Brett Carroll
Staff Writer
The baseball team at Bishop George High School believes that it is how you finish and not how you started.
Bishop Ahr coach Tom D’Agostino emphasized that point.
“Naturally, we want to play our best baseball towards the end of the year,” D’Agostino said. “It’s not about wins and loses. It’s about playing your best towards the end of the year. Obviously, with the weather at the beginning of the year, we struggled. I don’t want to make any excuses, but the point is we want to hit our stride now, not early. We want to hit the stride going into the county tournament and the state tournament. I’m confident in the guys we have here.”
Hustling is a key component for the team from Edison, so said senior pitcher Rich Albrecht.
“All of the little things,” Albrecht said. “Like hustling back after each inning. We’re hitting the ball hard. Today it was just not going where we wanted it to go. But just the hustle stuff and the little things that make the difference.”
The attitude remained upbeat even after the Trojans fell to Spotswood High School, 13-0, on May 2 in Edison.
“We just got to keep competing and keep battling,” D’Agostino said. “If we can do that and keep competing for five, six, seven innings, then we’ll get over the hump and start winning more. We played a very good team here that are very well coached. We had bases loaded early in the game and they were able to get out of it. Then, when they had guys on base, we couldn’t return the favor. We gave them some life. That’s the difference. Good teams like that get out of jams and take advantage. That’s something we didn’t do today and it’s something that they did.”
“I really liked how the guys hustled out there,” Albrecht said. “We battled. Our pitcher [sophomore Gerard Chiricolo] threw his heart out. You can’t do anything about the errors. It happens. But we played hard, and that’s all that matters.”
The Trojans are 4-13 on the year, but want expect to play its best with the postseason around the corner.
“I don’t really want to put a number on it,” D’Agostino said. “I just expect that we come out here and play hard every game. If we do that, hopefully some of the bounces of the ball will go our way so that we are on the winning end of these games instead of the losing end.”
“I think we’re growing as a team as the year has gone on,” Albrecht said. “We hope to play our best baseball now that the season is almost over. We want to be playing our best going into the Greater Middlesex Conference and stuff like that.”
D’Agostino is pleased with the team’s pitching staff.
“Richie’s been our ace for two years now,” D’Agostino said. “He’s been great and always gives us a chance to win. Our junior, Kyle Orta, has been playing great as well. He’s had a great year so far. Not only has he been doing well at the plate, but he’s been good on the mound in spots as well. So, those two guys have really stepped up for us this year.”
The Trojans will continue their desire to finish the year on a positive note when they play as the host to David Brearley High School on May 11. The game will start at 3:45p.m.
