4/23/2010 - Bello, Lions Ready To Roar
The old Sussex County Baseball Coaches Association Baseball Tournament has always been near and dear to Vinnie Bello’s heart.
Bello, the outstanding baseball coach at Pope John, had run the tourney since its inception a few years back and took great pride in showcasing Sussex County’s best at Skylands Park in the final weekend of the tournament.
But as we all know by now, in the name of realignment, the tourney was disbanded as the schools in Sussex joined forces with the Hunterdon/Warren Athletic Association to form the new H/W/S Association which sponsors tourneys in 21 sports, including baseball.
“It is tough to lose the Sussex County tournament,” said Bello, whose Lions are in the midst of one their best starts ever at 11-0 and a top 10 ranking in The Star-Ledger. “We worked very hard for that tourney and it was a good one.
“But expanding it is great for baseball in the area because there are so many good teams,” he added. “We are playing well right now, but that could change. Baseball is a funny game that way. Hopefully, we will continue to play well the rest of the season.”
Playing well is quite an understatement for how the Lions have started the season. They have been dominant and they received the No. 1 seed on the Sussex side for the H/W/S which gets under way this weekend with preliminary games.
The pre-quarterfinal-round games are a week from Saturday at the higher-seeded schools. All four quarterfinals will be held May 8 at Skylands Park. The times will be 9:30 a.m., noon, 2:30 and 5 p.m.
That will also be the site for the semifinals, May 15 at 2:30 and 5 p.m., and the final the next day at 2 p.m.
The brackets for baseball and softball were released this week and here is how it shakes out for baseball.
Top Bracket
No. 9 Delaware Valley at No. 8 Wallkill Valley, winner at No. 1 North Hunterdon; No. 5 Phillipsburg at No. 4 Newton; No. 6 Vernon at No. 3 North Warren; No. 10 Sussex Tech at No. 7 Belvidere winner at No. 2 Sparta.
Bottom Bracket
No. 9 Kittatinny at No. 8 Voorhees, winner at No. 1 Pope John; No. 5 Hopatcong at No. 4 Hackettstown; No. 6 Warren Hills at No. 3 High Point; No. 10 South Hunterdon at No. 7 Lenape Valley, winner at No. 2 Hunterdon Central.
The softball seeds were also released. The softball tourney will start this weekend as well with pre-quarterfinals games being played May 1 with the quarterfinals being held May 8 at HealthQuest Field in Raritan Township with the semifinals and finals to be held there May 15 and 16.
Top Bracket
No. 9 North Warren at No. 8 Vernon, winner at No. 1 Hunterdon Central; No. 5 Hackettstown at No. 4 Pope John; No. 6 Sussex Tech at No. 3 Voorhees; No. 10 Hopatcong at No. 7 Phillipsburg, winner at No. 2 Lenape Valley
Bottom Bracket
No. 10 Belvidere at No. 7 Kittatinny, winner at No. 2 Delaware Valley; No. 6 Warren Hills at No. 3 Newton; No. 5 High Point at No. 4 North Hunterdon; No. 9 Wallkill Valley at No. 8 South Hunterdon, winner at No. 1 Sparta
In my previous blog I broke down the softball tourney and now I will do my best to preview the baseball tournament.
This weekend will feature four games. No. 8 Wallkill Valley (3-9) will host No. 9 Delaware Valley (4-8); No. 8 Voorhees (2-7) will host No. 9 Kittatinny (3-6; No. 7 Belvidere (8-3) will face No. 10 Sussex Tech (4-5) and No. 10 South Hunterdon (5-4) will travel to No. 7 Lenape Valley (7-3).
The Wallkill-Del Val matchup as the seeds suggest, is dead even. Wallkill will look to Chris Rago, Jeff Hilbert and Steve Hougtaling, while the Terriers are led by Gavin Smith and Dan Brokaw. The Terriers and Rangers have a common opponent in Hopatcong, which Wallkill beat and Del Val lost to earlier in the season.
