This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Raiders Strengthen Skills in American Legion Baseball

The summer league season featured strong performances by several of the high school team's players.

There may come a point in the 2010 Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School baseball season when Jordan Bayroff is asked to get a big out for the varsity team. His success on the mound this summer is something he can take into the next spring campaign, which will help give him an even better chance of getting that big out.

Bayroff certainly gained more confidence in his ability as a right-hander, who can mix his pitches well, after turning in a stellar season-ending performance Tuesday night against Union in his team's Senior American Legion finale.

Although Scotch Plains was defeated by Union 2-0 at Union's Teener Field to finish its season at 8-9, the Raiders could be bolstered by the pitching performance of Bayroff, who excelled on the junior varsity team this past spring.

In a seven-inning, complete-game effort, Bayroff tossed a five-hitter, allowing only one earned run. His 87-pitch outing included seven strikeouts—six swinging and one looking—and just one walk.

Bayroff retired the side in order in the fourth and fifth innings and, at one point, retired eight batters in a row. There were three innings where he threw less than 10 pitches as he was pretty much in a groove the entire game.

"I'm just trying to get better and improve to make that next step from JV to varsity," he said.

Bayroff allowed a run in the top of the first on a ground out to second after Union's leadoff batter, Jared Sumner, led off the game with an opposite field double to right and then moved to third on a ground out to Bayroff.

The game's only other run was scored as the result of a throwing error in the seventh.

Bayroff allowed only three singles and two doubles and induced nine ground balls, with one of them going for a 5-4-3 double play in the second.

"My changeup was working, which was the main thing," Bayroff said. "When that works, then I can mix in the fastball and the curveball well."

From the end of the third inning until there were two outs in the sixth, Bayroff was at his best, retiring eight consecutive batters—three on strikeouts, three on ground outs, one on a fly ball and one on a pop-up.

"My fastball away was working there," Bayroff said. "It had a little cut to it."

Scotch Plains managed five hits off winning pitcher Tom Becht, who went the distance. The right-hander, who just graduated from Union High School and who will continue playing baseball at New Jersey City University in Jersey City, struck out 10 and walked two.

Scotch Plains leadoff batter Mike Ridge went 1-for-3, with a double and a walk, while Lou Mazzella was 1-for-3, with a single. Both will be seniors and were starters on Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School’s varsity team that captured the Union County Tournament championship this past season.

Mike Lauricella was 1-for-3 with a single, as was designated hitter Kyle Berwick and Ryan Haggerty.

The closest Scotch Plains came to scoring was when Mazzella and Lauricella led off the bottom of the sixth with back-to-back singles before Becht retired the next three batters.

Scotch Plains head coach Tom Baylock used this season as a learning experience for the mostly-JV squad he put out on the field. Many of his top players who will be returning to the varsity as seniors compete on higher-level teams.

"We had seven guys back playing AAU, with three of them playing only about three or four games this summer," said Baylock, a 1992 Roselle Park graduate, who has been the Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School varsity baseball coach since 2004 and has led the Raiders to two Union County Tournament championships.

Baylock is talking about seniors-to-be Gary Binkiewicz and John Maxwell and junior-to-be Marcus Rivera playing for the Jack Cust team in Flemington, and seniors-to-be Joe D'Annunzio, Ricky Shevlin, Mazzella and Ridge playing for the Farrah Builders squad out of Colts Neck. D'Annunzio, also a soccer standout, plays in a summer soccer league as well.

"The goal was to, basically, take my JV team and the guys who were bench players last year and give them opportunities to see what they could do and see if we could find some guys to fill some holes for next year," Baylock said.

Scotch Plains is coming off a varsity season that saw it go 22-4 and also reach the North 2, Group 3 championship game and claim the Watchung Conference title.

"We have about two or three holes we have to fill and some pitching," Baylock said. "Tonight we saw a good performance from Jordan, who pitched on the JV team last year. We're hoping that, with those other guys playing elsewhere, it gave these younger guys a lot of at-bats and a lot of innings to play in. Hopefully, that's going to pay off for us in March."  

SCOTCH PLAINS

SENIOR AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL TEAM

Lineup vs. Union Tuesday, July 14, at Union's Teener Field

44-Mike Ridge, shortstop, senior

5-Brian Dempsey, second base, senior

34-Lou Mazzella, catcher, senior

10-Mike Lauricella, first base, senior

17-Kyle Berwick, designated hitter, junior

22-Jordan Bayroff, pitcher, senior

24-Anthony Scalfaro, third base, junior

32-Ryan Haggerty, right field, junior

18-Sean Reilly, left field, junior

25-Connor Thompson, center field, junior

9-John Howarth, junior.

8-Travis Whitney, senior

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?