Bucs pair works hard to get to all-star game

BELLEVILLE - A pair of Belleville High School baseball players hope being named to an all-star game will be just the start of things to come next spring.
    Both Joe Anello and Gerard Gilfone, currently juniors and seniors to be, were two of about 20 Essex County players named to the county team that took on the best of the future Union County players.
    And with the help of Anello and Gilfone, the Essex team whipped Union 12-1 in the Essex-Union Underclassmen Baseball All-Star game at Kean University on Saturday afternoon. Belleville head coach Joe Sorce was also part of the Essex County coaching staff.
    The pair might not have generated a hit, but they helped out defensively with Anello at first base getting several outs while Gilfone was in right field.
    With some of their senior teammates who played in this game, they both knew about it despite this being only the second year of the Underclassmen Essex County-Union County All Star game.

"My goal was to work hard all season and get to this game," said Gilfone.
    And his teammate, Anello, agreed with Gilfone. "It feels like such an honor and I've been working to get here all season," said Anello.
    And the pair will be working even harder for next season starting this summer as they play for Belleville in the Essex County American Legion league.
    And they hope next season, that 2012 will be more like the victories that the Bucs pulled off this season over West Orange in the Greater Newark Tournament and Warren Hills in the state playoffs.
    Belleville finished with an 11-18 record, but had a couple of games that could indicate that the Bucs might break out in 2012.
    First was the 4-3 victory over top seeded West Orange in the Greater Newark Tournament. The second was a 5-1 victory at Warren Hills with four runs in the top of the sixth in the Bucs upset. The Bucs were the 11th seed in Group 3 North 2 and Warren Hills was the sixth seed. The upset minded Bucs postseason aspirations were knocked off as Belleville lost to third-seeded South Plainfield, 9-4.

"I think we were definitely the underdogs in that game," said Anello. "We showed what Belleville baseball is all about."
    In the victory over Warren Hills, Anello had a big game going 2-for-3 with three RBI.
    And Anello mentioned about the victory over highly regarded West Orange. "It was an entire team effort from the first pitch to the last pitch. We were all focused from the start of the game," said Anello.
    For Gilfone his best played game came against West Essex where he was 2-for-3 with a solo home run off of Knights P.J. Lawless who was named to the first team All Super Essex Conference team in the 15-4 loss to the Knights on April 11. West Essex would win the SEC Liberty and make the Group 2 state finals.
    Both Gilfone and Anello are looking past their senior years to what colleges they would like to take their baseball bats with them.
    And they liked what they saw at Kean with the complex. Both are also looking at Montclair State and Caldwell College along with other state colleges. Kean and Montclair State have been perennial baseball powerhouses in NCAA Division III.