Lawrence baseball
By: Jim Green
The Lawrence High School baseball team can’t afford these kinds of mistakes.
The Cardinals, while certainly improved, still have a small margin for error when facing the upper-echelon teams in the Colonial Valley Conference. So it comes as no surprise that they were unable to overcome five unearned runs Monday at West Windsor-Plainsboro North.
Junior pitcher Mike Darbee hurled six strong innings against one of the top offensive teams in the conference, but two dropped fly balls and two wild pitches led to five Knights runs, resulting in a disheartening 6-2 loss for Lawrence, which fell to 1-3.
"I’m about as disappointed as I’ve been since I’ve been coaching at Lawrence," said sixth-year Cardinal coach Brian Carter. "We could have been in a great position at 2-2. Instead we’re 1-3 and playing from behind."
The mistakes overshadowed a fine effort by Darbee, who allowed just four hits over his six innings of work. But both dropped fly balls came in the first inning, leading to three quick runs.
"I was very happy with Mike," Carter said. "Even in that first inning, they really didn’t hit him hard. He didn’t get angry. He kept his composure and did what he had to do to get out of the inning."
The Knights added a fourth run in the second inning, before Lawrence answered with two in the fourth. Senior first baseman Matt Mills started the rally with a walk, followed by a single from sophomore center fielder Christian Cox. Two batters later, junior second baseman Matt Casale singled in Mills. Sophomore designated hitter Matt Russo then singled home Cox for the second run.
The Cardinals’ offense struggled the rest of the game, producing no other hits and going down on three consecutive strikeouts in the first and fifth innings.
"That’s two times where their defense didn’t have to catch the ball," Carter said.
Still, the offensive struggle wasn’t nearly the most disappointing aspect of the game for Carter.
"I wasn’t expecting to score a lot of runs, but I was expecting to catch fly balls," he said. "They did bounce back. They didn’t put their heads down, but there comes a point where you have to catch fly balls.
"It has nothing to do with being young or old, or experienced or inexperienced. It just comes down to catching fly balls."
While the loss would have been difficult to take at any time, it was particularly tough to swallow coming off the Cardinals’ fine performance in their previous game. Senior left fielder Mike Frascella led a Lawrence offense that pounded out a season-high 10 hits on the way to a 15-3 win at Trenton on April 7.
Frascella went 4-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs scored, sophomore right fielder Taylor Smith was 2-for-4 with four runs and two RBIs, and senior catcher Nick Scozzari was 2-for-3 with three RBIs and a run scored. Cox had a triple, two runs and an RBI, and senior shortstop Tom Carnevali was 1-for-3 with two runs and two RBIs. Casale had two runs and an RBI.
Senior right-hander Mike Sheehan picked up his first win of the year, striking out 10 over four innings, and the game was wrapped up with three fine innings of relief from freshman Dan Ciccone (four strikeouts in two innings) and Smith (one shutout inning).
Frascella’s emergence in the middle of the lineup was the key.
"He just stayed within himself," Carter said. "Guys got on in front of him, and every time he got a hit, it was an RBI."
The Cardinals have little time to mull their loss to WW-P North, as they have a tough test against cross-town rival Notre Dame at 3:45 p.m. today at LHS.
"That’s life in the CVC," Carter said. "They keep coming at you. You just have to keep playing."
NOTES: The Cardinals travel to Allentown on Monday and North Hunterdon on Wednesday. They then have a home game against Northern Burlington at noon April 23 before going back on the road for back-to-back games against West Windsor-Plainsboro South and Steinert.
Ciccone has started his varsity career by striking out 11 batters in just six innings. Scozzari, Frascella and Carnevali are tied for the team lead with four RBIs, while Cox has paced the team with five runs scored.