Welence Rebounds, Propels Maroons Baseball Team

It will be a nerve-wracking week for Welence and the other seniors on the Ridgewood baseball team.

The team knows that the state playoff game could be one of its last games together. The recent stretch of rain though has caused some of the games to be scheduled in between or after the state playoff games.

"I'm a little nervous," said Welence about the playoffs this week. "It is going to be nerve wracking that could be my last game with my friends."

Welence and the rest of the third-seeded Maroons passed the first test on Monday with a 9-5 victory over 14th-seeded Clifton. Welence had a pair of RBI in the victory in the Group 4 North 1 state section. Ridgewood will have a home game on Friday as they host 13th-seeded Bloomfield. (The on Thursday was not a state game.)

As of last week Welence led the team in RBI with 26 while one of the top hitters, average-wise at .410 with seven doubles and two triples.

"He's a real good all-around player and hits in the clutch," said Ridgewood head coach Kurt Hommen. "He's done a good job in the field and has save some of our games . . . .He can drive the ball and hit for power along with running the bases."
And he likes to go against the best pitchers, the flame-throwers which he is sure to see as the team advances in the state tournament.

The 2011 season is somewhat of a bounce-back season. His junior season was injury filled; nothing major, but they were chronic as he turned an ankle. Welence said that he missed five games last season, but it was hampering him all season.

"This season he's been able to play every day and it has the help the team tremendously," said Hommen.

Heading into this season, he said he worked on his play on the field in the offseason. "I was working on my footwork," said Welence. "I always had pretty soft hands. I was looking to get good rhythm on my throws."

In terms of his hitting, the Ridgewood senior knows what the key is. "I have tried to stay in a closed stance. Sometime I am flying open, but I correct that," said Welence.

The senior had a four-hit game against Demarest and has a pair of three-hit games this season. "I was pretty locked in that game [Demarest] and I got three of the hits with two strikes on me," said Welence.

The righty hitter added that he likes to go with the pitch and hit it to the opposite field.

In the past the Ridgewood senior has also pitched, but he said that the team’s need is for him to play a solid shortstop and has only had one appearance on the mound this season.

With his days at Ridgewood slowly coming to an end, he is  talking about the future that might even include going down to the Dominican Republic, where he and his dad do mission work including last winter building a School for the Deaf. They also have helped build an orphanage.

He said that he is looking to go down there and play baseball which after a year coming back to go to college. Welence has made these trips to the Dominican Republic for several years since his dad works for Novartis and the Foundation for Peace, a U.S. not-for-profit organization that works with people in not only the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Kenya.

Welence added that he is also looking at attending either Washington and Lee University in Virginia or Washington University in St. Louis.

But for right now, he would like to delay the thoughts of his future as much as possible with even the hope of a trip to Toms River for the Group 4 state championship game.