Sports Shorts

The U12 Celtic boys soccer team has achieved national recognition following their victory at the 2008 U.S. Youth Soccer Region I Championships in Portland, Maine. The region comprises 13 states, and only state champions are invited to participate.

The Celtics defeated the Montclair Gauchos, 4-0, in the semifinals and scored a 1-0 win over Lehigh Valley United (Pa.) in the final.

The Celtics are part of the New Jersey Soccer Academy, an elite club that trains at the Tab Ramos Sports Center in Aberdeen.

The local players on the team are Jake Aremon (Freehold), Kevin Kappock (Howell), Thomas Metzger (Holmdel), Kevin Politz (Morganville), Brandon Tetro (Marlboro), Brian Winderman (Marlboro) and Dominick Ricci (Freehold).

David DeJesus is having another solid season with the Kansas City Royals. The former Manalapan High School star is batting .294. He has 20 doubles, four triples and 10 home runs for the Royals. He's scored 53 runs and drove in 57. He's well on his way to surpassing his career high in RBIs (58) in a season and has already hit more home runs in a season than before with 10.

His 117 hits are tops on the Royals and his 53 runs are tied for second best.

After starring at Manalapan, DeJesus was an All-Big East outfielder at Rutgers University, helping the Scarlet Knights qualify for the NCAA tournament.

Val Majewski has been elevated to triple A baseball by the Houston Astros. Majewski, a standout at both Freehold Township and Rutgers University, began the year playing with the Newark Bears in the Independent Northern League. He was batting .368 when the Astros signed him to a minor league contract and sent him to Double A affiliate Corpus Christi. After batting .333 there, the Astros pro- moted him to their Triple A Round Rock (Texas) Express of the Pacific Coast League.

Majewski is batting .275 in his 25 games with the Express with four doubles, one triple and four home runs. He's scored 11 runs and drive in nine. His slugging average is .536.

Manalapan's Chris Ranieri has been on a tear recently with the River City Rascals of the Independent Baseball Frontier League. The shortstop hit two home runs in a three-game stretch for the Rascals, including a grand slam that helped River City beat the Rockford RiverHawks, 8-4.F

or the season, the St. John Vianney High School grad is batting .269 with six doubles and seven home runs in 65 games. Ranieri was acquired by the Rascals in a offseason trade with the New Jersey Jackals.

The Rascals play in the Frontier League West Division. They are located in O'Fallon, Mo.

Ranieri starred at Alvernia College in Pa., where he had a career .383 batting average and was an All-Conference shortstop.

Morganville's Julian Rozenstein continues to rack up tournament wins. The 11-year-old recently won the Rolex New Jersey State Junior Championship competing in the boys 12 singles. He added the Southern Regional Boys 16 title to his summer résumé.

In the fall, Rozenstein will be a seventh grader at the Marlboro Memorial Middle School.