‘Lucky’ South now 5-0

BASEBALL

By: James McKeever
   We’re two-and-a-half weeks into the high school baseball season and only Mother Nature has been able to defeat South Brunswick.
   The rough weather that has kept teams from around the state off the field has had its impact on the Vikings, too. Three of their games have been rained out. The Vikings have played five games and they’ve won all five.
   South Brunswick is scheduled to play Woodbridge today. Originally scheduled at Woodbridge, the game may be switched to South Brunswick due to poor field conditions at Woodbridge.
   The Vikings haven’t played since last Saturday, when an 11-3 victory pushed their record to 5-0.
   "We’ve been lucky," Vikings coach Leo Danik said.
   "We’ve had several games where sloppy play has put us in a hole early. But we’ve been able to overcome that with some timely hits and clutch pitching.
   "I’m happy because the guys keep playing in every game. We have three sophomores and a freshman playing key roles and we’ve had several games where we could have hung our heads. But the kids have shown a lot of guts and just kept battling."
   After starting the season with an 8-5 triumph over North Brunswick, the Vikings played three straight games from April 9-11. That resulted in victories over Edison (8-5), St. Joseph’s (7-6) and Old Bridge (3-2).
   South Brunswick won the game over Edison with a three-run sixth inning to break a 5-5 tie. Against St. Joseph’s the Vikings trailed 3-0 early and 6-4 entering the sixth, but John Haas delivered a game-tying two-run home run and the Vikings scored a run in the 10th to pull it out.
   The starting pitching has been strong the last two games. Junior Chris Sisco earned his first varsity win by beating Old Bridge. The left-hander scattered eight hits over six innings, allowing two runs (one earned) and three walks while striking out four. Greg Watson, a senior, worked a scoreless seventh for the save, escaping a bases-loaded jam.
   On Saturday against Woodbridge, senior right-hander Connor Henderson surrendered two runs on three hits in five innings before Mike Koller finished up. Henderson walked one, hit a batter and recorded seven strikeouts.
   In three starts Henderson is 1-0 with a 2.33 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 12 innings. He’s allowed nine hits and seven walks. Matt Forthun, a senior right-hander with the most varsity pitching on the staff, is 3-0, winning all three games in relief. Forthun’s most impressive outing came against St. Joseph’s, when he worked six scoreless relief innings, allowing four hits. He didn’t walk a batter and fanned six.
   Forthun’s ERA through 10 innings is 0.70.
   Haas has been the Vikings’ most dangerous hitter. The senior second baseman is batting .500 (9-for-18) with three doubles, a home run and four RBIs while scoring a team-high seven runs.
   Other top hitters include Mike Mariano (.400, three doubles, four RBIs), Brandon Martin (.316, two doubles), Jake Jaskowski (.312, five RBIs), Dan Acevedo (.471) and Tom Dunleavy (.308). Henderson has been extremely productive in limited at-bats, going 4-for-7 (.571). He’s tied with Jaskowski for the team lead in RBIs with five.
   On Saturday the Vikings play St. Joseph’s again, this time at home (10:30 a.m.). Next week they host Piscataway on Tuesday and face Edison on the road on Thursday.
   "We still need to get comfortable on the field together and some guys need to take charge a little bit on defense," Danik said. "But that will come as we start playing on a regular basis. We’re going to be a better team at the end of the season than we were at the beginning."