Bloomfield HS baseball team gets ready for the season

Bloomfield High School pitcher Evit Dwyer delivers during the game against Bayonne last season.

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Last season, the Bloomfield High School baseball team had a magnificent 20-10 season, finishing as runner-up in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 1, Group 4 state tournament.

The Bengals dropped a heartbreaking 12-11 decision to Ridgewood in the sectional final at Bloomfield Middle School field.

The rebuilding Bengals hope to build off last year’s success as they open the season on Monday, April 1, on the road against Montclair Kimberley Academy.

BHS head coach Mike Policastro, entering his 18th year at the helm, noted that this year’s team is “super inexperienced,” having graduated 10 players from a year ago, including eight starting position players. However, the Bengals return the majority of their pitching staff.

The lack of preparation time due to NJSIAA rules hasn’t particularly helped, Policastro noted.

“We have had our share of mishaps so far, and the lack of preparation time being allowed by the NJSIAA doesn’t help, either,” Policastro wrote in an email to The Independent Press. “After tryouts, we only have 11 days to get them ready for opening day, so expecting sophomores and freshmen to understand the varsity isn’t so simple. It takes time and repetitions for these kids to get acclimated to how we do things on the varsity level. You could be a starter on JV or freshmen teams, but varsity is a different ballgame. It’s more crisp, better pitching, better defense, much harder, so if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can get ugly quick. We are working hard, but progressing slowly. If we had another week or two to get ready, it would be beneficial.

“The weather has not helped, either. Having played two scrimmages in 40-degree weather is not conducive to real baseball. We open (on April 1) and I just don’t know where we are just yet. We have not made any decisions so far on who will play what positions, except for senior second-baseman/third baseman/pitcher Evan Freid and catcher Trevor Frantantoni.”

Policastro has praised his pitchers.

“Our pitching has been super so far,” he said. “It is exactly what I expected.”

In a scrimmage against Bayonne on Thursday, March 21, Dwyer pitched two innings, allowing two hits and two walks, and striking out four, while Darious Rivas pitched two innings of three-hit ball with two walks and three strikeouts. “They pitched well, but the elements kept them from throwing more than two innings each,” Policastro said.

On Friday, March 22, the Bengals scrimmaged Passaic County Tech, the two-time defending Passaic County champions. ”We fared much better, and the pitching was outstanding,” Policastro said. Darien Rivas pitched two innings of two-hit ball with one walk, no runs and one strikeout; Kevin Obiedzinski worked two innings, allowing one hit, no runs, one walk with two strikeouts and Freid worked two innings of one-hit ball with two strikeouts, three unearned runs, two walks with three strikeouts.

“We are still trying to figure out our offensive identity,” Policastro said. “We held a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the sixth. We made two errors and trailed, 3-2, but we were able to tie the game, 3-3, in the seventh. That’s where the game ended. This is the type of game that I am expecting to be playing come April 1 – low-scoring pitchers’ duels. If we can figure out our offensive strengths, then it could be a really good year, but we will have to wait and see how we can keep improving offensively. We still have much work to do before next Monday, but I can tell you that the kids are working hard. We as coaches are working even harder to get them ready. Hopefully, we can be ready when we travel to MKA on April 1. We have not settled on a lineup or who is starting at any positions other than Evan Freid and Trevor Frantantoni. We have only had nine days of evaluation, which includes four days for tryouts and two scrimmages. Position battles are still ongoing. so we haven’t made any decisions on that or a lineup just yet.”

BHS roster

(Uniform number, name, year, positions).