If a person can’t get excited about the Lawrence High baseball team this season, they might as well get an excitement gene transplant.
The Cardinals return seven everyday players from a team that went 21-7 and reached the Central Jersey Group III championship game, and also bring back six pitchers who coach Jim Maher says “can all pitch in college at some level.”
Leading the way are Division I commits Robert Kelly and Kellen Moore. Kelly, the Cards shortstop and bullpen closer, is bound for Monmouth. Moore – Lawrence’s No. 1 pitcher and designated hitter – is headed for Lafayette.
It is the first time in Maher’s four decades of coaching that he enters a season with two players already locked up by D-1 schools.
“You’ve got the Colonial Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year back, who’s pitched some really big games for us and gave us quality outings every time out, and you’ve got a great defensive player who’s also our closer,” Maher said. “They’re both tremendous athletes. And with them going to play Division I, it’s good for our guys to look at them and say ‘Hey, with hard work it’s possible to go play Division I.’ It’s nothing but pluses.”
One of the biggest pluses is that they set the tone in preseason after understanding what Maher wanted during his first season last year.
“The other day a kid had his hat on backwards,” Maher said. “Right away they said something. Now they know what I expect. There are certain things we gotta do, and we have to act the right way and handle it the right way. I feel like when your leaders handle those things, that’s when you become a program.”
Other senior leaders are Riley Rivera (.383, 3 doubles, 3 triples), who’s headed to Moravian, Danny Dryzga (.278), who’s still looking at colleges, and Toby Mitchell, “who may find a role somewhere in the outfield for us.”
Returning underclassmen are sophomore standout defensive catcher Drew Dobkin (.281), sophomore first baseman Aiden Crowly (.283), sophomore infielder pitcher Deacon Moore (.463, 19 RBI) and junior infielder/pitcher Teak Toto (.449, 5 doubles, 3 triples, 27 RBI).
“If Crowley hits, he’ll stay at first base, if he struggles, Kellen will be over there,” Maher said. “But if things go as we hope, Kellen will be a DH and pitcher.”
Moore can do both effectively. He batted .286 with 23 RBI, two doubles, two triples and a home run. On the mound he went 7-1 with one save and had a 1.10 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 57 innings pitched. He completed four of his nine starts, won two state tournament games and had regular-season victories over solid Allentown and Robbinsville teams.
“He’s gotten stronger,” Maher said. “He’s touched 90 in a couple workouts in the off-season but he’s got command of three or four pitches, which is big in high school. He’s got a great two-seam fastball, a lot of movement, a plus change-up. He’s got a good breaking ball and he throws strikes.
“He’s learned how to compete. Last year he didn’t have a lot of experience pitching in big games but he won two state tournament games and pitched a great game in the county tournament (a 3-2 loss to Allentown). He’s pitched in a lot of big games, which makes it easier for us this year. Obviously he’s gonna get the ball in big games.”
Moore said he spent ample time in the weight room during the off-season and focused on getting stronger overall.
“I’m building a better body to increase stamina and strength on the mound and on the pitching side of things I’ve been working with Total Arm Care in North Jersey,” he said. “They’re into high tech advanced analyzation of pitching. I’ve worked with them on some specific things in my delivery and there are things they find to make me a better pitcher and throw harder. I’m sitting at 88 and 89 and getting up to 90 a couple times.”
With a nice array of pitches, Moore feels the key to success will be mixing them up to keep hitters off balance.
“I have to be able to throw all three pitches on any count,” he said. “Just make sure the hitter doesn’t know what’s coming. Keep them guessing.”
And while he has the ability to go seven innings every time out, Moore is happy Kelly is available to save games for him.
“If I’m able to get us in a position to win I have full confidence to turn it over to Robrt at the end of the bullpen and he can give us one or two strong innings,” Moore said.
Conversely, Kelly is not sure how often he will be needed in games that Moore starts.
“I can see him going the distance a lot,” Kelly said. “He’s a great pitcher. One of our many talented pitchers we have. Honestly there’s a lot of times I won’t be needed. I have a lot of faith in the guys ahead of me.”
