BELLEVILLE, NJ — Head coach Joe Sorce has reason to feel excited.
The longtime head coach of the Belleville High School baseball team sees a bright future for the program. The Bucs are young this season with a love for the game and the desire to get better.
“I like the (positive) attitude,” said Sorce prior to his team’s 14-0 win over University of Newark on Saturday morning, April 8, at George Zanfini Field at Belleville HS. “(They are a) great bunch of kids. They are working really hard, getting better every day. We’re very young, we only have two seniors on the team. I like how our seniors work hard and the young kids follow suit. Out of the 16 varsity players, six are sophomores and two are freshmen, which I think really bodes well for the future, because they are getting a lot of playing time and they enjoy playing with each other. You can see they really love the game; they like being here and they want to get better.”
After a dismal 12-2 season opening loss to Cedar Grove on Monday, April 3, the Bucs reeled off 12 straight victories to improve to a 12-1 record through Monday, April 24.
Sorce gave credit to Cedar Grove, which he said played well, adding that his team played poorly, as expected of a young team. However, the Bucs showed their resiliency in the next game.
After being down 4-0 against Newark Academy, the Bucs came back and scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and then won it in thrilling, walk-off fashion in the ninth inning, 5-4, for their first win of the season.
Belleville won another thrilling nine-inning game against Verona by the score of 8-5 on Saturday, April 14, in Verona. In their final at-bat in the seventh inning, the Bucs trailed 5-2. They rallied to tie the game on back-to-back singles by freshman Sean Walsh and sophomore Derek Gonzalez.
Belleville went ahead in the ninth when freshman Crismel Deleon drew a bases-loaded walk and sophomore Ayden Carrero delivered a two-run single.
Junior Marino Perez pitched three scoreless innings of relief to earn the win. Junior Josh Abramson pitched five strong innings and junior James Monroig pitched in the sixth before being lifted for a pinch-hitter.
The Bucs look forward to the rest of the season.
“We want to win as many games as we can this year, but overall, we just want to keep getting better,” Sorce said. That’s the best way to look at it when you have a really young team.
Here is the Belleville roster:
Seniors
- Jacob Mauricio, OF, captain
- Joe Guancione, utility player
Juniors
- Josh Abramson, P/OF
- James Monroig, P/1B
- Luis Delon, 3B/P
- Marino Perez, C/P
- Jake Santos, OF/P
- Santiago Nunez, OF/DH
Sophomores
- Ayden Carrero, SS/P
- Rafael Matos 1B
- Derek Gonzalez, 2B/OF
- Gabe Santiago, OF/P
- Ariancy Paulino, C
- Jordan Rosario, IF
Freshmen
- Crismel Deleon, OF/3B
- Sean Walsh, P/1B
Here are upcoming games:
- May 1: vs. Montclair Kimberley Academy, 4 p.m.
- May 6: vs. Kearny, 11 a.m.
- May 8: at Payne Tech, 4 p.m.
- May 11: vs. Bloomfield, senior night, 7 p.m.
- May 12: at Irvington, 4 p.m.
- May 13: vs. Nutley, 11 a.m.
- May 15: vs. East Orange Campus, 4 p.m.
- May 19: vs. Shabazz, 4 p.m.
- May 20: at West Orange, 7 p.m.
Photos by Joe Ragozzino
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