By Jeff Appelblatt
Freehold High School’s baseball team was one of many to have its 2017 opener postponed because of weather, but head coach Jon Block didn’t want to say a thing about weather the day before his team’s scheduled first game.
“I’m not going to make excuses. That’s the way it is, so I’m not going to complain about it,” Block said while pointing to a picture of one of his former teams on a past April 1 with snow on the ground. “There — snow on the ground. It was our first game [that year] and snow was on the ground.”
Weather aside, the 26-year coach for Freehold was ready to get the season started. It was time to look ahead to Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) in a game scheduled for April 3.
Block expected to know a lot about his team based on its performance against one of the Colonials’ top rivals.
“We’ll find out right away if we’re any good,” Block said.
With what his team has done over the last decade, the coach won’t base his full expectations of the team on one game.
“We’ve been consistent the last 10 years. We’re always in the running for the division. And we, in the last few years, have done very well in some of the tournaments — the Monmouth County, the Shore Conference and/or the state tournament,” the coach said.
“We expect to be pretty good this year.”
There are numerous athletes he has high expectations for because of their past.
“We have two very good lefty pitchers. One’s going to Seton Hall [University] and one’s going to Kean [University]. So they’ll be at the top of the staff,” Block said describing the futures of Tom Holdorf and Dan Chiusano. “Then we have five or six other kids that will be filling in and hopefully do a good job on the mound, where it all starts.”
Block might just be a little more sure who his next best pitcher is if his team was able to have more scrimmages.
“We would have liked to see more innings, but we did as well as we could,” the coach said. “I think we go about six or seven deep in the pitching staff. Two are very good: Dan Chisano is our No. 1 pitcher. Then Holdorf, our first baseman, is our No. 2 pitcher. Three or four [pitchers] are pretty good.”
One infielder that Block has minimal doubts about is Chris Cassandra.
“This is his fourth year as a starting shortstop,” the Colonials’ coach said.
Cassandra played basketball for Freehold in the winter season.
And the player behind the plate has a tough job.
“Catcher this year is Phil Marcantonio,” Block said. “This will be his first year starting.”
The Freehold players will need to work together to help the Colonials compete for the top spots in the Shore Conference A North Division and in the conference overall.
“If [we] work hard and continue to work hard, and [we] keep the mistakes to a minimum, we could compete with the better teams in the Shore,” Block said.
Freehold was finally able to take the field April 3 at CBA and will travel to play again at the home of crosstown rival Freehold Township High School April 5 at 4 p.m.
