There's always pressure on the defending champion to repeat.
Or those not associated with the team will say there is pressure, with the team not putting pressure on itself by looking at things differently.
The Scotch Plains-Fanwood baseball team will attempt to win next month's 57th annual Union County Tournament for a second straight season. Scotch Plains is the defending champion for the first time since 2005 and is seeking to repeat, which is something the Raiders have never done.
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With so many of its players back from last year's championship squad, many consider Scotch Plains to be the favorite or – at the very least – among the favorites.
The tournament will be seeded Monday night and after Scotch Plains' convincing 11-1, six-inning win at Johnson Saturday, the Raiders are most likely looking at gaining the second seed.
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Through results of games played Saturday, April 24, the projected top eight seeds are 1-Westfield, 2-Scotch Plains, 3-Cranford, 4-Johnson, 5-Gov. Livingston, 6-Roselle Catholic. 7-Summit and 8-Union.
Johnson was 12-1 and riding an eight-game winning streak that included another late-inning, come-from-behind victory at conference rival Governor Livingston Friday. The Crusaders won 4-2 after scoring three runs in the top of the seventh after trailing 2-1.
"We know we have four losses and losses to some pretty good schools," Scotch Plains seventh-year head coach Tom Baylock said.
Baylock has guided Scotch Plains to the last two of its four UCT titles, including the 2004 crown during his first season at the helm of the Raiders.
"Johnson was 12-1 and our kids wanted to go out and prove that they could still play good baseball and that they're not done yet," Baylock said.
Scotch Plains was the second straight top seed to win the championship last year, defeating Westfield 2-1 in 10 innings in the championship game. Westfield was the second seed.
The top seed failed to win the tournament 12 straight seasons from 1996-2007 before Elizabeth won as the top seed in 2008. That was the Minutemen's first title since 1991.
Westfield was 6-0 in the championship game from 1994-2006, winning a record four titles in a row from 1994-1997 and then winning again in 2002 and 2006. Two years ago the Blue Devils lost in the final for the first time since 1993 when they were downed by Elizabeth 4-2.
The past two championship games have been played at Elizabeth's Williams Field during the day after the title games had been played at Linden's Memorial Field either at night or during the day.
So far this year, Westfield has defeated Scotch Plains, Cranford has defeated Johnson, Governor Livingston has defeated Roselle Catholic and Roselle Catholic has defeated Summit.
Scotch Plains has also defeated Union and Union has defeated Cranford. Johnson also owns wins over Roselle Catholic and Summit.
Scotch Plains had lost three of six after a 4-1 start and had scored only 26 runs in those six games for a lower-than-expected 4.33 run average in that stretch.
The Raiders bounced back this week to go 4-0 and outscored four foes by a whopping 46-1 margin.
"We still feel like we're the team to beat in the county," said Scotch Plains senior Gary Binkiewicz.
Binkiewicz was the winning pitcher in last year's UCT final, allowing only one run in nine innings against Westfield in an eventual 2-1, 10-inning win by the Raiders.
"This game (Saturday's vs. the Crusaders) was big for us for the seeding for the county," Binkiewicz said. "We're going to do our best."
"That's why we come to play, for conference, county and states and those are our goals," Scotch Plains senior Joe D'Annunzio added. "We'll be prepared and let's hope we get some luck."
Last year Scotch Plains was coming off a walk-off loss to Elizabeth the year before in an extra-inning semifinal.
Like D'Annunzio said, you have to be good and lucky to win four games to capture the tournament.
"We try not to talk about it and try to take the season one game at a time," Baylock said. "I think earlier in the year that was one of our problems. We were trying to live out what we did last year. We lost focus a little bit early on in the season giving some bats away, so after the loss to Bloomfield (last week) we just tried to go back to what we do best. That's putting the bat on the ball, using the whole field, hitting singles and doubles and using our speed and just running the bases the way we can."
That was more the norm than the exception this past week, with the Raiders, apparently, back on track.
"We've been doing a good job of that all week," Baylock said.
SCOTCH PLAINS UCT CHAMPIONSHIPS:
Including scores and pitchers of record in the finals.
2009 – Scotch Plains 2, Westfield 1 (10 inn.)
WP: Gary Binkiewicz. LP: Aiden Scanlon.
2004 – Scotch Plains 3, Roselle Catholic 1
WP: James Scalfaro. LP: Nick Nolan.
1976 – Scotch Plains 1, Cranford 0
WP: Eddie Reilly. LP: Jim Carsey.
1969 – Scotch Plains 5, Cranford 2
WP: Dave Klaatava LP: Dan Costanzo.
UCT RESUMES
TOP UNION COUNTY BASEBALL RECORDS
THROUGH APRIL 24 GAMES:
WESTFIELD (9-3)
Lost to Morris Knolls 6-5 on April 3.
Lost to Morristown 5-3 on April 7.
Lost at Bridgewater-Raritan 7-5 on April 23.
First place in UCC's Watchung Division (5-0)
SCOTCH PLAINS (11-4, 4 in a row)
Lost at Bridgewater-Raritan 4-3 on April 5.
Lost to Edison 7-4 at North Brunswick on April 10.
Lost to Westfield 4-3 on April 16.
Lost to Bloomfield 6-4 at Roselle Park on April 18.
Second place in UCC's Watchung Division (3-1)
CRANFORD (10-3, 2 in a row)
Lost at Delbarton 8-4 on April 3.
Lost to Jackson 5-2 at Roselle Park on April 18.
Lost at Union 2-1 on April 20.
First place in UCC's Mountain Division (6-0)
Scheduled to play South Plainfield Sunday, April 25
at 3 p.m. at Watchung Hills in tournament final.
JOHNSON (12-2)
Lost at Cranford 9-4 on April 9.
Lost to Scotch Plains 11-1 on April 24.
Second place in UCC's Mountain Division (5-1)
GOV. LIVINGSTON (10-4)
Lost to Cranford 5-3 on April 1.
Lost to Elizabeth 6-4 on April 14.
Lost to Westfield 7-0 on April 20.
Lost to Johnson 4-2 on April 23.
Third place in UCC's Mountain Division (4-2)
ROSELLE CATHOLIC (8-6, 4 in a row)
Lost at Piscataway 6-5 on April 5.
Lost at Cranford 5-3 on April 6.
Lost at Gov. Livingston 2-0 on April 9.
Lost to Passaic Valley 5-2 at Millburn on April 10.
Lost at Scotch Plains 6-4 on April 14.
Lost at Johnson 5-4 on April 15.
Fourth place in UCC's Mountain Division (3-3)
Games pertaining to the above teams
that are scheduled for Monday (April 26)
before the UCT seeding meeting Monday night:
Westfield at Johnson, 4 p.m.
Hillside at Gov. Livingston, 4 p.m.
Roselle Catholic at Ridge, 4 p.m.
