Ocean City Baseball Team Begins Its Title Defense with New Starters

The Ocean City High School baseball team has a championship to defend.

The Red Raiders won the Group 3 South championship in 2010. It was the first time the Red Raiders captured the title on the diamond, and it was the program’s first crown since being sectional champions more than a half-century ago.

Ocean City lost seven starters from the championship team but returns five players who made key contributions last season, which ended in the state Group 3 title game.

"We always set goals pretty high,” Ocean City coach Craig Mensinger said. “We don’t necessarily say we will win a state championship. That’s always a goal. We feel if we have a winning record and we are competitive with teams in our division, that is a success for us.”

“If we are not competitive, we are not a success," he continued. "St. Augustine Prep is on our division, and they are very tough. Mainland is a tough game, because they are such big rivals. Oakcrest is vastly improved and Lower Cape May beat us and returns most of their players.

“The division is very strong and if you go across the conference, Millville reloads every year. They will be tough. Vineland was young, but they should be better because of all the playing time they got. EHT is strong year in and year out lately. Absegami is usually a strong team, but they have suffered a lot of major injuries.”

The road through the conference and the playoffs is a difficult one, but the Red Raiders have been through it before. Even though they lost several key players, the Red Raiders believe the 2010 experience will pay dividends.

“Most of the team was on the traveling squad and got to experience all that,” Mensinger said. “They would like to have a championship of their own and they know what it takes by sitting and watching. Some of the kids were big contributors.”

Seniors Sean Harron, Tom Ballezzi, John Huff, Kolya Stephenson and Luke Hogan all saw important action last season. Harron was the team’s designated hitter and will also play in the outfield and behind the plate.

Hogan will get the nod at first base; Ballezzi will play shortstop, left field and pitch; Huff will play shortstop and pitch; Stephenson will man the hot corner and also be on the mound.

Although the Red Raiders lost last year’s ace in Connor Ortoff, Huff, Stephenson and Ballezzi all started games a year ago.

"We feel we got pretty good, and we can move some kids around,” Mensinger said. “We have so many games in a week this year. We have four weeks where we have four games so we are going to need the pitching depth we have.”

The Red Raiders will also need the new starters to fill in voids left by the large graduating class. Sophomore Vince Terry will handle most of the pitchers behind the plate; Justin Healy will play second base.

Beau Hall will play in the outfield and also pitch. Hall is expected to be one of the team’s top bats. James Plourde can play right and also be a reliever. Mike Wray, Steve Zellers and Jack McCallum will also see some action this season.