By Jeff Appelblatt
Luckily for South Amboy High School’s baseball team, it won’t be trying to get hits off Woodbridge High School ace Harry Rutkowski in the season opener in Woodbridge April 1.
The Barrons are saving the lefty for the next game at Piscataway Township High School April 3.
Woodbridge isn’t trying to do South Amboy a favor or anything. Piscataway just happens to be more of an enemy of the Barrons.
“I’m throwing the first division game against Piscataway, not the opener,” Rutkowski said a week before he was scheduled to pitch.
Rutkowski already committed to attend and play for Rutgers University when he was only a sophomore but he still has plenty to achieve at Woodbridge.
“The Woodbridge pitching wins record is 21, and right now I’m at 18,” the pitcher said.
That goal is one he’ll likely reach and pass within his first few games this year. The senior struck out more than 100 batters last year while managing to keep his earned run average (ERA) well below 2.00.
He also won his third game less than three weeks after the season started. It came April 18, 2016, and the next came in his following start a week later. In addition to four victories in the first month of play, the lefty also fanned more than 50 batters, striking out 36 in his first three starts, 14 over his next two and one more in a short relief appearance.
Rutkowski chose not to play football in the fall for the first time in a few years, but he did put up 13.3 points per game this year for Woodbridge’s basketball team.
In baseball, over the summer, Rutkowski was impressing many new viewers, including his coach in the All-American Amateur Baseball Association (AAABA) and Spotswood High School coach, Glenn Fredricks.
“Harry Rutkowski is in a different bracket,” Fredricks said about the pitcher. “In the tournament game he won against New York, he was the most dominant I’ve seen.”
“In eight innings, he threw only 80 pitches.”
Overall that game, Rutkowski struck out eight and gave up only four hits.
But that game was nothing new for Woodbridge’s ace. Last season, he struck out at least 10 batters in eight of his nine starts. More importantly, Rutkowski won eight of the nine games he started.
“I’ve not seen work ethic like his at this age,” Fredricks said after the AAABA season. “But it’s who he is. He’s as good as we have in New Jersey.”
Rutkowski’s main goal will be to help the Barrons outdo its 18-win season from a year ago while continuing to cement his own legacy in Woodbridge’s baseball memories.