Catcher Alex Coleman (left) and Ryan Meszaros display the ball in which Ryan Meszaros was able to get the last out with en route to his five-inning perfect game at Ewing Friday (Photo by Rich Fisher)

By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com

Apr. 28: The biggest waste of energy by CVC baseball players this spring occurred Friday at Ewing High, when Steinert’s outfielders actually took their gloves out to their positions.

They never used them. Not once. Not even close.

Ryan Meszaros was Ryan Masterful as he tossed a five-inning perfect game in the Spartans 12-0 win over the Blue Devils. It was Steinert’s ninth straight win and clinched the CVC Patriot Division title.

While some may scoff and say a game must go seven innings to count as a perfecto, there’s a good bet this one would have gone 10 and Meszaros would have still been flawless AND still be under the 110 pitch count.

Ryan Meszaros tossed a five-inning perfect game at Ewing Friday April 28th. File Photo by Michael A. Sabo

The junior right-hander threw just 51 pitches. 51!!! And 37 of them were for strikes. 37!!! And of the 14 balls he threw, three were against the first batter he faced when he went 3-0 before getting Jake Storer to ground out. That meant he threw just 11 balls to the next 14 batters. 11!!!

“Lights out,” coach Brian “The Chef” Giallella said. “We had runs in the first inning that makes it easy for someone to go out there. But there’s also that little added pressure once you realize you have a chance to get a perfect game or even a no-hitter for that matter.

“But he’s been doing a really, really nice job for us all year. Our young pitchers have been doing that. He stepped up today, and that was big.”

It was impressive to watch, as Meszaros’ breaking pitches had Ewing missing by a mile, and the ones the Devils hit had little oomph behind them. Not one ball went to the outfield, as Meszaros got five strikeouts, nine ground-outs and a line drive to shortstop Joey Sacco to end the game.

“That’s what you get with a good pitcher who does his job,” catcher Alex Coleman said. “He did everything he was supposed to do. I set it up and he hit the spot. It was perfect.”

In all ways.

“It feels awesome, it feels great to get the perfect game but even better to get the win,” Meszaros said. “Coming in I felt pretty good. I just made sure to mix up my pitches as much as I could, hit my spots and keep the hitters off stride.”

He did exactly that, mixing a curve, slider, change-up and fastball to perfection (get it?).

“That slider has been absolutely phenomenal,” Coleman said. “It just breaks so precisely that whenever the batter swings it’s gonna be so hard to hit it.”

Meszaros got a big lift from his offense as Steinert scored five in the first and just kept tacking on and invoked the 10-run mercy rule with three in the top of the fifth. Meszaros admitted he got a little antsy sitting in the dugout during the top of the fifth, but he got a strikeout, a nice 3-1 putout on which first baseman Brendan James made a good play, and the line drive to end it.

Asked if it was his most dominant performance in high school, Meszaros said. “I would say so. I’m a groundball pitcher anyway. I don’t get many strikeouts, not a lot of fly balls. I just try to keep the ball in the park and let the guys behind me make the plays like I know they can.”

They did just that in the second, when Sacco and third baseman Chris Cote both made nice plays on slow hit balls that could have been infield hits had they not executed perfectly (there’s that word again).

“They were definitely tough plays, these guys have been making them all year,” Meszaros said. “Everyone out there has been making them. They worked real hard this off-season and it’s starting to show.”

And, of course, there is the guy behind the plate; who relays the pitch signals while also staying in synch with his pitcher.

“It’s pretty fun, knowing part of his perfect game is part of my job,” Coleman said. “There was a dropped third strike. If I let that go behind me there’s no perfect game for him. So my job is as important as his job. Everyone’s job on the field is important when it’s a perfect game.”

Coleman (RBI) was one of four Spartans with two hits, along with Jake Beyer (2 RBI), Cote and CJ Pittaro. Drayven Kowalski had a two-run double, while Sacco, Ryan Mostrangeli, James, Nick Kloutis (double), Ryan Schwager and Tommy Blackwell (triple) all had a hit and RBI. Steinert had 16 hits spread amongst 12 players but the focus was all on Meszaros.

Now 3-0, he has lowered his ERA to 0.77 and has 20 strikeouts while allowing a combined total of 19 walks and hits.

“The biggest difference has been my accuracy,” Meszaros said. “Last year I struggled a lot with my location; even in the Hopewell game I had five walks, that started to show. But I’ve really worked on that and the slider I’ve started to incorporate it, and it has become a real weapon for me.”

Which is all well and good, although it can tend to make life a little boring for those outfielders.