Simpson pitches BRHS baseball to opening win

By: Sean Moylan
   Nick Simpson tossed a 10-strikeout, complete-game gem to pave the Bordentown Regional High School boys’ varsity baseball team to a convincing 13-1 victory in its opener on April 2 at Westampton Tech.
   "He had some pop back in his fastball," said Bordentown Coach Joe Prague of Simpson, who used his slider and fastball to keep Westampton Tech off balance all day.
   Bordentown gave Simpson plenty of support by pounding out 16 hits, including four by shortstop Kevin Cummings (he was four-for-four), who also scored four runs, knocked in a pair of runs and swiped four bases.
   Danny Sasso also had an explosive day at the plate with two hits (including a double) and four RBI. Freshman Mike Medina was one-for-one with an RBI, Brandon Fraser had two hits in three trips to the plate, and Ian Mathews smoked a pair of hits and drove in two runs. The Scotties were able to 10-run rule Westampton Tech in only five innings.
   "In our outfield, Matt Gabriel and Vince Illiminate are running everything down," added Coach Sprague, whose squad played a stellar defensive game (one error) versus Westampton Tech even though the only run Simpson allowed was unearned. Bordentown catcher Chris Panfili even threw out a runner.
   Unfortunately, Bordentown’s defense failed in Thursday’s game at Pemberton in which Pemberton won 13-0.
   "The one inning (the second) we had two errors and it cost us six runs," noted Coach Sprague.
   Mathews went two innings and was the hard-luck loser. Ted Gola also pitched a pair of innings for the Scotties and he too received little defensive help.
   "It’s like I tell the kids ‘the only team who can beat our team is our team’," said Coach Sprague, whose club made five errors in the contest.
   After the game, to their credit, the Scotties players "asked" to work on fielding grounders.
   "The kids are positive," noted Coach Sprague, whose team couldn’t even work out in Monday’s snowstorm, (even though many wanted to do so). Last Friday’s home game versus Burlington was cancelled as was Monday’s scheduled game versus Florence. Bordentown was scheduled to host Delran this past Tuesday, but there was talk of switching the game to Wednesday. Bordentown is scheduled to host Moorestown on Thursday, Maple Shade on Saturday and Lindenwold on Monday. On Tuesday, Bordentown is scheduled at Cinnaminson.