That doesn’t mean Kelly won’t be playing, as he is entrenched at shortstop. His defense is unquestioned but Maher is looking for some more offense after Kelly hit .306 with 17 RBI last year.
“I’ve talked to Robert about this several times,” Maher said. “He’s an elite defender, he’s an elite baserunner, he’s got an elite arm. He’s gotta make some changes offensively to be a big-time player.”
Kelly is well aware of that and dove into off-season training.
“I worked on keeping my head on the ball, going the opposite way,” he said. “Last year I didn’t do bad but I have room for improvement. Hopefully I’ll be more compact and stay through baseballs more and hit the ball the opposite way.”
Maher felt an added bonus for him getting the college of his choice is the fact he can throw a few innings if necessary. In 2023 he was 2-0 with four saves, 23 strikeouts and a 2.69 ERA in 13 innings.
“He’s got as good a breaking ball as you’ll see in the area,” the coach said. “His trouble in the past was command, but last year he had great command for the most part (just 8 walks). When he throws strikes he’s very hard to hit. He’s upper 80s, with a hammer breaking ball.
“Monmouth has seen him throw, there is the possibility he could be a dual guy there who plays some shortstop and pitches a little bit. When they came to see him throw they were like ‘Wow!’”
Folks have the same reaction when they watch Kelly field. He is smooth and it all looks so natural, but it comes from years of repetition of taking ground balls hit to him by his father.
Sean Kelly was actually the manager of the 2018 Lawrence Little League 12-year-old All-Stars that won the league’s first District 12 championship in 42 years. On his coaching staff was AJ Moore, who is Kellen’s father.
Thus, it’s not surprising the two boys have been close friends since childhood. Aside from LHS and LLL they were middle school teammates and are currently together with the Diamond Nation Diamond Jacks travel team.
“We’ve been close since a young age,” Kelly said. “We always had that one person who wasn’t family that you could go to and ask anything. If I need help with baseball I’ll ask him, if he needs help with academics he’ll ask me. It’s good to have somebody like that.”
Their help with each other has paid off. Both players made their choices based mainly on academics and, fortunately, the baseball aspect of it was also inviting. They will finally be in separate dugouts but their experiences together have helped them thrive on the field.
Each feels their District 12 success has carried over into high school.
“That gave us a ton of confidence, especially at such a young age to get accustomed to a winning condition like that,” Kelly said. “We definitely knew we could take that to a higher level in middle school and even high school and build winning programs after experiencing it when we were such young kids.”
Moore agreed, saying “That provided us a foundation to know how to win and we knew we had the potential to do some pretty impressive things when it comes to baseball and competing. We’ve taken what it means to be successful and applied it to high school and working with coach Maher. We were able to bring a winning culture here.”
It was a long time coming as Lawrence enjoyed its first winning season since 1997 and got to the sectional finals for the first time since 1974.
With nearly an entire team back – including a pitching staff that includes standout hurlers Aiden and Connor Crowley, Dryzga, Deacon Moore and Aiden Poot – optimism is high but guarded.
“I’m super excited, I can’t wait,” Maher said. “Last year is over. We all got a lot of accolades, we set school records, we did things the school’s never done. That’s over. But, we’re sitting here and not many high school teams can say in your team meeting that you have a legitimate shot to win your division, your county and a state championship. Whether that happens, you never know, but we have a legitimate shot at all three.”
Maher’s leaders have bought into the philosophy.
“This team definitely has the ability,” Kelly said. “We have a great young core, a great returning core from last year. The freshman class is looking good. Last year was last year. We’re not gonna think about that. We’re gonna focus on what’s ahead of us and what games we have coming up and go from there.”
“It’s really important we start with a clean slate,” Moore said. “Last year is last year and we really can’t focus too much on that. We know we have a target on our back and teams will give us their A game every time. What’s really important is focusing on this new year, building a team with the new players and really working hard to replicate our success without dwelling on the success of last year. We can start fresh and hopefully bring in another year of success.”
Seeing as it’s their last year as teammates after a lifetime of playing together, rest assured Kelly and Moore will be laser focused on having nothing but success.
Lawrence High School baseball players Connor Moore (left) and Robert Kelly. (Photo by Rich Fisher.),
