N.B. baseball concludes season with loss in state tourney
Raiders finish '08 with 9-12 mark
BY GEORGE ALBANO Staff Writer
The North Brunswick High School baseball team had, in the words of head coach Ryan Lillis, "an up and down season" in 2008.

"We would win three games, then we would lose three games," the Raiders' fourth-year coach explained. "We couldn't get any consistency."

With that in mind, it almost seemed fitting that North Brunswick was a bit "up and down" in what turned out to be its final game of the season, a 7-5 loss to Rancocas Valley in the opening round of the Central Jersey Group 4 state tournament in Mount Holly.

Indeed, the 12th-seeded Raiders found themselves up as they erased an early 2-0 deficit and built a 5-2 lead. But faster than you can say "sectional quarterfinals," they found themselves down as No. 5 Rancocas Valley rallied for five runs in the last of the sixth inning to go back in front.

The RedDevils,who play in the Burlington County Scholastic League, retired the Raiders in the top of the seventh to pull out the victory, and with it end North Brunswick's baseball season at 9-12.

"We were batting and scoring runs pretty good," Lillis said looking back on the game. "But then in that one inning the wheels fell off. We gave up five walks that inning. We couldn't throw pitches for strikes when we needed to."

That was quite a contrast from most of the season when North Brunswick received solid efforts on the mound.

"They did a good job the whole year," Lillis said of his pitching staff. "Our problem this year was fieldingmore than pitching.We need to do a much better job backing up our pitching by playing better defense."

Meanwhile, the Raiders had no such problems on offense most of the season or against Rancocas Valley. Elijah Yarborough went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and an RBI, while Matt Stasik also finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

"They've been one and two for us all season in hitting," Lillis said. "Max led the team with a .433 batting average and Elijah was second at .422.

"They were both our two top guys in RBIs, too. Max drove in 21 runs in only 21 games, and Elijah had 17 RBIs."

The duo accounted for four of the Raiders' five runs in their state tourney game.After Rancocas Valley grabbed a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, North Brunswick got one run back in the third, then scored three times in the fifth to take a 4-2 lead and added another run in the top of the sixth, setting the stage for the uprising in the bottom of the inning.

After going 9-11 during the regular season, the Raiders were hoping to pick up a few more wins in the postseason and finish with a winning record for the second year in a row. Last season North Brunswick went 14-11 and won the GMC White Division championship, while also picking up a victory in the first round of the state tournament.

Yarborough and Stasik, both juniors, were the only two starters back from that team, while Lillis was counting on players moving up and stepping into starting roles to fill the void.

To an extent they did, but in the end they fell short of their goal.

"It's always disappointing tomewhenwe finish under .500," Lillis said. "I did expect a littlemore this season, but we didmake the state tournament for the second straight year and that's something to be proud of.

"We're still growing as a program and this season was a building block."

The good news is unlike this season when the Raiders returned only two starters, they will be losing only two senior starters and four upperclassmen in all. Everyone else will be back.

"If you include the DH, we have eight starters returning," Lillis said. "We return a ton of guys andwe should do some big things next year.

"We'll be a senior-oriented team next year and I had a bunch of sophomores who will be juniors and should help us as well. My expectations will be higher next year."

You can also be sure he expects more "ups" than "downs" next season.

"We have to play well game in and game out," Lillis concluded. "We have to be more consistent."