By Jeff Appelblatt
Harry Rutkowski was the best pitcher on Woodbridge High School’s baseball team the last two years and like most all aces do, he was going to be first on the hill for the first game of the playoffs — in this case, the first round of the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section II, Group IV tournament.
As hot as the bats from J.P. Stevens High School had been prior to the May 23 trip to Woodbridge, the junior pitcher wasn’t overly concerned. The Hawks had won 14 straight dating back to an April 19 loss to East Brunswick High School, 5-2. But they hadn’t faced Rutkowski yet in 2016.
The left-handed pitcher, who followed up his sophomore year of seven wins (7-2), 79 strikeouts and a 1.95 ERA with a verbal commitment to Rutgers University, eight wins (8-1), 101 strikeouts and a 1.83 ERA, quieted the Hawks’ bats. J.P. Stevens managed to poke six hits off Rutkowski, but they weren’t enough to send in more than one run for the Hawks, who fell to the Barrons, 7-1.
Number-wise, Woodbridge’s pitcher was able to help his team outscore the opponent on his own; Rutkowski scored a run and knocked in two. But a few more insurance runs are always nice, so the three total RBIs Kyle Mortensen and Zach Joe contributed officially made the day look simple for Rutkowski, who struck out 12 in the complete game, and the rest of the Barrons.
Rutkowski wouldn’t pitch in the second round, as the team couldn’t risk overusing its star and it was confident in the other pitchers on the staff. Woodbridge (18-10) won 10 games without its ace on the mound.
However, with the competition getting stronger as the playoffs continued, there was no answer for Westfield High School May 26. The second-seeded Blue Devils gave the Barrons three runs in the first inning, but they quickly reminded No. 7-seed Woodbridge how good they really are.
In the long run, the five runs Westfield scored in the third inning alone were enough to win the game, but the team didn’t take its foot off the gas the rest of the way. The trio of Mortensen, Zach Delvalle and Justin Silva gave up 10 runs to the Blue Devils in the 10-4.
Though he didn’t pitch, Rutkowski finished the game with three hits. Mortensen and Nick Bradshaw added on two hits apiece. But there was no coming back from the deficit for Woodbridge, which fell, 10-4.
The Barrons’ next chance to get back in the win column won’t be until the summer league begins.
Softball
Woodbridge’s softball team packed up for the rest of the school year May 23. Millburn High School slapped in 15 runs in the first three innings en route to a 15-5 victory against the Barrons in the first round of the North Jersey, Section II, Group IV tournament.
As she did for four years, Carly Kjersgaard came up as big as possible for the Barrons. Earlier in the season, she became the first Barron to ever have 150 hits on the diamond and have 150 aces on the volleyball court. But no matter how strong the .593 hitter was against Millburn, it wasn’t enough. Kjersgaard had three hits, including a home run, but she didn’t have a way to solve the 10-run deficit for her team.
Brooke Timinski, Sammantha Carroll and Mackenzie Thomas rounded out the rest of Woodbridge’s eight hits.