In a season filled with memorable wins, it may have been a season-ending loss that best defined Lawrence High School’s 2023 baseball campaign.
The Cardinals fell behind Middletown North, 8-0, in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group 3 championship game, and it appeared the only remaining goal was to avoid losing by the 10-run mercy rule. But the new breed of Cardinals went beyond that, battling back to within 8-5 (and could have had more were it not for a spectacular defensive play), falling behind 10-5, and eventually losing 10-7 after scoring two in the seventh.
“Last year if it was 8-0 we would have packed it up and left,” said senior center fielder Gio Brogle, who homered in his final high school at-bat.
“We got down early, we didn’t have our best stuff at the beginning of the game, but this is a group of guys that never gives up,” junior Kellen Moore said. “We really showed that heart at the end of the game. We scored seven runs in the last three innings. We could have counted ourselves out, we could have packed it all up, gotten ready for the bus ride home. But we knew we had a chance to compete in this game and we just fought.”
And that’s how it was for the entire season. One of the most memorable in LHS baseball history because it transformed a program.
After years of mediocrity or worse, new coach Jim Maher breathed new life into the Cardinals. Lawrence finished 21-7, enjoyed its first winning season since 1997, reached the state tournament for the first time since 2013 and earned a sectional final berth for the first time since 1974; when Maher was playing rec basketball in Hamilton for a team called Barton & Cooney.
This team exceeded the accomplishments of B&C hoops, but it was far from what Maher predicted in a preseason chat with his superiors.
“I was talking to my athletic director (Anthony Ammirata) and principal (Dr. David Adam), hoping we’d be .500 and get in the state tournament, and have a good showing,” the coach said. “It’s been remarkable. It’s been pretty cool. The parents have been great, the administration has been great. It’s a good place to end my career.”
Fortunately for the Cards, Maher’s career is just starting at Lawrence. Arguably the top baseball coach in Mercer County, the former Steinert hurler has reached the sectional finals 10 times during stints at Florence, Hamilton West, Nottingham and LHS. He has 450 career wins, three sectional championships and one state title.
After serving as a Hamilton West assistant the past three years, Maher got the urge to be head man again. At Lawrence he saw potential despite a 13-28 record the past two years. He had watched the Cardinals current nucleus battle from the loser’s bracket to win the District 12 Little League Tournament in 2018, and knew there was talent that could be honed.
“I just tried to get them to learn how to compete,” he said. “Just compete every pitch, never stop playing hard, which I thought we did a pretty good job of all year.”
But getting players to compete who have been in a losing environment isn’t all that easy. How did he do it?
“You just refuse to let them quit,” Maher continued. “Whether it’s in drills, whether it’s in the cage, whether it’s in a game. You just get them together and say ‘You gotta keep battling.’ It’s something you gotta harp. It’s my personality, it’s the way I would say a majority of my teams have played. Gritty, hard-nosed teams. We pretty much did that this year.”
When Maher took over, no one’s job was safe despite previous playing time. He started three freshmen his first year at Nottingham and built a sectional champ, and started three freshmen this year in Deacon Moore, Aiden Crowley and Drew Dobkin. When Maher looks at a roster, he values talent over what grade they are in.
“When I saw those kids the first week or two, I knew they deserved to be out there,” said Maher, whose knowledgeable young staff included Kevin Smiegocki, Ron Voacolo and Mike Suosso. “It kind of reminds me of that Nottingham team. They all went on to play college ball and these guys all have the chance to do the same.”
Maher also had a reputation for toughness and not coddling players, but the returnees welcomed that.
“Just playing football it’s always been harder,” Brogle said. “It was definitely hard, but I thought it was gonna be more like last year when we only won five games. Maher came out, did what he said he was gonna do.”
Moore was downright excited about it.
“I knew his background, I knew he was a winner and that’s really what a bunch of us wanted here,” he said. “We wanted to win, we wanted to showcase our talent and obviously coach Maher has come in and done a really great job with that.
“This has been a huge culture change. He really turned us around. At the beginning of the season I don’t think any of us could have really expected this. A 21-7 record and an appearance in the sectional final, it was an awesome season. We would have loved to have won it, but I know all my guys are extremely proud. I’m proud of them. We had a helluva season and I don’t think anything could discount that.”
Moore was one of the big reasons for the success. On the mound he was 7-1 with one save, a 1.10 ERA and 70 strikeouts. At the plate he hit .299 and was second on the team with 25 RBIs.
