A GreenJacket stops at home

The Augusta GreenJackets make the trip from Georgia to Lakewood to play the BlueClaws only one time each season and that series ends tonight which means the family of Connor Kaden will have to say goodbye to the 22-year old pitcher. 

Kaden is a Toms River South graduate who is in his second season of professional baseball having been drafted last June by the San Francisco Giants in the 27^th round following his junior year at Wake Forest. He appeared in 16 games last summer in relief for the Giants rookie league team in Arizona and later with Augusta.  So far this season Kaden is 2-3 with one start and six appearances out of the bullpen.  His father Ed is a chiropractor in Toms River

Toms River North has won the Class A South baseball title for the first time since 2008.  The Mariners beat Lacey last night 10-5 behind Doug Molnar who went the distance and struck out 10.  North actually secured the division title earlier in the day when Brick beat Toms River South. 

Barnegat is celebrating its first-ever outright division championship as the Bengals claimed the Class B South title with an 8-5 win over Jackson Liberty as John Corbett earned a complete-game victory and helped his own cause with a pair of hits.

A local girls’ basketball team is headed back to the AAU Nationals in Orlando, Florida this summer.  The Toms River STARZ 8^th grade girls’ team won all four of their games last weekend at the Mid Atlantic Regional National Qualifier in Easton, Pennsylvania. 

Coached by the brother/sister duo of Joe Bisogno and Sandy Bisogno-Madigan the STARZ won their four games by an average of 30 points per game.  The team is made up of Brielle Bisogno, Caitlin Carroll, Victoria Gelosi, Noelle Bisogno, Jessica Broad, Kamryn Lister, Jenna Paul, Loia Mullaney and Kylee Watson.  Last year as 7^th graders the team reached the elite eight in the nationals and now a year older they’ll pack their bags and head to ESPN’s Wide World of Sports in July.

Congrats to one of our own.  Scott Stump, the Managing Editor of the Shore Sports Network received first place accolades from the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists in their annual Excellence in Journalism Awards competition for work done in 2014.  Stump’s story “Remembering a Legend, Southern Honors Kathy Snyder” earned first place in the Weekly Newspaper/Local Website Sports Reporting category.  The story appeared on shoresportsnetwork.com.