On a beautiful 75 degree Friday evening at Hinchliffe Stadium, the New Jersey Jackals returned home to open a four game series against the New York Boulders, cruising to a 10-3 victory to move into first place in the Atlantic East Division.
The Jackals entered the matchup after taking two of three from the Boulders earlier in the week in Pomona, N.Y, and extended their winning streak to three games with the win.
Right handed ace Sonny Fauci got the start for New Jersey looking to continue his strong early season form. The Boulders wasted
little time getting on the board in the opening inning. Second baseman Kyle Hess led off with a single to right field before stealing second base. After shortstop Fritz Genther grounded out to move Hess to third, rightfielder Aaron Simmons lined an RBI single back up the middle to give New York a 1-0 lead. The comebacker struck Fauci on his glove hand, but after a brief visit from the trainer, Fauci remained in the game and retired catcher Jason Agresti on a groundout to end the inning.
The Jackals answered immediately in the bottom half of the first. Designated hitter Issac Bellony opened the inning with a single before leftfielder Luis Encarnación launched a two run home run over the right field wall to put New Jersey ahead 2-1. After former Jackal and Boulders starter Alex Barker recorded a strikeout, third baseman Felix Stevens stepped to the plate and crushed his ninth home run of the season completely out of the stadium, extending the lead to 3-1.
Stevens is now tied with Gateway Grizzlies outfielder Mark Shallenberger for the Frontier League lead for most home runs for the 2026 season.
Fauci settled in during the second inning. After allowing a leadoff single to third baseman Santino Rosso, Fauci quickly picked him off at first base before striking out first baseman Dan Tauken and designated hitter Jack Scanlon on consecutive curveballs to end the frame.
New Jersey’s offense continued to roll in the bottom of the second. First baseman Dariel Gomez worked a leadoff walk before catcher Jedier Hernandez flew out to right field. Centerfielder Aldalay Kolokie followed with a two run blast over the left field wall to increase the lead to 5-1. Later in the inning, Encarnación struck again, blasting his second home run of the game over the left field fence to make it 6-1 Jackals.
“I’m preparing my mentality right. It’s more focus, no jumping on the swing, more behind the ball,” Encarnación said.
Fauci continued to dominate through the middle innings. In the third, he struck out Hess and Genther while allowing just a walk. In the fourth inning, Fauci worked around a leadoff walk to Simmons and a stolen base attempt that was overturned, retiring Rosso on a groundout to end the inning.
Barker briefly settled down for New York, retiring the side in order in the third and working around traffic in the fourth. However, the Jackals offense broke the game open in the fifth inning.
Second baseman Daunte Stuart led off with an infield single before Stevens walked. Rightfielder Martin Figueroa laid down a sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position. After shortstop Connor Maryniak struck out, Gomez battled through a lengthy at bat to draw a bases loaded walk. Hernandez followed with a first pitch opposite field single that drove in two runs, extending the lead to 8-2. Kolokie later walked to reload the bases before Bellony delivered a two out two RBI single to left field to cap the inning.
Barker’s final line against his former team was rough, allowing 10 earned runs on 10 hits while throwing 113 pitches over 4.2 innings.
After the lengthy bottom half of the fifth, Fauci returned to the mound in the sixth inning with 87 pitches already thrown. He walked Hess to open the inning before striking out Genther for another one on the day. Fauci later walked Simmons, prompting manager Bobby Jones to call for reliever Dosie Drakeford.
Fauci finished his outing allowing three hits, two earned runs, four walks, and recording a season high nine strikeouts.
“I wasn’t really trying to focus on strikeouts. I was trying to fill the zone up, get 0-2, 1-2 as quick as I can,” Fauci said. “I feel like that I can go to strike every moment with my fastball and my slider.”
Drakeford entered and struck out his first batter before allowing an RBI single to Rosso that cut the deficit to 10-3. He responded by striking out Tauken to strand two runners and end the inning.
The Jackals bullpen handled the rest from there. Drakeford tossed another scoreless inning in the seventh, highlighted by a barehanded play from Maryniak deep in the hole at shortstop. Left hander Ryan Steinhauser followed with a quick eighth inning, retiring the side on just six pitches.
Right hander Breyln Jones came on for the ninth inning looking to finish off the victory. After allowing a leadoff double to Rosso, Jones struck out Tauken and Scanlon before getting John Schroeder to fly out to left field to end the game.
For the Jackals, Encarnación led the way with three hits, two leaving the park, while Bellony had three hits and Stevens reached based three times.
New Jersey improves to first place in the Atlantic East Division with the 10-3 victory over the Boulders, bringing their record to 10-6 on the season while the Boulders fell to 10-7.
The Jackals return to action Saturday May 30 against the New York Boulders at Hinchliffe Stadium for game two of the series.. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
