After winning their first four games, Ryan Lillis’ North Brunswick Township High School baseball team then dropped two, including an 11- 6 defeat by Colonia on April 13 — a tough one in which the Raiders led 6-5 with two outs in the seventh, then saw the Patriots rally. Still, the team is in a good position to better last spring’s 9-12 mark.
“This year we have an older, veteran team, with eight seniors,” Lillis says. “It’s a fairly balanced group with three above-average pitchers and no holes in the lineup.”
The Raiders have a .329 team batting average through the first six games, paced by junior catcher-third sacker Bryan Gaeta, who’s at .385. Jacob Baron, a senior right fielder and pitcher, is hitting .375, (one homer and three RBIs) with Elijah Yarborough, a shortstop and hurler, not far behind with a .368 mark, including a pair of circuit clouts and a team-best eight RBIs. Also above the .300 level for NBTHS, senior second baseman Chris Rosenberg is hitting .350 (one homer, four RBIs) and Dan Mangiapane, the senior center fielder, is at the .316 mark. He also boasts a home run along with six runs batted in
That doesn’t mean the rest of the club is anemic. Sophomore first baseman Steven Hock has a .294 average, with a pair of doubles and five RBIs, followed by senior Jose Arroyo, who plays right field and first base, who’s at .286 and also has five RBIs; and senior third baseman Matt Stasik, a .278-hitter — and a productive one, with a home run and seven runs batted across.
On the mound, senior Alex Taylor is 1-1, with a 3.75 ERA. Baron is 1-0 with a 5.25 ERA. Yarborough has a 1-1 mark with 20 strikeouts in 11 innings and a 3.18 ERA, and Sean Youngman is 1-0.
Lillis, who led his team into the states last season, has the same goals for NBTHS. “We go game by game, but we want to win the White Division and the GMC, qualify for the states — and go on to win them,” he said. “I feel the sky is the limit. It’s never good to set your goals too low.”