Sports

Vikings 17U Gold Ends Season Just Short of State Finals

Vikings capture regular season GMC title with a record of 10-2.

Following a regular season summer league title, the South Brunswick 17U Gold baseball team reached the quarterfinals of the state tournament before going down, leaving high hopes for the spring 2014 season.

South Brunswick (11-5) took a 10-2 record into the postseason, before being eliminated by eventual state runner-up Manalapan by a score of 7-2.

"It was good to win the regular season, because we hadn't done that in a couple of years," said Head Coach C.J. Hendricks. "Unfortunately our luck didn't go with us to the post season, so we underachieved on our overall goal, but we went deep into the state tournament."

Hendricks pointed to the leadership of a group of incoming seniors at South Brunswick High School this fall as the foundation of the squad, powered by catcher Dom Boccio, Dylan Olsson, Scott Dunleavy, Danny Giampietro, and Dan Tesser.

"All of those guys are going to be coming in as seniors to give us a nice core gorup (at SBHS)," Hendricks said. "(Boccio) is a kid we're really excited about and he had a great summer. He struggled a little bit last year, but he really stepped up this summer hitting for power and average, as well as doing a tremendous job behind the plate."

Also coming up strong for the Vikings was left-handed pitcher Matt Cooney, who threw a no-hitter against Rumson earlier in the summer.

"He really threw the ball well for us with great command of his off speed stuff," Hendricks noted.

The influx of talent will be in high demand after SBHS graduated a number of talented players in 2013, including All-State pitcher Sean Keenan and Rutgers-bound shortstop T.J. Perkowski.

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"I've been lucky to coach these guys since they were freshman when we won the GMC's with this group, so we knew these guys could play," Hendricks said. "We're losing a lot of offense from our 2012-13 seniors, but these guys when they catch fire can roll any team we play. Unfortunately we played well at the end of the season and came up short. But overall these kids have great baseball minds and know the game well.

"They play with passion and execute small ball really well. So I think we'll see a change next year not relying on big bats to get us runs, but executing and taking advantage of our opportunities."

Find out what's happening in South Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Ultimately, the postseason run from the Vikings leaves high hopes for next spring, when SBHS takes the diamond for another run at an elusive state title for the high school.

"I think these guys see what level they need to play down the stretch," Hendricks said. "They played against eight of the best teams in the state of New Jersey in four days, so they see what the competition is out there. Now it's just a matter of putting in the work to get to that point. They know they can compete against the best in the state and win. Everybody in the program is sick of coming up just short. We want to break through and show the county and the rest of the state that we have good baseball here in South Brunswick, so that's what we will try to prove next spring."


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