By Bob Brand & Phil Stilton

Jackson, NJ – The underdog 12 year old Jackson Little League All-Stars handed Toms River Little League their second defeat, eliminating them from the District 18 tournament to become the 2009 District 18 Little League Champions.  District 18 encompasses most of central and northern Ocean County from Barnegat in the south to northern border of the county.

After losing their first game in the tournament, the team outplayed every opponent afterwards, invoking the 10 run mercy rule on several occasions as they defeated Toms River National, Toms River East, Lacey, Holbrook, Brick and Toms River American to make it to tonight’s final game.

Jackson won the District 18 Championshipby defeating Toms River American all-stars for the second straight game in the double elimination tournament and will now advance to the New Jersey Section 3 tournament in Sayreville from July 20^th to July 25^th. Jackson and Toms River played each other three times in this tournament and each of the three games were epic battles with Toms River taking the first game with a walk-off grand-slam home run in the sixth. Jackson won the second game in 8 innings and Jackson taking third game and the championship with a classic pitchers duel for four innings.

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Jackson Township mayor Mike Reina and Councilman Scott Martin once again were on hand to watch their town’s champions as both Jackson Little League and Holbrook Little League competed in championship games tonight.   Mayor Reina threw out the first pitch, but was soon overshadowed by 12 year old Brandon Janofsky on the mound.

  Jackson sent Brandon Janofsky to the mound who dominated the Toms River team over the first three innings and allowed just two runs over six innings by scattering four hits and striking out 11 batters.

Shane Brand led off the Jackson 2nd  and homered deep to left center to give Jackson a 1-0 lead. Cole Collins followed with a moon shot to dead center and gave Jackson a 2-0 lead one of many back to back home runs by Jackson’s bash brigade during the tournament. Toms River’s outfielder hangs over the fence as he unsuccessfully tries to pull down Cole’s home run.

Cole Collins rounds second after sending a monster shot over the fence as Toms River’s second basemen looks on.

Shane Brand crosses the plate after hitting another home run in the tournament.

Toms River scored in the top of the 4^th to close the gap to 2-1. With two out in the bottom of the 5^th inning, Kyle Missry singled and Danny Serreino doubled down the left field line to place runners at 1^st and 2^nd. The Toms River coach elected to intentionally walk Steve Lazicki to load the bases for Brand.

Brand singled over the shortstops head to score Missry and Serreino, and a errant throw allowed Lazicki to score the third run of the inning and give Jackson a comfortable 5-1 lead going into the sixth.  After a lead off single, Janofsky got the next hitter looking at strike three. The next batter grounded out to short for the second out of the inning. The next batter singled to left and with Janofsky down to his final pitches of the game, struck out the Toms River clean up hitter to end the game and give Jackson Little league it’s third consecutive 12 year old all-star District 18 Championship.

Like every other game, Jackson had a very strong support cast in their very own bleacher creatures who cheered on their team through the entire competition, never giving up on the team even when the chips were down as both the team and the fans did an outstanding  job representing our town.

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Contact:  Phil Stilton pstilton@stiltonco.com  732-575-4891  and I’m on Facebook. Add me and join the Jackson Parents Group and People of Jackson NJ to see what other nonsense I’m getting myself into!