With two-thirds of its lineup back from last year’s 14-12 team, the J.P. Stevens High School baseball team should once again be one of the county’s top teams. Last year’s club came on particularly strong late last season with an impressive run in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament, reaching the finals before losing to Spotswood.
Batting atop the order for a second straight season is junior second baseman Mike Zinno. Primarily a relief pitcher, Zinno went 3-1 on the mound last season.
“Mike could end up as our Number 2 starter, but we do like him coming in relief,” Stevens head coach Dave Marzano said. “He’s very solid offensively. He hit right around .313 with a good on-base percentage.”
Behind Zinno is senior centerfielder Jesse Sattler. Sattler batted close to .315 in 2007 and will hit in front of shortstop Anthony Montalbano.
“Jesse always battles at the plate and is a solid all-around player,” Marzano said. “Anthony has been looking unbelievable in preseason, and we’re looking for a monster year out of him.”
Montalbano is also likely to see time behind the dish, and when he is not catching, senior Evan Jay should perform the catching duties.
Hitting cleanup behind Montalbano will be first baseman John Stillitano. Stillitano is making the transition to first after filling the designated hitter role last year.
“First is a new position for John and he’s getting better with every practice and scrimmage,” Marzano said. “He’s coming off a great year offensively, and we’re hoping for more of the same.”
Stillitano led the team in ’07 with a .459 batting average and three home runs and 25 RBI.
Connor Medler will bat fifth in the order followed by right fielder Brad Newman in the sixth slot. Medler will be the team’s No. 1 starter, taking over the top spot in the rotation from Doug Wislinski. Wislinski is currently pitching for New Haven College.
“I’m very confident in Connor and what he can give us on the mound,” Marzano said. “When he pitches, we expect to be in every game.”
Medler finished last year with an ERA just over 3 and a batting average of .303. He will play third base when he is not on the hill.
“Brad Newman had one of the best games in J.P. Stevens’ history last season,” Marzano said. “In a game against Colonia, Brad went 5-5 and hit for the cycle with two homers and 10 RBI. For some kids, that’s an entire season. He finished last season hitting .385.”
With those six back in the lineup, the Hawks should definitely be among the top teams in the Red Division. The question marks arise when hitters 7-8-9 and the pitching rotation are on the table.
“The bottomof the order is still up in the air,” Marzano said. “We have junior Jon Wong and senior Alex Cacoilo battling for third base when Medler is pitching. Jon plays the game really well, andAlex has really impressedmewithwhat he can do.Alex can also pitch. This is just his first year on the team, and he’s been impressive.”
Junior Rocco Mazza is looking to see time at second base or the DH slot while senior brothers John and Justin Nicholls are competing for the left field position and mound time.
“The important thing for us is to find out what kind of pitching we’ll get behind Connor,” Marzano said. “Left fielder Billy Dumchus looks to be our Number 2 pitcher, but we’ll need more than just Connor and Billy to step up. We’ve had some tough scrimmages, but it’s tough to see how good we’ll be. If our pitchers can throw the breaking ball for strikes, we should have a pretty good year.”
Stevens opened the season yesterday against Edison and will be in action at 3:45 p.m. tomorrow against division rival St. Joseph’s.