The winner gets top-seeded North Hunterdon (9-2), the team Bello feels is the best of the lot in H/W. The Lions are paced by Greg Garcia and Tom Zengel and own a win over defending Group 4 champion No. 2 Hunterdon Central (6-6) this season.
Kittatinny has struggled all season, but Dan Chernati, Adam Crisman and Steve Zappa have all had their moments. Voorhees hasn’t been on fire either, so look for a high scoring affair in this one.
The lucky winner gets to face Pope John and its great pitching and hitting. Junior righty Brendan Mayers is a stud and beat Delbarton last week, while Connor McGlynn and Mike Liegel are terrific as well.
Catcher Alex DeBellis leads a very potent attack for PJ which is capable of piling up runs.
The Sussex Tech-Belvidere clash could be interesting as the Mustangs look to Rob Wilson, Cody Owens and Dempsey Walters. But Belvidere will counter with Steve Montello.
The survivor of this game gets a very dangerous Sparta (10-3) team, the No. 2 seed, paced by Ryan Quinn, Zach Passerelle and John Brucker.
Lenape Valley can swing the bat and the Pats own a nice win over Hackettstown, 13-12, a game in which it trailed 10-3 before Bobby Pregno’s game-winning hit. South Hunterdon will be undermanned as it will be missing several players due to other commitments according to a report on nj.com.
The winner will face No. 2 Hunterdon Central, which ruled the old H/W with 10 titles overall, including last year’s. The Red Devils are hovering around .500 but have played a very tough schedule.
HC is paced by Robbie Speckhardt, Evan Klimchak, Kevin Gilbert and Ben Lyman,
The other first-round matchups look intriguing with No. 6 Vernon traveling to Blairstown to face No. 3 North Warren (10-1) and its high-octane attack. The Pats have scored 30 and 23 runs in a game this season with Kevin Belthoff, Ryan Campbell and Mike Macione leading the way.
Vernon (5-7) is no slouch with the bat, either, as Nuri Gunes, Nick Battista, Mark Pope and company can put up some runs. Look for this one to be a double-digit affair resembling a football score, especially if the wind is blowing out in Blairstown.
No. 5 Hopatcong (7-6) has been solid all season behind the efforts of DJ Ross, Josh Bishop, Ryan Annett and Ralph Nardrowski. But the Chiefs have already lost once this season to No. 4 Hackettstown, 11-3.
The Tigers are 9-1 with their only loss coming to Lenape. They are paced by Chris Roberts, Tom Giuliano, Zach Hurst and Kirby Neuner.
No. 3 High Point (9-2) has been a pleasant surprise for coach Mickey Thomas as the Wildcats have just two losses this season. High Point fell to state-powers Randolph and Morristown, but it owns wins over Sparta 12-2 and Vernon 18-10.
The Wildcats are paced by hard-hitting Austin Caldwell, Carl Harvey, Jared Mussilli and Scott Carroll. No. 6 Warren Hills is solid and looks to Matt Artigliere and Tom LoPrinzi.
Phillipsburg (7-4) won the H/W in 2008 and is capable of making a run this year behind Justin Scourozo and Tyler Rosenberry. But Newton (6-4) will be a formidable foe with the likes of Zak Noviskey, Phil Spence and Jake Winch.
Plus it is always fun to see two of the oldest programs in West Jersey go at it in any sport, so fans will be in for a good one down at Memory Park next week.
So how will it unfold? A High Point-HC quarterfinal should be a blast, literally, and Hackettstown will give PJ all it wants, but I see PJ and North Hunterdon coming out of the brackets with the Lions of Pope John taking home the hardware at Skylands Park.
The Morris County brackets for softball and baseball came out this week as well. Jefferson’s baseball team which won the final Sussex tourney is seeded 18th and will face No. 15 Chatham this weekend.
The Falcons softball team is the No. 4 seed and received a bye. Jefferson, which won the MCT four times under former legendary coach Ed Levens, will face the winner of Dover-Morristown in the first round.
If you are looking for something to do this weekend you have plenty to choose from, so get out there and enjoy the action.
That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines.
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