As the Robbinsville High baseball team began to put together better at-bats during the season, coach Tom Brettell thought it had to do with the quality at-bats chart he had hanging in the dugout, which inspired the players to do better.
Man, was he in for a surprise.
“We had a banquet, and my seniors let me in on a story about the guys having a bonfire in one of our seniors’ backyard,” Brettell said with a laugh. “They like to say they sacrificed some of their baseball artifacts in the bonfire to turn things around.
“As a coach, I like to think that they’re thinking about their at-bats and what they’re going to do with those at bats. And here it turns out they were burning somebody’s old glove from little league, or an old batting glove. They never told me about it until our banquet.”
Whatever they did, it worked out as Robbinsville finished 19-9-1 and won the Colonial Valley Conference Patriot Division and Central Jersey Group II championships. That gave the program its third sectional title and first as a Group II school after winning two at Group I.
Brettell admitted he got a little more from his team than expected.
“I hate to say we did a little more than I hoped, but hey, we were just trying to improve on last season,” the skipper said. “We went 14-11 last year, we played a lot of young guys and I was just looking to make steps in the right direction. I was just looking to make that next step and if that means you’re going to win a sectional or division or county title, then that would be great.
“And it turned out that it happened. The credit goes to the kids. The start we had (3-5-1) wasn’t very good, to be honest with you. We talked to them about changing the way they were playing. Not necessarily talentwise, but style and approach, things like that. And they did. And we got better and were playing our best at the end of the season.”
Brettell said the Ravens biggest problem early in the year was playing the way they needed to. Robbinsville was built on pitching and defense and needed to scratch out a few runs to win.
“Early on we did struggle, we weren’t playing baseball the way we knew we could,” junior Michael Fischer said. “I wasn’t worried though, I knew there was more in us, luckily I was right.”
It became a matter of Robbinsville understanding its identity. Home runs were not going to win games. Each run was going to have to be its own little construction project.
“We focused on quality at-bats and trying to preach to them that you don’t necessarily have to get a hit to be successful in the batter’s box,” Brettell said. “There was a lot of talk about working counts and putting the ball in play, not striking out. It was stuff that’s just baseball.
“When the time came to execute a sacrifice bunt, a hit and run, run the bases the right way; we finally started to do that. We caught a little momentum and went with it.”
The one constant was outstanding pitching and the defense to back it up. The Ravens team ERA was an impressive 2.31.
“We always had pitching, even in the preseason we were pitching lights out,” said Fischer, the team’s ace. “When we pitched the way we did, we knew we had a chance to win every game. After awhile, we pretty much did.”
As for the lack of executing with runners on, Fischer had a simple explanation for that.
“At beginning of season, we didn’t have runners on to play small ball with,” he said. “We had trouble getting hits and getting guys on base. When we did get them on we had had trouble moving them around.”
The Ravens began getting it after a while, reeling off 16 wins in their final 20 games to finish as one of the CVC’s hottest teams. And Fischer was one of the CVC’s hottest pitchers nearly the entire year.
After allowing seven hits and six earned runs in four innings at Steinert in his first game, Fischer was nearly untouchable the rest of the way. The junior finished 7-1-1 with a 1.47 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 57 innings.
“My confidence wasn’t really shaken (after Steinert),” Fischer said. “Everybody gets hit eventually, no one’s perfect. You can’t get a hit every at-bat, you’re not gonna throw a shutout every game. If anything it just made me want to be better.
“I wasn’t like ‘Oh God, I got hit around.’ It was more like ‘OK at least I got that out of the way early, I hope it won’t happen again.’ It helped me out. I really don’t think I should get hit that hard again. It made me more of a competitor because I knew I had to pick up my game.”
He did just that while also getting all the run support he needed.
“I was able to settle in,” Fischer said. “Once you start wining and know you’ll get run support, it makes it a lot easier to pitch. When you have a little room like that to work with, you can throw strikes and go after people. I always had a lead going into the first or second inning, so I could settle in and do my thing.”
Fischer took it to another level in the state tournament, when he went 3-0 with a 0.33 ERA and 22 strikeouts in 21 innings.
“I love pitching in big games like that,” said Fischer, who pitched in a lot of them for Robbinsville Little League. “The atmosphere changes a little. Everything gets better, it’s more fun when a lot people are there, and I found a way to step up my game in those situations.”
The Ravens pitching staff also got a lift from sophomore Michael Griffin, who went 4-0 with a 1.22 ERA after allowing five runs in his first start; and Alex Sauerbaum (3-0, 1.48 ERA). Ryan Krebs, Anthony DeChiara and Ryan Fischer, Michael’s twin brother, also chipped in on the mound.
Ryan Fischer’s value went well beyond his arm, however, as he hit .387 with 11 stolen bases and a team-high 15 runs scored.
“He was our number two hitter and probably our best all-around baseball player,” Brettell said. “He could probably do anything we asked of him.”
Michael added some brotherly love, saying “He’s just a leader. He was picking us up at the beginning of the season, that’s actually why we got us going. We needed a spark and he started hitting the ball over the place. He was barely getting out. I actually believe he sparked our offense.”
Matthew DeAngelis provided a big lift after transferring from Peddie, as he hit .459 in 37 at-bats after becoming eligible. Stephen Dranoff batted .333 while Dan McKiernan hit .312 and Michael Fischer and Tom McKiernan both batted .290.
“I thought we had a great season, to be honest,” Fischer said. “We won a divisional and sectional title, which was two of our four goals. We didn’t do too well in counties and didn’t win states, but it was a very successful season.”
With only five players graduating, Robbinsville may have just scratched the surface this year.
“We got a little further than I thought,” Brettell said. “This year I thought would be next year. But these guys did better than that. Maybe they’re a little bit different.”
And let’s not forget, they can also build one heck of a bonfire.
Members of the Robbinsville High School baseball team celebrate their 7-0 win against Rumson in the Central Jersey Group II championship May 30, 2014 in Robbinsville. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.),
