If there was a post-season award for Most Unheralded Baseball Team in Mercer County this spring, Nottingham would have been the runaway winner.
After being a bubble team that was denied a berth in the Mercer County Tournament, they were the third seed in the Mercer Invitational Tournament despite being red hot. Three of their losses were by one run and one was by two. Few games were covered by area papers, making them the CVC’s best kept secret.
“We knew that we were the most underrated team that flew under everybody’s radar this entire season,” catcher Chris Babkowski said. “We knew how good we were and we knew who we could compete with.”
And they showed it in a big way.
Nottingham went 16-8 — a .667 winning percentage — and won 14 out of 15 games after an 0-5 start. The Stars had the fourth most wins and fourth best overall winning percentage in the CVC. With a chip on its shoulder, Nottingham won the Mercer Invitational by outscoring three opponents, 20-10.
“Not being the one seed in the Invitational tournament basically showed us that no one had any respect for us,” pitcher/infielder Mikey Septak said. “We said to ourselves ‘If no one’s going to respect us, let’s show them why they should.’”
Pitcher/outfielder Matt Juliano said the players couldn’t understand how they were a borderline MCT team that was thrust three spots down in the invitational.
“That’s what fueled us,” he said. “Going into each game we had all the confidence and motivation and not one person on the team expected us to lose.”
Juliano felt MCT hopes were dashed after the 0-5 start, but shortstop Jordan Raba figured that with the way Nottingham was performing, it should have been in.
“We were probably more mad that we didn’t make the MCTs because that’s when we won like nine of our last 10 games and we thought we proved to everyone in the county that we deserved a shot in the tournament,” Raba said. “That just put more fuel to the fire though. We felt disrespected and we ended up winning the MCT Invitational pretty easily.”
Charlie Iacono, who set a personal record for most wins as a head coach, was baffled at the Stars; omission from the MCT.
“We were extremely disappointed not to get in,” he said. “I don’t know if people weren’t paying attention, or what was going on. Or was it just because one team (Pennington) had a possible draft pick and they slid in. We would have loved to be the eight seed and played Lawrence again after we lost to them 4-2. We knew we were a much more competitive team at the end of the year from when we started.”
The Stars hoped to prove just how competitive with a strong state run. After beating Delaware Valley by the 10-run rule in the first round of Central Jersey Group II, they lost a heart-breaking, 5-4 decision to top-seeded (and eventual state champ) Governor Livingston. Nottingham tied it with a run in the top of the seventh before the hosts won in walk-off fashion.
“That loss really hurt,” Juliano said. “Everybody wanted it so bad. We genuinely think if we win that game, we win the whole section. But we fought, and we competed. I think that shows you the type of group we had.”
Iacono agreed, saying “I think if we beat them we had a good shot to get to the sectional final. The boys were on a roll.”
But in the first two weeks of April the closest they got to a roll was at Eet Gud Bakery across the street. It didn’t help that their field was being worked on and, in the season’s first three weeks, home games were at DeMeo Field while practices were on the JV skin infield.
Iacono entered the season on a high notre when wife Gabrielle gave birth to their first daughter, Cecilia, on March 21. Assistants Brian Emerson and Rob Nosari also had newborns, but the joy of fatherhood was being tainted by the rough start.
“I knew we were a better team than 0-5,” Iacono said. “The three of us have newborns, we’re going home all stressed out, kind of communicating all night about ‘How can we turn this around?’”
The first thing was to meet with the players.
“We had a heart to heart, or maybe just a one-way heart to heart,” Iacono said. “We said we’ve got two options – this could be the worst baseball season of your guys lives or we could play like we know how, and compete and turn this thing around.”
Coach Eric Struble dubbed it the “Comeback Season” and the players latched on to that war cry to become one of the county’s hottest teams.
“We could’ve all just thrown the season away after starting 0-5,” Raba said “We were uptight and tense those first five games, putting too much pressure on ourselves. Once we got the first win under our belt that made us all realize the one big thing we had been missing – to just have fun playing the sport you love. So from that game on we just played loose and had fun.”
Babkowski said that while the team was down mentally, something inside of the players and coaches kept hope alive that the trend would reverse. That’s what comes from chemistry forged by time.
“We have all been playing together for a really long time and we’re all best friends,” Babkowski said. “We knew as long as we stayed loose and had fun it was gonna be OK. Once we started winning games, we realized it was about our attitude.”
