Don Hutchinson, coach of the West Windsor-Plainsboro American Legion baseball team, likes his summer schedule.##M:[more]## “You wind up playing games pretty much every day and there are relatively few practices.”
But Hutchinson (whose son Kyle is an assistant coach) has seen his team drop some key games enroute to a 8-10 early season record and fourth place in the Mercer County American Legion League (MCALL). In order to make the playoffs, a team merely has to earn a .500 record or better and be among the top six teams in the standings.
But after having finished in first place in the county in 2004, Hutchinson isn’t satisfied with just achieving a winning record. “We have been pretty inconsistent so far,” he says. “It seems that when our pitching is doing well on a given night, we have a set back in hitting or fielding. It’s a question of getting it all together.”
One reason for Hutchinson to be optimistic is right fielder (and sometime pitcher) Eric Voigtsberger. Adept at getting on base anyway he can — hits, base-on-balls, or being hit by a pitch, he currently has an on-base percentage of .460 and leads the team in walks (16), runs (19), and stolen bases (11).
As a junior Voigtsberger emerged as one of High School South’s most reliable players, finishing with 10 RBIs, as well as hitting two triples. He also had a 2-1 record as a pitcher. “I’ve had a pretty good year,” says Voigtsbeger. “I did a lot of off-season work on my hitting and I think I’ve gotten used to varsity pitching a little bit.”
A resident of Plainsboro, Voigtsberger is also a star on the varsity soccer team in the fall. This season he will serve as one of the team’s co-captains. Voigtsberger has two younger sisters — Megan, a sophomore at South, and Katie, an eighth grader at Grover Middle School. His father works as a salesman and his mother is a nurse at Princeton Hospital. While Voigtsberger is just starting to look at colleges, he expects to attend school somewhere in the state of Virginia. “I really like the weather there,” he says.
The Legion team started the season with impressive victories over Princeton and Hopewell — games in which Voigtsberger garnered a total of five hits — before dropping games to Ewing, Broad Street, Bordentown, and Hightstown.
The WW-P legion team has players from both High School South and North. “A lot of the players have played together on different Little League teams as they were growing up,” says Hutchinson. “This gives them a chance to relive some of those old days.” Among the top players are Casey Warner, Zach Weale, and Jono Chirumbolo from North, as well as Matt Olson, Matt Marini, and Joe Huttner from South.
But whether WW-P makes the playoffs is an open question. “There are some teams that are pretty close to us,” says Hutchinson. “It’s going to be a real fight because the teams are so equal.”
Torralba Stars
Sometimes power comes in a pint-sized package. Diminutive quarterback (and defensive back) Jeff Torralba, who graduated in June from High School North, scored one touchdown on offense and hauled in an interception in a 29-7 East win in the annual Sunshine All-Star Football Classic on July 1.
Initially selected for the team as a defensive back, Torralba was pressed into the quarterback position when the scheduled starter dislocated his knee three days before the game. Torralba, who will attend Pace University in New York in the fall, was named the game’s Most Valuable Player after rushing for 117 yards on eight carries.
Plainsboro to LA
Andrew Bynum did not make much of a splash at WW-P High School North, but he apparently did play on the freshman basketball team back in 2001. Since then he transferred to Solebury High School and later Saint Joseph’s Regional High School in Metuchen, where he made a very big splash: As a 7-foot, 280-pound center, Bynum averaged 22 points per game, 16 rebounds, and five blocked shots and was selected in the first round of the N.B.A. draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. .
The 17-year old with a 3.4 GPA was one of the most sought-after high school graduates in the country and had signed a letter-of-intent to play basketball at the University of Connecticut. But on June 21 he announced that he would forego college and make himself eligible for the N.B.A. draft. He is the youngest player ever drafted.
News reports note that Bynum’s father is Ernest Bynum, a former star at Long Island University now living in North Carolina, but it is unclear if Andrew’s mother is still in Plainsboro. The young star is not related to former WW-P school board president Lester Bynum.
