Steinert players Ryan Mostrangeli and Jake Beyer celebrate after regaining the lead over Nottingham in the 5th inning after Jake Muller’s 2 run go ahead single in todays Steinert-Nottingham game. Photo by Michael A. Sabo.
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Apr. 7: For one of the rare times entering a baseball season, Nottingham may have been considered a slight cut above Steinert due to returning a strong nucleus from a sectional champion while the Spartans suffered huge graduation losses.
But Steinert took the opportunity to use an early-season meeting between the two teams to announce to the Colonial Valley Conference that it’s still hanging around.
After falling behind for the first time all game in the top of the fifth, the Spartans responded with 11 in the bottom of the inning to take a 13-3, mercy rule victory over the visiting Northstars Friday.
“Our team comes into every game with the mindset we’re going to win, especially when we’re at home on our field,” said rightfielder Jake Beyer, who had a three-run triple in the huge uprising. “We have the confidence we’re the best team in the state. We’re not going to think anything otherwise, I don’t think we should. We’ve got hitters one through nine, and with (David) Stec out there throwing every first pitch for a strike, there’s not much you can do.”
Stec scattered six hits and struck out five in improving to 2-0. He did not walk a batter.
“He kept pounding the zone,” coach Brian “The Chef” Giallella said. “They had some hits to get some runs to take the lead but we came right back after that, and that was big.”
Steinert took a 2-0 lead off Bryce Fremgen – who threw a solid four innings – on Brady Plunkett’s RBI double and Ryan Mostrangeli’s RBI single in the first. Fremgen’s run-scoring double made it 2-1 in the fourth, and Tommy McParland gapped a two-run double in the fifth to give Nottingham a 3-2 lead.
But McParland struggled after entering for Fremgen, who allowed a leadoff hit to Mostrangeli in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Beyer walked, CJ Pittaro singled and Jake Muller delivered a two-run single up the middle to give Steinert a 4-3 lead.
“He had been scuffling,” Giallella said. “Obviously the base hit is big. That broke everything open a little bit. It was a great at-bat.”
Muller’s early-season struggles nearly ended in the third when he ripped a line drive that Fremgen caught in self-defense.
“It was good,” Muller said of his hit. “The second at-bat I hit a ball right back at him and he made a nice play on it. The next time I tried to do the same thing, tried to go up the middle and get a couple runs in.”
What happened next was pretty unbelievable, as Steinert just kept scoring to turn a once-competitive nail-biter into a rout.
“We were looking for a couple runs to get us in the lead, and then I got the hit,” Muller said. “Next thing I know, I look up and we’re ahead by eight runs.”
After Muller’s hit, Draven Kowalski and Plunkett walked to force in a run and Alex Coleman, Chris Cote, Mostrangeli and Joey Sacco followed with RBI singles. Beyer cleared the bases with a triple into left field, where the wind blew fiercely all day.
Beyer then scored the game-deciding run when Pittaro hit a fielder’s choice to third. Steinert finished with 10 hits as it continues to be on fire early in the season.
“We have a lot of young guys this year and it’s just great we’re able to hit because it takes the pressure off some of the kids in the lineup,” Beyer said. “They can just relax and hit the ball. That’s kind of what we’ve been doing.”
“We’re real young, but we’ve got a lot of players who are all good,” Muller added. “One through nine can hit the ball, we’ve got a lot of pitching. Our staff looks good, I think we look good.”
If anything, Steinert showed it should be, as usual, a dominant presence in Mercer County baseball. Despite some slip-ups by Nottingham, this still represented a nice win over a quality team for the Spartans.
“It’s really big for us to win this game, especially because we’ve been on a roll and we want to keep it going,” Beyer said. “Early in the season we want to get into the rhythm of things. We’re here to win every single year. We always have a great team. It’s just a tradition our coaches keep alive with a speech every year.”
Both schools go the prep route on Saturday as Steinert visits Hun and Nottingham takes on Pennington.
