Brett Carroll
Staff Writer
The Allentown High School baseball team is accustomed to this time of the season.
The state tournaments are in full bloom and Allentown is zeroing in on repeating as the Group 3 state champion.
Allentown took a step closer to achieving that lofty prize when the Redbirds knocked off Jackson Liberty High School, 12-4, in the Central Jersey, Group 3 state sectional semifinals on May 29 in Jackson.
Coach Bob Nice would not compare his current crew to the unity that won the Group 3 state title a season ago.
“It’s a new year,” Nice said. “It’s nice to be back. But, it’s a different year, with a different group. These guys are just as hungry as the guys were last year.
The Redbirds played Wall High School in the state sectional title game, where they won, 6-5, on June 1 in Wall. Now the Redbirds go after the Group 3 state title.
Nice felt that the Redbirds are able to accomplish the finer points of the game.
“We executed,” Nice said. “That’s really the bottom line. We did the little things that we’re supposed to do to win. We were able to draw walks and stuff like that. The big thing is we got bunts down. That’s something we haven’t been doing the last few weeks. We worked on it the other day, and it opened up big innings for us today. Two of our four-run innings got started because we had good bunts.”
Nice thinks that it will be a total team effort in order to capture another state title.
“Everybody,” Nice said. “That’s the neat thing about our club. We’re not relying on one guy to do everything. Or even two guys. We have nine guys in the lineup that can beat the other guy on any given day. We don’t rely on any one guy which is a good thing.”
