Hawks Look to Fly Back to the Top

Bring up Manchester senior Jon Roszel’s name to any top baseball player on one of the Toms River teams, either Brick school or one of the Monmouth County powerhouses and they are likely to rave about the Hawk's captain.

The only group of players that may not have seen the West Virginia University recruit as Superman right away were his Hawks teammates one year his junior, who expected to enter a winning program in 2009 only to scuffle to a 5-15 mark.

“It was a little surprising that we struggled when we were freshman because we knew we had a couple of good older guys and we had Jon on the team,” junior Tim Rogers said. “That was a little unexpected, but it made us want to work harder so that we could be the ones that turned it around.”

Two years later, following a bounce-back 2010 season in which Manchester went 12-10, the junior class – arguably the most talented class in the Shore Conference Class B South – has emerged by following Roszel’s lead and with a top senior in the Conference and strong crop of juniors, the Hawks are hoping to take the division and conference by storm just two years after the nightmare 2009 season.

“We see what Jon has done and how hard he has worked and that’s what we all want to be,” Rogers said. “I know I want to play in college in the future and having him here as someone who has been through the process is great and it gives everyone the expectations to work as hard as he does.”

Roszel is coming off of a season in which he hit for a .500 batting average and drove in 25 runs while scoring 26. As a junior last year, Roszel did a lot of everything for the Hawks, playing both shortstop and the outfield while also pitching. This season, as he prepares for life in the Big East Conference, he will play exclusively in the outfield while pitching in relief.

“We have a talented enough group that I can just go out to the outfield and focus on that,” Roszel said. “I’ll still pitch when the team needs me, but my focus is on playing the outfield, driving in runs and being a leader to our younger guys.”

Hawks coach John Musolf can cut back on how much he uses Roszel because the rest of his players are ready to assume more of the responsibility. Rogers is the ace of the staff and will patrol shortstop when he is not mowing through opposing batting orders. As a sophomore, Rogers went 5-4 and struck out 58 batters while posting a 3.07 earned run average.

Rogers will be followed by fellow junior Matt Zingaro, who emerged as a No. 2 starter last year after beginning the year as a spot starter. The left-hander went 4-3 with a 3.28 ERA as a sophomore. Senior Keith Klebacher also gives Musolf a strong right arm for the back of the rotation, meaning there won’t be a big drop-off from one spot to the next.

The army of arms will pitch to junior Aaron Kane, who is in his third year as the starting catcher. He hit .348 last season and can play some outfield if Musolf would like to give junior Russ Rogers some innings behind the plate.

Outfielders Ryan Kenny and Harold Hester and first baseman Mike Lloyd give the Hawks three more juniors for the starting lineup. Sophomore Jeremy Carney will play second base and classmates John Sudol and Ed White will try to crack the lineup in the second year in the program.

In a year in which the Hawks will run out one of the more talented lineups in recent years, Manchester is not skimping on the schedule. In addition to Class B South adding former Class A South teams Lacey and Brick – two talented teams that Manchester will play twice each – the Hawks will play a difficult schedule that includes Toms River South, one of the top public school programs in the state.

“I’m really looking forward to playing Toms River South and Manalapan,” Roszel said. “Those are two of the best teams in the state and that’s the kind of competition I want to face and measure myself against.”

Winning the division will mean beating a Brick Township team with almost its entire team back from a 14-12 team that went 7-7 in a loaded Class A South division, as well as a Lacey team with two stars back in Pat Jensen and Vinny Zarillo from a team that beat Group IV finalist Jackson Memorial last year.

“The division is going to be really tough this year,” Roszel said. “But it’s going to be fun. There is a lot of talent, probably the most there has been in a long time in B South. Every game is going to be a battle, and that’s the way we want it.”