While it didn’t rack up as many wins as the players had hoped for, the South baseball team had a few memorable wins this season before finishing 9-12.
Important victories came against Notre Dame and Hopewell Valley, but the team also picked up two wins over rival North, coach Don Hutchinson points out.
“The greatest strength of this team is their passion for the game and the desire they have to win,” he said. “We did many things well this year but at times struggled getting outs. Our pitchers have to continue to improve.”
The good news for South is that all of its pitchers will return next year. Paul Balestrieri, who missed the season with an injury, will also return next year.
Hutchinson said that sophomore catcher Pat Boyle was strong at the end of the year. “We expect him to be a big part of next year’s team,” he said.
In addition, “Ben Ruta has become one of the better players in the area,” he said. “Cody Ashford was a new player to our school this year, and he had a very good season. Matt McCann, Ryan Dontas, and Chris Campbell all had a nice season.”
North. Despite only four wins this year, the North baseball team’s youth showed promise — signs Coach Michael Santoro hopes will carry over to next year.
The first-year coach did not have the best of luck early in the season. “We had a hard time filling in for a couple of key injuries to start the season and really didn’t get anything going,” he said. “As a team, we did not accomplish what we wanted to do.”
However, Santoro says he got the chance to see the “younger guys have successful individual seasons” that should help the rebuilding process next year. Some of those players include Casey Litwack, Jack Liang, P.J. Silva, Scott Feryus, and Christian Waters.
“They’re expected to be the heart of our team next year, and we’re hoping they continue the same success that they had this year.”
What areas can get better? “Our fielding really needs to improve,” said Santoro. “We gave up 51 unearned runs. As a team, we can’t expect to be successful with that type of statistic.”
