By george albano
Staff Writer
FARRAH MAFFAI South Brunswick’s Justin DelPiano tries to take down Perth Amboy’s Juan Minaya during a 135-pound bout at the Old Bridge Wrestling Festival, which wrapped up on Sunday with the final individual competitions.
The North Brunswick Junior American Legion baseball team is headed to the playoffs on Friday.
With a few breaks, the South Brunswick Junior Legion could have been joining them.
Instead, fifth-seeded North Brunswick will be the only local team in action when it meets No. 4 Bishop Ahr tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. at Bishop Ahr High School.
A win will send North Brunswick to the state tournament next weekend, and that’s somewhere the local Junior Legion team hasn’t been since the 2000 season, although they’ve come close.
In fact, Darren Snediker led North Brunswick to the playoffs in each of his first two seasons, but both times they made it as a lower seed and lost the play-in game. This summer, however, they don’t even have to play one.
"We’ve made the playoffs all three years I’ve been coach," Snediker said, "but this is the first time we’ve had this type of seed where we’re only one win away from the state tournament. We’ve never been just one win away."
With a 13-7 record, NB finished fifth among the 21 teams in the Middlesex County Conference, high enough to avoid a play-in game this season. Four teams will advance to the state tournament and three of them will be determined Friday.
"Just to come in fifth out of 21 teams is quite an accomplishment for this group," Snediker said.
The Middlesex County Conference is certainly no piece of cake. The St. Joseph Green team went 19-0 to not only earn the top seed, but an automatic berth into the state tourney. Meanwhile, No. 2 seed Father and Son, the Edison High entrant, finished 16-4 and will host No. 7 East Brunswick (11-7-1). Holmdel, the third seed with a 14-5 mark, hosts No. 6 Fords VFW (12-7), representing J.P. Stevens High School.
Bishop Ahr, also 14-5, hosts North Brunswick in the third qualifying game, and Friday’s three winners will join St. Joe’s as the four Middlesex teams to go to the state tournament and a chance to advance to the regionals in Ohio.
The winner of the North Brunswick-Bishop Ahr match-up will meet the South Jersey champion in a best-of-three series next weekend at neutral Tabernacle. Snediker, for one, likes his team’s chances on Friday.
"We played them in our opening game back on June 5 and lost 5-4," the North Brunswick coach pointed out. "It was a good game that could’ve gone either way, so we’re looking forward to playing them again.
"But Bishop Ahr went to the state tournament last year and they were just one out away from going to the regionals. So they got experience and they’ve been there before. But my guys have been playing pretty good ball the last three weeks and I think we have a pretty good shot."
While they’ve been playing better lately, North Brunswick got off to a slow start this season. After the loss to Bishop Ahr, NB won its next two games, but then lost three in a row. With a 2-4 mark, the playoffs seemed like a long way off.
"But they put a nice little streak together after that and the kids really came together as a team," Snediker said. "Our goal was to make the playoffs and we did that. Now they want to try to make the state tournament, which was our second goal, and I think we have a good chance.
"We’ve been in every game except one, and that was against the top dog, St. Joe’s, but we’ve been competitive in all the rest and that’s all a manager can ask."
Snediker couldn’t ask any more of his team than what it gave him the last two games, both exciting come-from-behind victories. Against South River, North Brunswick trailed 11-3 at one point, but battled back to cut it to 11-10 entering the last inning and then scored two runs for a thrilling 12-11 win. Then against Colonia on Monday, NB trailed 6-5 but staged another two-run rally in its last at-bat to win 7-6.
"Our last two games we were down in the seventh inning, but came back and won it," Snediker said. "That tells you about the heart of this team. They have the heart of a lion."
Some of them, in fact, have been with the team for a while.
"I’ve had some of these kids three years in a row," Snediker noted. "Some of them started when they were 14 and helped build the program."
That group includes Steve Venuto, who catches, plays third and pitches, shortstop Mario DeAlmedia, second baseman Brett Koppel, and Ben Masur, a pitcher, left fielder and second baseman.
Then there’s center fielder and leadoff batter Danny Otero and pitcher/first baseman Derek Scott.
"Those six are all 16-year-olds and they all start," Snediker said. "They’re the reason we got this far. Those kids coming through the program know what Legion baseball is all about. They all sacrificed their summers the last three years."
Otero leads the team in hitting with a .425 average, while DeAlmedia and Koppel are both hitting over .300. Scott, meanwhile, is the ace of the pitching staff and has a 3-1 record.
A pair of 15-year-olds, pitcher/catcher Matt Chinery, who’s in his second year with the team, and first-year player Erick Heda, a 3B/1B, have both "been hitting the ball pretty good," Snediker said. "Matt is also hitting over .300. He’s been smoking the ball."
In addition, Chinery and Heda join Scott in a solid three-man rotation.
Another second-year 15-year-old is outfielder Daniel Peragallo, while two more 15s, Garrett Nichols and Cesar Grau, also play the outfield. Two other key players have been first-year 16-year-olds Brad Keller, who pitches in relief and also plays outfield and first base, and 3B/OF Eric Valosin.
"He’s done a tremendous job," Snediker said of Valosin’s play.
Snediker also credits his coaching staff, which includes Doug Caruso, the president of the North Brunswick Baseball Association who managed the 2000 team that last went to the state tournament. Ross Koppel and Jerry Kahn round out the staff.
"North Brunswick should be proud of this team," Snediker concluded. "I’m so proud of the effort and dedication of these kids all summer. I’m only a small piece of the puzzle. The kids are the main picture, and I’m just happy to be associated with them."
Meanwhile, the South Brunswick Junior Legion team finished 9-10, but could have easily won 12 or 13 games and made the playoffs, too.
"We were in a lot of close ballgames and lost a lot of one-run games," second-year manager Tom Farrell pointed out. "We must’ve lost four or five one-run games."
Farrell also lost three of his top players from last year he thought would be returning this summer. Ryan Webb, who would’ve been one of the team’s top pitchers, tore his rotator and missed the entire season.
"He pitched on the South Brunswick varsity, and at the end of the high school season and just prior to our season his arm hurt," Farrell said. "He just thought it was a little sore, but right before our first game he learned he had a tear."
Another pitcher, Travis Smith, and catcher Tim Barnshaw, who started at SBHS as a sophomore this spring, are playing baseball in Missouri this summer at the Ron Hunt Academy.
"So we lost all three players and that was a big hit," Farrell said. "Things could’ve gone different, but we still had a great group of kids who all worked hard and fought hard every game. They always gave it their all."
One such player was left fielder Brad Barkstle, who hit close to .400 to lead the club.
"He had a big year with the bat," Farrell.
So did Farrell’s son, Sean Farrell, who batted .350 and led the team in RBIs.
In South Brunswick’s last game, an 8-5 victory over Piscataway, he went 2-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs.
"We finished on a very positive note," the elder Farrell said. Sean Farrell, who played first base and pitched, also went 3-2 on the mound.
He and Tim Hester, who went 3-1, and Nick Steenstra, the winning pitcher against Piscataway to finish 2-1, accounted for eight of the team’s nine wins.
Two more key players were third baseman Seth Frumkin and versatile Vic Cruz, who played shortstop, second base, left field and pitched.
"He even did a little catching," Farrell laughed. "Next year most of the team comes back and we also have a lot of young players coming up, so they should have a good team."
And maybe there will be two local teams in the playoffs.