familiar ring to it
Blue Division race has
familiar ring to it
BY RICHARD JEROME
Staff Writer
PHOTOS BY FARRAH MAFFAI staff Above, East Brunswick’s Danny Storms fires a pitch to the plate during the Bears’ game with J.P. Stevens on April 22. At left, Eric Zimmerman connects with a pitch for a base hit.
Tom Hockenjos has few complaints about his East Brunswick High School baseball team, which has a 7-2 record after last week’s 5-2 win over Spotswood.
"Of course the weather backed everybody up," he said. "But we’ve been deep and solid in pitching, with five different starters, and that’s helped us."
The workhorse thus far has been Matt Metsch, a junior with a 3-1 record, including a notable win over Piscataway ace Carlton Smith.
"He’s sneaky fast with a good curve and change," said Hockenjos.
Senior Danny Stevens is another top starter, his 0-1 record not reflecting a stellar effort against Edison for which he didn’t register a victory.
Junior Justin Kaplan is 1-0, senior lefty Matt Merrigan is 2-0 with a save and a 1.44 ERA, and another lefthander, junior Nick Meyers, has a victory in his lone decision.
Offensively, Chris Affinito, the junior catcher, has a GMC-leading five homers and a .300 average, and senior first sacker Andrew Silver is a .421 hitter with 13 walks. Affinito led the GMC with eight home runs last year, but didn’t get his first round-tripper until three weeks into the season this spring. He appears to be making up for lost time, as he has blasted five home runs in the last two weeks, including two during the Bears’ 5-2 win over Spotswood on Saturday.
The leading hitter, slick-fielding center fielder Billy Krapf, has a .440 mark with two homers. Other offensive stalwarts include senior second baseman Andy Anderson (.370) and leftfielder Angel Sotomayor, a junior who is batting .357.
Rounding out the rest, Metsch and Kaplan split shortstop, senior Matt Tornabene is at third, while Merrigan and junior Eric Zimmerman join senior Zack Tardiff in the outfield.
Hockenjos is assisted by Jeff Elias, jayvee coach Tomm Husar and frosh coach Greg Marino.
With their win over the Chargers on Saturday, the Bears improved to 7-2 on the season, and have solidified their status as one of the GMC’s elite teams. They are currently engaged in a tight GMC Red Division race with both St. Joseph’s and Edison, who are also among the GMC’s elite teams. This race looks destined to go down to the wire.
Diamond notes… Among the other local teams that find themselves in tight divisional races are the South River Rams and Spotswood Chargers.
The Rams’ (6-5) cause took a hit on Saturday with a 7-4 loss to Bishop Ahr, but they remain in the hunt for the Blue Division crown. Metuchen is the leader at this point, but with a number of division games yet to be played, they are certainly not running away from the pack.
Spotswood’s loss to East Brunswick did not affect their divisional standing, as the defending Blue Division champs have climbed back into the race following a slow start by knocking off Bishop Ahr and Metuchen (twice) in the past week and a half.
Last year, Spotswood won the division title with a win in their regular-season finale over South River. This year’s Blue Division race appears headed for a similar conclusion.