By: Kyle Moylan
With a tough loss and a lopsided loss on its record, the New Egypt High School baseball team knew this past Saturday was as good a day as any for the first win.
Especially if they had to stand out in the cold and play ball for a few hours.
With David Stinson working the first six innings and T.J. Smith coming on to record the final three outs, New Egypt emerged with a 7-3 win over Riverside.
"It was cold," laughed New Egypt Coach Rich Carroll. Of course, he was only laughing because he was talking about the game after getting a chance to warm up a bit inside.
"It was one of the coldest games we’ve played, but it was a huge win for us. We had to get in the win column."
And New Egypt did that while pitching someone in their varsity debut.
"We weren’t sure what we would get, but he was everything we could ask for and more," Carroll said. "He really pitched well."
Stinson allowed six hits and three walks and only two of the three runs he allowed were earned. Stinson struck out four batters.
New Egypt gave Stinson a chance to get comfortable on the mound by scoring four runs in the first and three more in the third. Mike Fassl had two hits and three runs scored. Dakota Havens doubled in one run and scored another. Bobby Miranda had a hit, run scored and RBI. T.J. Smith scored two runs.
New Egypt had opened the season with a 6-5 loss to Florence in eight innings on Tuesday, April 3. Smith started, worked into the eighth and picked up the loss.
Tortoriello had three hits, two runs scored and two RBI in the setback. Ricky Mackesy had two hits, a run scored and RBI. Miranda (two-run triple) and Fassl both had two hits. Dylan Rowley had a hit and RBI.
"It was a tough loss in what was just a really good high school baseball game," Carroll said. "In our first three games, we played really well in two of them. For a young team, we’ve done a really good job early in the season."
The exception was a 10-0 loss to Holy Cross. This was a game called after five innings and one in which New Egypt was held hitless.
"We just weren’t as aggressive with the bats as we were in the other two games," Carroll said.
New Egypt hit well, but was outslugged by Trenton Catholic, 11-6 this past Monday. Dakota Havens homered in the loss. Fassl had two hits and a run scored. Dan Knott, Mike Partyka and Miranda each doubled. New Egypt was scheduled to face Pemberton on Tuesday. It will host Delran on Friday.

