By Wayne Witkowski
Jackson Memorial High School baseball fans would have to really think about the last time the Jaguars’ season ended before June like this season — or when both high school teams in town had losing records.
Jackson Memorial, seeded No. 15 in its debut in the NJSIAA South Jersey, Group IV tournament, closed the book on a rare losing season at 9-14 when No. 2-seed Lenape High School roared to a 7-0 lead after four innings en route to a 9-4 victory May 23.
Jackson Memorial ended its season with three straight losses, although it was outhit only 9-8 by Lenape (14-6). It came back with two runs in the sixth inning before falling short.
It was a sour ending for seniors Chris Hawryluk (pitcher), Kyle Johnson (shortstop) and Kyle Lona (outfielder), who all looked to salvage a season that did not include customary championships and falling short of qualifying for the Shore Conference Tournament.
In fact, the baseball season ended quietly across the township, as No. 11-seed Jackson Liberty High School also lost its opener in Central Jersey, Group III to No. 6-seed Nottingham High School, 2-0, which held the Lions to five hits — two by Ryan Van Wickle. Pitcher Matt Pickus also allowed five hits in the loss, as Jackson Liberty ended its season also on the losing side at 9-10.
For Jackson Memorial, it was a frustrating end for losing pitcher Hawryluk (4-4), who is headed to Monmouth University in the fall. The Jaguars suffered a number of close losses, many coming when they’d break out to an early lead that they could not hold. That didn’t happen this time. He remembered well the state championship drive, and said the team needed to focus better and come out playing hard.
Coach Frank Malta blamed a lack of consistency for the up and down season — the inability to get all three phases of the game going at the same time: pitching, hitting and defense.
“We’ve won 20 games every year before this year and now, we haven’t won half of that,” Hawryluk said. “We just didn’t balance out in our games — the hitting was off, or too many mistakes in the field or the pitching wasn’t quite there.”
But there are players to build on toward next season, including juniors David DeJesus and Tom Halasnik and freshman Alex Iadisernia in the outfield.
Junior right-handed pitcher Dylan Kanner and sophomore left-hander Shawn Kelich are among the pitchers who will have to come on strong for next season along with juniors Ryan Boyle and Jake Fox in the infield.
Jackson Liberty, meanwhile, loses four leading senior starters in shortstop Van Wickle, first baseman Brandon Pallante, right fielder Ken Pommerencke and designated hitter Mike Zak, who handled a lot of the pitching with Van Wickle.
The rest of the lineup was very young with three freshmen starters in second baseman Dan Sofield, third baseman David Melfi and left fielder Connor Keenan and sophomore Bill Hart, who was in his second season as a starting catcher. Coach Jim Rankin will be counting on them to continue to mature quickly next season.