Middlesex CC baseball team is chasing history
BY DOUG McKENZIE
Staff Writer

The Middlesex Community College baseball team has already won more games than any team in school history.

Now they want to take the next step, and advance further in the postseason than any Colts team has done before - all the way to the Division III Junior College World Series in Glen Falls, N.Y.

Middlesex is 30-10 on the year, having advanced to this weekend's Region XIX tournament in Gloucester County by winning a pair of preliminary-round games over Ocean County College this past weekend. After splitting a pair of games on Saturday, head coach Mike Lepore's squad shut out Ocean, 8-0, on Sunday to advance.

They are now the third seed in the Region XIX Final Four, with defending national champion Gloucester Community College as the one seed, Camden County College as the two seed, and Burlington County College as the four seed.

The Colts will open play tomorrow at 11 a.m. against Camden at Gloucester, with a second-round game to follow at 3:30 p.m. Gloucester will open against Burlington. The two winners of the first-round games will play at GCC, with the losers playing at nearby Camden.

The second-round winners will then meet on Saturday, with the winner of the first-round losers' game needing to beat their unbeaten opponent twice. A second game (if needed) would be held on Sunday at GCC.

With so much success already on the books this year, Lepore is confident that his team will be ready tomorrow to start making some history.

"This is the most wins we've ever had, though we did play more games than we've done in the past due to the lack of rain-outs this year," the coach said. "I think our chances are pretty good this weekend.

"It's definitely the best shot we've ever had [at advancing]," he added. "We've been in this situation before, and we've seen everyone we'll be playing before."

The Colts have lost twice to Gloucester this year, 4-2 and 8-4, but have split with Camden (beating them 2-0 and losing 1-0), and they swept Burlington.

Gloucester (35-10) is the obvious favorite once again, as they are ranked second in the nation behind Eastfield College (Texas), and is led by four players hitting over .390 this season - Jim Achey (.418), Tom Reindel (.405), Chris Blackwood (.398) and Vinny Johnson (.395). Adding depth are Sean Barksdale with a team-leading 44 RBIs and Stan Orzechowski with a team-leading 51 runs scored and five triples. The Gloucester pitching rotation is led by Sean Heimpel with 60 strikeouts and a 2.077 ERA in 56.1 innings pitched, and the team has plenty of pitching depth behind Heimpel.

But Middlesex has some gaudy statistics of its own, with a slew of local players putting together special seasons both at the plate and on the pitcher's mound.

Spotswood's Steve Abbot is batting .362 in the lead-off spot (50-for-138), scoring 37 runs and stealing 16 bases. He also has 22 RBIs on the year.

Carteret's Andrew Decibus has done a nice job in the two-hole, hitting .319 (45-for-141), with 39 runs scored and 21 RBIs. Sayreville's Jeff Toth is a force in the three slot, hitting at a .441 clip (60-for-136) with a team-leading 51 runs scored and 35 RBIs, while another Sayreville product, catcher Rob Arvanities, is the prototypical cleanup batter, with a .445 average (61-for-137) with 36 RBIs and 50 runs scored. He also has two home runs on the year.

South Plainfield's Stephen Turrise has excelled batting fifth, hitting at .429 (48-for-112) with 37 RBIs, 36 runs scored and a team-leading three home runs. He is also tied with Decibus and Toth for the team lead in doubles with 11.

Batting sixth has been designated hitter Chris Douglas, of Old Bridge, who is hitting .400 (32-for-80), with 23 RBIs and 17 runs scored.

James Corbett, an infielder from Spotswood, has done a nice job playing at first base for Middlesex, and is hitting .298 (34-for-114) with 26 RBIs and 19 runs scored, while Colonia's Joe Maiorana, who was moved to third base when Ryan Van Name (Bishop Ahr) separated his finger, is hitting at a .353 clip (18-for-51). When Van Name has been able to play, he's hit, going 15-for-50 (.300).

Middletown's Matt Miller has also hit well in limited action (20-for-69), while Tottenville's (Staten Island, N.Y.) Matt Thompson, who just returned from a broken finger suffered when he was hit by a pitch, is yet another .300 hitter for the Colts, going 24-for-72 on the year with 12 RBIs.

Rey Mora, a freshman from Florida, has also performed well at the plate, going 17-for-51 (.333) with 18 runs scored and nine doubles.

As a team, Middlesex is hitting .360, and scoring an average of just over nine runs per game. But Lepore doesn't necessarily expect such proficiency this weekend, when his team will see his opponents' aces.

As far as Middlesex's pitching, it has been solid, with a number of players with limited pitching experience performing well all year.

"I'm somewhat surprised with our level of success, since we only returned four [pitchers] with experience," Lepore said. "Some of the freshmen had some pitching experience in high school though, and they've done a real nice job for us."

Metuchen's Dan Sorg, a sophomore, will be getting the start tomorrow against Camden. He gave up just two hits in the 1-0 loss to Camden earlier this year, and has a stellar 1.38 ERA on the season. That will leave Tottenville's Mike Femia, also a sophomore, to go in game two tomorrow. Femia, who is pitching to a 1.029 ERA this spring, has already beaten Burlington, while he has not faced Gloucester.

If the Colts advance to Saturday's game, Jason Fischer, a freshman out of St. John Vianney High School, is the likely starter, since Lepore expects to use freshman Juan De Los Santos, of Perth Amboy, in relief tomorrow, like he did last weekend, when De Los Santos gave him nine solid innings of relief work. Both Fischer and De Los Santos have been solid this year, with ERAs of 3.06 and 3.07, respectively.

Middlesex has also received some quality pitching from Bishop Ahr grad David Slater, a freshman, and South River's Daniel Kosko, also a freshman, the coach said.

As far as what to expect from the Colts this weekend, Lepore said the equation for success is a simple one for his team.

"I tell them the same three things before each game - play defense, throw strikes and put the ball in play," he said. "It all depends on our pitching and defense. Our batting average is pretty high, so when we play good defense, we win."

And if they win, they make history