Raiders rally to win Prep A baseball crown
By: Bob Nuse
In his long tenure as the Hun School baseball coach, Bill McQuade has had a lot of teams with potent offenses.
But in all that time, he’s never had a lineup quite like this one.
"This is my best lineup in all my years here, top to bottom," McQuade said. "We’ve broken pretty much every offensive record. When you have the kind of kids that are going to be collegiate players, they learn how to be patient. They really are baseball players."
The Raiders also broke another school record this year, notching their record 20th win of the season on Sunday, capturing the state Prep A championship by topping Lawrenceville, 7-6. The state title was the Raiders’ first since 2002, capping off a season where they finished 20-4, the school’s best record in history.
"I told the kids that in 90 percent of the Hun seasons, we haven’t played 20 games," said McQuade, whose team did not lose a game in the double-elimination tournament. "What helped us, without a doubt, is not having the MAPL tournament this year. We play in the Mercer County Tournament and the other teams don’t. So this year we were in even with everyone else. But when we played in both, it was tough because the pitching was just spread too thin.
But I knew coming in here with (Mike) Russo, (Matt) Welsh, (Andrew) Baxter, (Sean) Pucciarello and even (David) Putman, who can now throw three or four innings, I knew we were OK with the pitching."
The Raiders needed every bit of their pitching and the offense to beat Lawrenceville on Sunday. Trailing by a run in the sixth inning, Shane Davis gave Hun the lead with a home run down the right field line. The Raiders then added another run to take a 4-2 lead into the top of the seventh.
Russo, who has been brilliant all year, began to tire in the seventh, walking the first two batters and gave up a two-run single to tie the game.
"He deserved the chance to finish," McQuade said of Russo. "He has been so instrumental in getting us to this game. When that happens you want the pitcher to close the game out and finish it. Unfortunately he didn’t do that, but Andy Baxter came in and did what he’s done all year. He kind of limited the game right there and did the job."
Baxter gave up a pair of runs and the Raiders trailed, 6-4, heading to the bottom of the seventh. But a pair of walks, a hit batter, an error, another walk and a wild pitch allowed Hun to score three times without a hit in the inning and rally for the win.
"It always feels good to beat Lawrenceville," said Davis, a senior who is heading to George Mason University to play baseball. "We actually went the whole year and didn’t lose to a MAPL team. It always feels good to win a championship against Lawrenceville. I know that before the game they were expecting to play two today. They were confident and they’re a good team.
"It feels great. This is my senior year. We won two championships (the Raiders also won the MAPL title). I couldn’t ask for any more as a senior. Winning the state championship is amazing."
The win capped off a great year for Davis, who also was part of a MAPL championship football team that did not lose to a MAPL opponent either. His home run in the sixth was the big blow in the game.
"I just wanted to make solid contact," Davis said. "I know he’s a real good pitcher and I was really just trying to move the runner over. I got to the bottom of it a little bit and the ball got in the air and got out.
"We always felt like we could come back. We’ve had innings this year where we have scored 14 runs. As long as we still have at bats we feel like we can score runs. It wasn’t even hitting the ball at the end of the game today. It was walks. I think we showed a lot of patience at the plate."
This Hun team had that rare combination of a potent offense and excellent pitching. The two combined to make this a special season for the Raiders.
"It started in football season and then basketball season and now this baseball season, the teams are just close together," Davis said. The teams are talented, but it’s also that my best friends are the kids on this team. It makes it that much better. I think the thing that made us different is that we had pitching all over. We had five guys that could go out and beat any team.
"There have been years in the past where we’re focusing on one pitcher and then after that we’re trying to pull games out. And we swung the bats this year like I’ve never seen us swing the bats before. When you’re scoring like that it’s easy to win."
And when you’re scoring like that you’re never out of a game. The Raiders lost four games this season, falling twice to Mercer County champion Steinert, while also losing games to late rallies by West Windsor-Plainsboro North and Princeton Day School.
But even when they were down on Sunday, McQuade figured they had a good shot to come back and win.
"It’s been that way all year," McQuade said. "I told them the character building moment of the year for this team was when (Lawrenceville’s) Brad Raynor had a perfect game or close to it in that first game against us and we were down, 2-0. Then we scored four runs in the top of the seventh and beat them, 4-2. And then we finished it up again today against the same team. We told the kids we’ve been here before and we’ve come back. They knew they had to rely on their teammates.
"It always a wonderful season. To beat Lawrenceville or any of the prep schools is great. This year we went undefeated in the MAPL and it really is special because it is so hard to do. You never know when you’re going to get back this spot again."
The championship was especially sweet for the Raiders’ four seniors who have been in the program the last four years, Davis, Baxter, Sean Pucciarelli and Sean Munley. They kept coming close, but never won that elusive state title.
"The four seniors have dedicated themselves to this season from the first day," McQuade said. "They worked hard in the off-season and down in Florida. Shane has been pressing a bit, maybe trying to do too much. But he really turned on that ball and it was a laser out of here. Even the one before that almost went out of here and I was confident that he was back."