Columbia HS baseball team seeks solid season

MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The Columbia High School baseball team hopes to make strong strides this season.

The Cougars got off to a great start to the season. They defeated Glen Ridge 6-3 in the season opener on Monday, April 3, at Hurrell Field in Glen Ridge. Junior outfielder Reno Spagnoli had two hits and two RBIs to lead Columbia.

The Cougars, under head coach Ryan Muirhead, graduated 17 players from last year’s 17-12 squad.

The returning varsity players are senior catcher Brandon Doubek, senior third baseman Nate Berenberg and junior pitcher and outfielder Jared Carlucci. 

In an email to the News-Record, Muirhead said Doubek “was one of, if not the best hitting catcher in Essex County last year and will certainly be a key piece in the lineup again this year.”

Berenberg also will be a big contributor after coming up during the stretch run while providing good all-around tools on both sides of the ball last season, Muirhead said. Berenburg is going to be a key part of the lineup as well. 

Carlucci “threw some big innings in meaningful games as a sophomore last year, expecting him to continue developing and help lead our rotation,” Muirhead said.

Muirhead has been impressed by his team’s hard work.

“We’ve had a pretty strong JV team the past few years so even though we graduated a ton of seniors this past season, I think we’ve got some pretty capable guys that worked really hard in the off-season to be ready to step up and fill in all those vacant positions,” Muirhead said. “Additionally, I think we have some pretty solid pitchers spread out across the senior/junior/sophomore and freshman classes so our hope is they will be able to keep us in games while our offense gets caught up to the pitchers due to this shortened preseason.

“With as much turnover as we had from last year, as well as a promotion to the American Division (of the Super Essex Conference), it’s tough to truly predict where we may end up within the conference,” Muirhead continued. “SHP (Seton Hall Prep) is always a strong program, Millburn has been very good too and has a lot of players returning from a very good team last year, and even though Livingston, Montclair, Nutley and Caldwell graduated a lot of guys and key players from last year, we’re not expecting any game to be easy. Our hope is that the weather will hold off during this shortened season so we can get in as many games as possible and prepare all these new faces for tournament time.”

Schedule

• April 4: at Caldwell, 4 p.m.
• April 6: vs. Seton Hall Prep, 2 p.m.
• April 8: at Ramapo, 11 a.m.
• April 10: at Nutley, 4 p.m.
• April 12: vs. Livingston, 4 p.m.
• April 13: at Newark Academy, 4 p.m.
• April 14: vs. Montclair, 4 p.m.
• April 17: at Millburn, 4 p.m.
• April 21: vs. Caldwell, 4 p.m.
• April 22: at Verona, 11:30 a.m.
• April 24: at Seton Hall Prep, 4 p.m.
• April 26: vs. Nutley, 4 p.m.
• April 28: vs. Barringer, 4 pm..
• April 29: at Montclair Kimberley Academy, 1 p.m.
• May 2: at Montville, 4 p.m.
• May 3: at West Orange, 7 p.m.
• May 7: at Pascack Valley, 10 a.m.
• May 8: at Livingston, 4 p.m.
• May 12: vs. Watchung Hills, 7 p.m.
• May 15: at Montclair, 4 pm..
• May 18: vs. Millburn,4 p.m.
• May 19: vs. Wayne Valley, 4 p.m.

  Columbia High School baseball