As an added bonus, his brother Deacon led the team with a .457 average and 32 hits. He had 19 RBIs and 10 stolen bases.
“Kellen had an unbelievable year; in my opinion he was the best pitcher in the county,” Maher said. “We’ve just gotta figure out where we’re gonna play Deacon in the field. He can play infield, outfield; he also can pitch. He’s a competitor. He comes at you, he’s a gamer. He’s my kind of guy.”
Brogle was the lone senior to play regularly and hit .295 with a team-leading 16 stolen bases batting leadoff.
“Gio was a competitor,” Maher said. “He was a catalyst at the leadoff spot. He had a great game (against Middletown). It’s probably the last game he’ll play and he had three hits, he led us.”
The coach had praise for his other seniors, TJ Niemann, Rohun Kaistha, Ryan Fobare and, in particular, Ben Pawlak.
“Ben Pawlak was great,” Maher said. “He didn’t really have the numbers he had as a younger kid. But his attitude has been tremendous. All the seniors have been good kids. They really didn’t play much but they were a pleasure to have around.”
Sophomore Teak Toto was another offensive standout with a .425 average and team-high 27 RBIs.
“Teak had a great year,” Maher said. “He struggled a little bit (in the title game) but he’s had so many big hits in the state tournament. He’s come up big game after game. Middletown North wasn’t his day, that’s baseball. But he carried us a lot to that point.”
Juniors Robert Kelly (.303, 17 RBIs, team-high 29 runs) and Riley Rivera (.379, 14 RBIs) were other key offensive contributors, while Aiden Crowley, Dobkin – who showed strong defensive skills at catcher – and junior Dan Dryzga also chipped in throughout the year. Lawrence hit .302 as a team and averaged 6.7 runs per game.
The pitching, under the watchful eye of coach Paul Sparano, was equally impressive with a 2.73 team ERA and 196 strikeouts in 187 innings. Along with Kellen Moore, strong efforts came from sophomore Connor Crowley (5-1, 2 saves, 2.76, 53 Ks), Deacon Moore (4-1, 3.50), Kelly (2-0, 4 saves, 2.69), Kaistha (2.71 ERA in 10.3 innings) and freshman Aiden Poot, who came off an injury to pitch well in a state win over Robbinsville.
It was a group that went from a sleeping giant to Valley Division champion and the only Colonial Valley Conference team to reach a sectional final.
All it took was a little prodding and motivation.
“Maher would have his moments where he’d get mad at us for the stuff that needed to be done,” Brogle said. “But it’s getting around that and still coming together as a team at the end of the day. He brings that every time. If you do something wrong he’s hard on you, but then he helps you prepare to fix that. So no matter what you’re getting the best out of it.”
With all but one starter returning next year, Kellen Moore called reaching the sectional final “a huge stepping stone” for the program. And he knew where credit was due.
“We have a great group of players,” Moore said. “But coach Maher, in the first couple weeks he really had us work hard, he pushed his system with us, kind of taking his experience and his winning from the past. He really instilled that philosophy in us, of how we’re gonna need to work hard, we’re gonna have to compete every game, we’re just gonna find ways to win games even if we didn’t have our best stuff that day.”
And Maher, who was just slightly familiar with several of his new players, wasted little time learning what kind of personalities he inherited.
“He got to know us in the first couple weeks,” Moore said. “He knew what he was dealing with from both talent and people-wise. He found a way to connect with us as ballplayers. He was really able to understand the team, understand what we have and just consistently put out the best lineup of players.”
With so much talent returning, Maher feels the most important thing in the off-season is for the players to get into the weight room and start building their bodies. In looking at this year, he has as much fun as the players.
“I told the guys I enjoyed this so much,” he said. “To come in with these guys who never really won; and they don’t know me from Adam. I’m really proud of them, about how much better they got.”
One of the key components is that they bought into Maher’s ideas rather than resist them.
“I think they were tired of losing,” he said. “They lost a lot of games. Their confidence was low. I still say the first week was huge. When we won those first two games against Robbinsville and Steinert back to back in one run games on the road, that was huge. There were big crowds and we were going against good teams. We won and we just kind of took off from there.”
Which is what usually happens when a proven winner takes the reins of a team loaded with talent that just needed a push in the right direction.
Lawrence High School baseball coach Jim Maher addresses the team after its 10-7 loss to Middletown North in the NJSIAA Group III sectional finals on June 2.,
