Buena grabs first state title

TOMS RIVER, N.J. - One pitch into the biggest game of his high school career, Denny Brady was facing a moment of truth.

He met that challenge and every other one Saturday in leading the Buena Regional baseball team to the first state championship in the history of the program.

"That's Brady," Buena coach Harry Grose said after the Chiefs became the first public-school team from the Cape-Atlantic League to capture a state baseball title, with a 4-1 victory over Bernards in the Group 2 final.

Brady, a junior righthander, made history in emphatic fashion on a warm, sunny afternoon at Toms River East.

Brady mixed a fastball that sat around 87 m.p.h. and touched 90 m.p.h. in big moments with a sharp curveball and sneaky change-up to pitch a four-hitter with 11 strikeouts and one walk.

An East Carolina recruit who could develop into an intriguing draft prospect in 2015, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound Brady retired the last 11 batters in order, including the final two as blue-shirted Buena fans stood and cheered in the bleachers high above the playing field.

"This is for the seniors," Brady said. "We wanted to get them here and get them the win."

Brady also was a hitting star for Buena (22-5), which won 13 of its final 14 games. Brady delivered an RBI double in the first inning on a play in which the Chiefs took a 2-0 lead as another runner scored on a throwing error.

Matt Luisi was 2 for 3 with a run scored and Dom Lopez added an RBI for Buena, which was motivated by a perceived snub when the Chiefs weren't extended an at-large bid to the Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic in early May.

"Hey, Diamond, we don't need you," Grose yelled to the cameras as the Chiefs celebrated with the championship trophy.

Said Brady: "We felt like we got robbed. We had that chip on our shoulder all year."

Brady (10-0, 106 Ks in 62 innings) was in hot water one pitch into the game as Bernards leadoff man Luke Bowerback slapped a double to left field.

"My thought was to keep him there," Brady said.

Brady got a strikeout looking on a nasty curveball, retired the next batter on a groundout, and struck out Bernards' cleanup hitter with another knee-buckling breaking ball.

"That's the way he is," Grose said. "They get a double and he's like, 'OK, you got me there. But you ain't getting a run.' "

Bernards' leadoff man reached base in the second and third, but Brady shut the door with two strikeouts in each inning. In the fourth, Bernards scored its run, thanks to a bloop single to center and a seeing-eye single to right, but Brady worked out of trouble by recording another strikeout with runners on the corners.

Brady sealed the deal for the Chiefs with three consecutive 1-2-3 innings. With his teammates bouncing around in excitement on the field and in the dugout, Brady struck out the final two batters.

"I told him the story about Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson," Grose said. "They would start out throwing 92, 93 [m.p.h.]. Then they would be throwing 90, 91 in the middle innings. Then somebody would get a leadoff double in the eighth and they would find three, four more m.p.h. on their fastballs and say, 'No, you are not scoring that run.'

"That's him. That's Denny Brady."

Bernards 000 100 0 - 1 4 4

Buena 301 000 x - 4 5 0

WP: Denny Brady. LP: Brandon Ball. 2B: Ber-Luke Bowerback; Bu-Brady.

See and hear from Buena's

Denny Brady after the state-title victory.

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