BY DOUG McKENZIE
Staff Writer
Ted Jarmusz is hoping there’s still some magic left in his baseball hat.The veteran Monmouth Regional baseball coach has another solid team this spring, and is hoping that his squad can get on the kind of roll last year’s Golden Falcons did en route to winning the school’s first Group III championship.
But with just three everyday players back from last year’s squad, Jarmusz will need to get some newcomers to play beyond their years down the stretch of the regular season and into the postseason if this year’s squad is to recapture any of the glory of a year ago.
“We put ourselves in a bit of a bind in the [division],” the coach said, “We lost to Freehold Borough [5-3] in nine innings [Monday] and now we’re 8-3 in the division heading into [yesterday’s] game with Wall.
“But with a win over Wall we still have an outside chance of backing into at least a tie for the championship,” Jarmusz added.
With three losses in B North play, the Falcons trailed both Wall (8-1) and Freehold Borough (8-2) in the division standings with just a handful of games left to play.
But even if they fall short of a division title, Jarmusz, now in his 24th year at Monmouth, has little to complain about.
“They’re doing the very best they can, including in practice, and have approached every game as an individual battle,” he said. “We’ve lost two one run games, and two game in extra innings, and that right there shows this team has a lot of character. I’m proud of them for that.”
The Falcons also have a lot of offensive firepower, with virtually the entire average hitting well at this point.
Senior Mike Daly is hitting .315 in the leadoff spot with a team-leading 14 runs scored. He is real threat on the basepaths, where he’s stolen eight bases in nine attempts.
Junior Jeff Roche is the quintessential No. 2 hitter, who has been very effective moving runners over and setting the table for Monmouth’s big boppers, according to Jarmusz.
“He also has 10 runs scored, so he’s also doing a great job of getting on base for us,” the coach said.
In the three spot is senior center fielder Bobby Wyrwa, one of the top all-around talents in the Shore Conference. Wyrwa was one of the top offensive players on last year’s team, and has picked up where he left off, batting .413 (19-for-46) with 10 runs scored, 10 RBIs, and a .696 slugging percentage.
As gaudy as those numbers are, they are secondary to senior clean-up batter Glenn Seitz’s stats – .488 (21-for-33), 12 runs scored, a team-leading 15 RBIs and a .721 slugging percentage.
Senior Pete Geronimo, who was robbed of some glory in Monday’s loss to Freehold Borough when he hit a game-tying home run with two out in the bottom of the seventh, bats fifth, where he owns a .341 average with a pair of dingers.
Cole DeAngelis bats sixth, where he is hitting to a .455 clip, while junior catcher Pat Gaughran follows in the seventh spot with his .300 average.
Senior Bo Browne bats eighth, and is 9-for-30 with four doubles on the year, while junior shortstop Mike Sevilla rounds out the order in the ninth spot, where he is hitting .325 (13-for-40) with eight RBIs and a team-leading six doubles.
While the Falcons stats are impressive, it’s a select group of numbers that interest Jarmusz.
“We really rely on timely hitting,” the coach said. “So, average doesn’t really mean as much to me as on-base percentage and RBIs.”
As impressive as the Falcons’ offensive numbers are, the strength of the team down the stretch may be in its pitching depth.
Wyrwa is the team’s ace, pitching to a 3-1 mark thus far with a 1,79 ERA. He’s given up just 10 earned runs while striking out 39 batters thus far.
“His one loss was a 2-1 decision to Freehold Borough, and he went eight innings for his second tough no decision of the year on [Monday],” Jarmusz said.
But the Falcons also have quality starters in junior Matt Conte (2-1, 2.43 ERA), Corey Harris (2-0, 3.78 ERA) and senior Will Stefansky (2-0, .54 ERA).
And Jarmusz said he can also use Pete Porchak and Chad Butler in middle relief, while Joe Connors has been strong in the closer role, pitching to a 1-2 mark with three saves and a 2.25 ERA.
“We have an eight-man pitching staff, and any one of them can step right in there with the ability to get people out, which is what we need,” Jarmusz said. “The advantage of having a deep pitching staff is if one guy doesn’t have it, we always have another guy that’s ready to do.”
As the postseason rapidly approaches (the cutoff for the state tournament is next Friday, with the SCT cutoff to follow on May 15), Jarmusz is confident his team has another solid postseason run in it.
“We’re certainly on schedule,” he said. “I think we know we have the ability to beat anybody, but we have also shown the ability to lose to anybody.”
Last year’s Monmouth Regional team saved its best baseball for the final weeks of the season. If Jarmusz has his way, this year’s Falcons could be in store for another magical finish.