Applegarth playing ball

New baseball team finally up and running.

By: Al Wicklund
MONROE — What started in February with a group of Applegarth Middle School students asking the Board of Education for a baseball team became a March 12 approval by the board and an Applegarth team on the field this week.
   "We lost our opener to Spotswood, 10-8, earlier this week and yesterday we lost to South Amboy, 4-2," Applegarth Coach Jonathan Bergbauer said Thursday.
   Mr. Bergbauer said the attitude of the team is excellent.
   "The boys are great to work with," he said.
   He added that Doug Bayly, the district’s supervisor of athletics and student activities, has done wonders in putting together the equipment and schedule for a team in a matter of little more than a couple of weeks.
   Mr. Bayly said the biggest problem has been putting together a schedule on short notice and arranging for umpires.
   "People in other schools have been cooperative. We have a 13-game schedule that will run through the end of this month. The umpire situation has been made more difficult by the poor spring weather. The early-season rainouts have school teams playing almost every day. Umpires are at a premium," he said.
   Mr. Bayly said he ordered some uniform parts, hats and pants, and has used hand-me downs where possible, such as with shirts.
   "There are enough smaller-size shirts from high school teams for middle school players, but the high-school pants are too big and we had to order them," he said.
   Mr. Bergbauer, a social studies teacher coaching his first team, said the enthusiasm of his players has been a joy.
   "We had 65 report for tryouts the beginning of last month. We’re carrying a squad of 24 players. It’s a lot of players, but their attitudes have helped. I tell them come to practice, work hard and we’ll get them a chance to play," the coach said.
   Mr. Bayly said the team practices on the second softball field at Applegarth and plays its home games at Thompson Park.
   "We bus the team to the high school where the players get in uniform and walk down to the field.
   "We’ll be playing a lot of road games; we have eight away and five home," Mr. Bayly said.