Lawrence baseball
By: Jim Green
Although the Lawrence High School baseball team lost its season opener in heartbreaking fashion and has started 0-2, the Cardinals have had several positive developments.
Chief among them has been the pitching of freshman right-hander Daniel Ciccone.
Ciccone came out of the bullpen in both games, allowing one run on four hits and striking out seven in four innings.
"He threw well," Lawrence coach Brian Carter said. "The first two games, I’m just trying to get him experience. I know he can throw, and I know he can get people out. The first game was a great experience, and he did really well."
Unfortunately for Ciccone, he suffered the hard-luck loss at Princeton in the season opener Friday. After the Cardinals rallied for two runs in the top of the sixth to tie the game at 4-4, the Little Tigers’ Jake Horan worked a walk off Ciccone, stole two bases and scored on a bunt by Matt Welsh, giving Princeton the 5-4 win.
Carter, though, wasn’t worried about Ciccone’s confidence taking a hit from the loss.
"He knew what’s going on," Carter said. "They didn’t even hit the ball out of the infield, and they got the run."
Ciccone hurled three innings in relief of starter Mike Sheehan, allowing just the one run on three hits while striking out five. Senior Nick Scozzari and sophomore Christian Cox each doubled and scored, while sophomore Sean Gafgen knocked in two runs.
Coming off the tough loss, the Cardinals seemed to be in trouble Monday, when they traveled to Hamilton to play a game that originally was scheduled to be played at LHS. The game was moved to Hamilton because the Lawrence field was deemed unplayable due to Sunday’s rainfall, but the game still counted as a Cardinal home game.
Considering Lawrence lost to the Hornets 32-1 last season, there was reason for concern, but sophomore Taylor Smith and Ciccone combined for three solid innings of relief as the Cardinals dropped a much more respectable 10-3 decision to the powerful Hornets. Scozzari and senior Tom Carnevali doubled home runs for the Cardinals.
"Honestly, I thought this game would be a high-scoring game on both sides," Carter said. "I was disappointed we weren’t able to push more runs across the plate, but we’re a young team and we’re learning. We want to get better every game. I don’t think we got better from the Princeton game to the Hamilton game, but I do think we learned from the Hamilton game."
But the Cardinals clearly had improved their play considerably from last season’s meeting with the Hornets.
"We made some plays to get out of the innings," Carter said. "It could have been worse. We just didn’t throw enough strikes. They got a couple baserunners and got the big hit. We did get a couple of big hits, but we didn’t have anyone on base. We need to work on getting on base, so when we get those doubles, we get a couple of runs."
Smith surrendered two runs in two innings of work a solid performance for a sophomore against the powerful Hamilton lineup.
"He did well," Carter said. "Two runs is not bad. He’ll be on the mound a lot this year."
The Lawrence defense also has been fairly solid through two games. Cox has been particularly impressive in center, notching an assist by throwing a Hamilton runner out at third.
"The defense hasn’t been bad," Carter said. "There’s a lot of room for improvement, but it hasn’t been bad. Christian Cox has played very well in center. The infield is still coming together. Everybody’s figuring it out in the infield, because it’s basically a new infield."
The Cardinals will look to get on the winning track when they visit Trenton at 4 p.m. today (Thursday). They then visit West Windsor-Plainsboro North at 4 p.m. Monday.
"It’ll be important to get that first win, whether it comes against Trenton or not," Carter said. "Once you get that first win, you get that monkey off your back, and it makes life easier for you. Trenton is tough. There’s no easy game in the CVC.
"Being young, we’ll lose to some teams we’re not supposed to, but we’ll also beat some teams we’re not supposed to."

