May 8 Baseball Steinert breaks Ravens jinx - Fish 4 Scores

May 8 Baseball
Steinert's Matt Belardo watches his third-inning single head to the outfield, which enabled Brock Podgurski to score the
Spartans second run of the game today (Photo by John Blaine/purchase photos at www.jbsportsphoto@aol.com).

Moticha masterful, Riese rocks as Steinert finally gets best of Robbinsville
By Rich Fisher
Fish4Scores.com
May 8: Whether the Steinert High baseball team needed today’s game for its confidence is
open to debate.
The good news is, if they did
need it, they got it.
The exact same good news is, if
they didn’t need it, they still got.
The Spartans took a 7-2 victory
over Robbinsville in a make-up game
from opening day, putting to rest a
couple of ghosts from 2011.
Last year, the Ravens won a wild
night game at Veterans Park when the
Spartans suffered a late meltdown, then
lost again in extra innings in the Mercer
County Tournament championship game.
Considering the Spartans have to
face the Ravens again on Wednesday
night in an MCT quarterfinal, it was
probably good they proved to themselves
they could beat Robbinsville (11-9),
which entered having won nine of its last
11.
But one of today’s heroes wasn’t
so sure.
“If we played them when we were
supposed to earlier, I would say maybe
we needed it a little bit,” said Adam
Riese, who was 2-for-3 with three RBI
and a home run. “But at this point it’s just
another game, we’re trying to get a W.
“We didn’t think of it as too much
of anything. We knew deep down we
wanted to beat them bad because of last
year, but everybody looked at it as
another game.
Casey Plunkett dispels the theory you have to keep the eye on the ball as
it enters the glove. In fact, he dispels the theory you even have to have
them open as he puts away this pop-up against Robbinsville (Photo by
John Blaine/purchase photos at jbsportsphoto@aol.com).
“I mean, we really wanted revenge from last year, we knew we had to come out and put up a
big number and I think we did that. Winning 7-2 is always good. But we also see them tomorrow. They
did it to us twice last year, now we want to do it to them twice.”
Steinert got an outstanding effort from Matt Moticha, who pitched five innings of hitless,
scoreless ball, with three walks and no strikeouts. Despite the no-hitter, Moticha was removed after
five to preserve his arm, as Steinert has an MCT game tomorrow and, if it wins, another on Saturday.
“He wanted to save him,” Riese said. “He was thinking more about the team than the
individual. And Matt’s a kid that’s not gonna get mad. He understands it’s for the team and what’s best
for the team.”

When Moticha exited, Steinert had built a 3-0 lead. The Spartans scored in the top of the first
when James Locklear and Carston Raab singled and Riese plated Locklear with a sacrifice fly.
In the third, Podgurski singled and eventually came around on Matt Belardo’s RBI single. In the
fifth, Riese provided a nice tack-on run with a long home run – which is the only kind that can be hit at
Robbinsville’s spacious field.
“I can’t really tell how far it went,” said Reise, who hit a bomb that people are still talking about
at Steinert earlier this season. “This field is deep, so it’s a good home run. But I don’t care how far it
went as long as it goes over.”
Steinert broke it open with a four-run sixth, getting RBI singles from John Mastrangelo and
Locklear, a fielder’s choice RBI from Raab and an RBI single by Riese.
Jason Bowes and Chris Geraci finished up, as the Spartans (20-2) won their eighth straight
since a two-game losing streak.
“Those two losses in the middle of the season kind of brought us back and made us re-think
some things and I think that helped us a lot,” Riese said. “We’re playing as we should. There’s always
some little things you can correct.”
Right now, the most important thing Steinert needs to do is forget about today and focus on
tomorrow. Riese said back-to-back games with the same team are basically what the players make of
it.
“It really depends,” he said. “It can be good, it can be bad, it’s all about your mindset when you
go out for the game tomorrow. All of us know as soon as this game ended today, it never happened.
Tomorrow is a new game, a new day, we gotta go out and play like a good team.”
Especially considering that Wednesday’s 7 p.m. game at Mercer County Park means a heck of
a lot more in the big picture, than today’s game meant. Guys like Riese and Podgurski have been part
of two teams that have reached consecutive MCT finals without winning. One of those losses, of
course, came to the Ravens.
“That final last year sits with me and a couple other guys more than some other players,”
Riese said. “Being to the finals two years in a row and not winning is kind of sour. Tomorrow’s gonna
be a really big test for us. I’m definitely fired up to get out there and feel the excitement of the Mercer
County Tournament.
“It’s really cool over there (at Mercer Park). A lot of the people from the area come out and
cheer us on. I know a couple years ago when we played PDS it was tight going to the end and it was
really loud out there.”
Steinert hopes to continue it’s loud play, and it will do so knowing it has shaken the Raven jinx.
Hornets drop a tight one at West Windsor-Plainsboro South
Hamilton’s lull continued today with a 6-5 loss at West Windsor-Plainsboro South. It was the
third loss in four games for the Hornets.
Gerry Gomez was Hamilton’s offensive star, going 4-for-4.
“It was a dog battle, real close,” said catcher Dave “The Wizard” Osnato. “We played good, but
I guess not good enough.”
The Hornets will look to regroup for Wednesday’s 3:30 p.m. MCT quarterfinal against Ewing at
Mercer County Park.