That senior core of friends included Babkowski, Raba and Juliano, who were four-year varsity performers; Septer, a three-year varsity man; Cole Funke, who played mainly in the field last year; and Aidan Cavanaugh, who played varsity for the first time this season.
Raba, a defensive whiz at shortstop, led the Stars in average (.459), hits (34) and stolen bases (19). Juliano hit .352 with 25 hits, 17 RBI, 16 stolen bases and 24 runs. Both will play at Mercer County Community College next year.
“After a senior got hurt, Jordan got an opportunity as a freshman and finished with 106 hits,” Iacono said. “He and Matt had speed at the top of the lineup. When they got on they wreaked havoc on the bases. I preached being aggressive with those two guys. They did a great job offensively.
Babkowski, who will play for Alvernia next year, hit .375 with nine doubles and a team-high three homers and 27 RBI. He was also solid behind the dish.
“He hasn’t gotten huge recognition throughout the county but he’s been a catalyst back there catching every inning,” Iacono said. “He did a great job working with coach Nosari in helping manage the staff.”
Septak, who is still deciding on a college, hit .308 with 16 RBI and nine runs, and made the Mercer County Carpenter Cup team with Raba. He made an even bigger contribution on the mound. The staff workhorse forged a 2.56 ERA with 46 strikeouts and just 14 walks in a team-high 63 innings.
“Every time Mikey got on the mound we knew he could win the game,” Iacono said. “He’s not overpowering with the fastball but he developed a couple pitches with movement. He could throw three or four pitches for strikes and really knew how to set guys up with his change-up.”
Also providing a boost was Juliano, who didn’t think he could pitch this year due to injury but finished with a 3.29 ERA in 27⅔ innings.
“He was going to rehab, and after our first five losses I think he figured let me get him out there to help the team,” Iacono said. “He was pain free from that point and it helped big-time.”
Funke, a football player by trade, stepped up with a .400 average, 14 RBI, 13 runs and 12 stolen bases.
“I DH’d for Funke all of last year and this year he comes out with a .400 average,” Iacono said. “He lived in the weight room and showed how much that could help. He won a spot, we let him hit and he ended up having a good year.”
Cavanaugh hit a “hard” .241, picking up 11 RBI on his 14 hits. He also logged 28⅔ innings with a 4.40 ERA.
“Last year we had a couple arms and we just didn’t use him,” Iacono said. “He did a great job as our third starter this year.”
Several underclassmen also contributed to the “Comeback Season” as freshman Danny Alonzo had a 1.98 ERA and walked just six in 17⅔ innings; and junior Aidan Lipman hit .304 with 11 RBI and 13 runs.
“Alonzo came in as a little freshman and the first day he threw strikes, we knew he liked him,” Iacono said. “He probably wasn’t ready for varsity but you gotta be ready at Nottingham. We only had 30 guys on the whole roster for both levels. But we did a good job with the guys we had.”
Iacono said his only hot streak comparable to what Nottingham did this year was with the 1996 state finalist HTRBA 12-year-olds. But even that team didn’t lose its first five games.
“Once we started 0-5, I really didn’t expect us to win much,” Juliano said. “Maybe six to eight wins. Part of our turnaround was the amount of seniors we had. We all knew this was it, and that nobody wants to end their high school career on a bad season. So we took everything one game at a time and bought in. It was definitely the most fun season of baseball I have had here.”
Raba called the season “nothing short of amazing” and echoed Juliano’s sentiment of it being the most fun he ever had in a baseball season.
“It’s incredible what we did after the first five games,” Raba said. “The key to this team was to trust each other and to just have fun playing the game that you love with your brothers.”
Septak summed it up fairly concisely.
“In my four years playing at Nottingham, this was the most complete team I’ve experienced,” he said. “We had everything. Everyone was clicking. We were a family.
“We played more of old school baseball – pitch to contact, hit the ball on the ground hard, bunt, steal, hit and run. That’s who we were. We never gave up in any game. If I had to choose one team to play on for the rest of my life, it would be this one.”
It was, indeed, a special team that was high on resolve but somewhat low on getting respect.
Pitcher and infielder Mike Septak was one of the players who helped lead Nottingham to a 16-8 record in baseball this season. (Photo by Wes Kirkpatrick.),
