson, the game will be tucked in the memory bank along with a junior season in which the Admirals made the state playoffs for the first time in 10 years. He hopes to continue his career at Brookdale Community College.
      "To end it like this, you can't beat it,'' Olofson said.

Game notes: For Monmouth County, Colts Neck's Anthony DeSclafani and Freehold's Matt Yuhas, who were former teammates at Colts Neck before Yuhas transferred, each pitched two scoreless innings, and Mater Dei's Sean Beinert pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the seventh...For Ocean County, Toms River South's Vinny Vivona, Central's Evan Beattie, Jackson's Will Wardell and Point Beach's Nick Ardito each pitched one scoreless inning...Rumson's T.J. Geltzeiler threw out a runner at the plate from left field in the fourth inning...Toms River East's Chris Wedding and Monmouth's Matt Slowinski each threw out basestealers at second from behind the plate.

Box score
Monmouth County 12, Ocean County 4

Monmouth  0 0 0 7 1 1 0 3 0 - 12 15 0
Ocean        0 0 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 -   4 6 2

Doubles: (M) Grant (Red Bank); (O) Gannon (Msgr. Donovan), Loftus (Brick). Triples: (M) Olofson 2 (Henry Hudson); (O) Simcsuk (Central). WP: Mizerek (Matawan); LP: Brebner (TR North).