Sports Shorts

The Jackson Heat 11U baseball teamwon the championship at the Sports at the Beach baseball tournament by going 4-0.

The semifinal game was against the Maryland Titans with Jackson winning in dramatic walk-off fashion, 9-8. Joel Rivera pitched four strong innings. Ben Sanders hit two home runs and also threw two scoreless innings. The championship game was against a powerful South Jersey Young Guns squad. Danny Naif pitched two solid innings, eventually giving way to Brandon Jonofsky, who went the distance and was named the game's MVP by tournament directors. Jackson was down 7-5 going into the last inning and they had runners on second and third with two outs. Joseph Chiappetta was up at bat and had a 2-2 count on him when he hit a walk-off double to win the championship.

The Lakewood High School Athletic Hall of Fame will be conducting its annual Induction Dinner on Sunday, May 4. The event will begin at noon with a social hour where each inductee's mementos and highlights will be displayed. The luncheon and ceremony will begin at 1 p.m. Businesses, teammates, family members and friends of the Lakewood Piners are invited to support the program via advertisements and greetings in the published program brochures.

This year, the Hall of Fame Committee will be inducting 14 former athletes selected through the committee's nomination process, as well as honoring three Teams of Distinction.

The committee announced the following inductees to the Lakewood Athletic Hall of Fame:

Sam Christopher, 1945, sports journalist

Robert G. Housen, 1956- golf, basketball, baseball

Mauro Altizio, 1960 - cross country, track

Pierre DeCausey, 1966 - basketball, football

Gary Gunderson, 1970 - baseball

Thomas Briscoe, 1974 - basketball, baseball

William Mohr, 1974 - baseball

Kevin King, 1975- basketball, football

Bob DelConte, 1980 - football, bowling, baseball

George Bessette, (posthumously), football coach, 1986 state champs

Chrystal Navarro, 1988 - basketball

Addie Dix Moore, 1991 - field hockey, bowling, softball

Diamond Navarro, 1994 - soccer, basketball

Thomas Carroll, 2001 - football

The Teams of Distinction that will be entered into theAthletic Hall of Fame are:

Golf - '55 and '56 state champions

Football - '64 undefeated Shore Conference champions

Although the committee will attempt to contact members of the Teams of Distinction, teammates, friends and family are encouraged to help connect with participants of those teams and contact the committee.

Some of the proceeds from the event provide scholarships to a male and female Lakewood High School scholar-athlete. This year, one of the scholarships will be named after Athletic Hall of Famer and former committee member Jack Van Etten, 1939, who died in 2007.

This year's ceremony will again be held at Woodlake Country Club, Lakewood, with tickets priced at $30. They are available through the Lakewood Athletic Department by reaching Pat Halpin, athletic trainer, at (732) 905 3537.

The New Egypt Soccer Club is holding tryouts for their travel soccer teams: U13 boys, U12 boys, U11 boys, U10 boys, U10 girls and U9 boys. Tryouts will be held 6:30-7 p.m. April 17 and 18, and 9-11 a.m. Saturday,April 19, at themunicipal soccer field (located behind the municipal building on Evergreen Road). For more information, check www.newegyptsoccer.comor call Anthony Marabuto at (732) 758-0850

New Egypt Unity, a U10 girls team competing in theMonmouth-Ocean Soccer Association (MOSA) seeks additional players as they get ready to move up to U11 competition for fall 2008. Tryouts will be held April 17 and 18, 6-7:30 p.m., and Saturday, April 19, 9-11 a.m. To learn more about Unity, visit the team's Web site at www.newegypt-soccer.com/Unity.html or contact Unity coaches: Andres Medina at (609) 758-4969, amedina70@comcast.net; Michael Mount at (732) 236-4575, michaeljmount@comcast.net or Ed Weirsky at (609) 758-9047, ECWeirsky@aol.com.