Scotch Plains Lefty Reilly Excels in First Varsity Start

There's no doubt that the Scotch Plains-Fanwood High baseball team is going to score runs.

The Raiders averaged 10 last year and so far this year's squad, which includes seven returning starters, has pushed across 30 in a 2-0 start.

However, if Scotch Plains is going to be the first team to repeat as Union County Tournament champions since Cranford won the county three years in a row from 1999 to 2001, they will need pitchers other than senior right hander Gary Binkiewicz to step up and perform.

Saturday morning against JP Stevens was the varsity debut for junior left hander Sean Reilly.

While his start was not magnificent, he didn't disappoint.

After giving up two unearned runs in the first inning, Reilly — although hit hard at times — yielded only two more runs in the next three innings he pitched.

A 62-pitch, four-inning, five-hit effort that included two strikeouts looking and only two walks — both on 3-2 counts — resulted in the first-year varsity player earning his first varsity victory in a 14-4, five-inning Scotch Plains triumph at Park Middle School.

"I threw a lot of pitches in the beginning, but I have a good defense behind me and I was just trying to get ahead," Reilly said. "First-pitch strikes are probably the most important thing, so I can kind of control the at-bat."

Reilly had to work hard and then received a fine defensive play in retiring the first batter of the game. JP Stevens leadoff batter Dimitri Scerbo — on the eighth pitch of the at-bat after a full count and two foul balls — hit a shot to center.

Scotch Plains senior center fielder Ricky Shevlin ran straight ahead, dove and then came up with the ball to retire Scerbo.

After Reilly walked the next batter, an infield error on what could have been an inning-ending double play, resulted in runners at first and second with one out. Reilly struck out the next batter before No. 5 batter Darwin Cruz slugged a two-run double to the left-center gap on a ball that Scotch Plains senior left fielder Joe D'Annunzio almost caught up with.

Reilly then got the next batter on a ground out to third to get out of the first inning while giving up just the two unearned runs.

Reilly allowed only one baserunner in the second on a walk, with two outs coming on ground balls and the other on his second strikeout.

"I tried to get my two-seam fastball working," Reilly said. "At times with it I got outs cleaner."

Reilly got hit a little harder in the third, but gave up only one run thanks to a highlight-reel play by lefty-fielding senior first baseman John Maxwell. It was a rare inning where Reilly faced five batters and threw just five pitches.

He retired designated hitter Rojing Rajkarnikar on a fly ball to right on the first pitch he threw and then allowed a triple to the right-center gap hit by lefty-batting Kyle Herron on the second pitch. Then lefty-batting cleanup hitter Pete Pronticki hit a shot up the middle that drove home Herron to make the score 8-3. Darwin Cruz followed with an opposite field single to right on the next pitch to put runners at first and third with one out.

On the very next pitch, No. 6 batter Ryan Keiser, the JP Stevens senior center fielder, hit the ball even harder the other way, but Maxwell was in good enough position to move to his right a bit and stick out his glove and snare the liner. He then tagged Cruz — who was in no-man's land — off first for an inning-ending unassisted double play.

Reilly went on to retire the first batter he faced in the fourth on one pitch, which was a fly out to left. The next batter he faced — Nick Montalbano — singled on a 2-1 pitch, ending a streak of six straight batters that saw only one Reilly offering.

"Before that they were taking two or three pitches, so I was kind of surprised by that," Reilly said.

Then No. 9 batter — freshman Chris Lee — connected on a shot that went past Shevlin in center for an RBI-double, pulling JP Stevens to within 8-4.

On a 2-1 count, leadoff batter Dimitri Scerbo hit the ball hard, but right at Binkiewicz at second, who flipped to Ridge for him to step on second for an inning-ending 4-6 double play.

That was the last batter Reilly would face, with Maxwell coming in to pitch a scoreless fifth.

Even after coming off the mound after the top of the first down 2-0, Reilly knows that he has a team that has the kind of offense to get him right back in the game. That's a luxury not all pitchers have.

"It gives me confidence and allows me to be aggressive with my pitches," Reilly said. "I know that I'm going to get at least five or six runs."

Junior third baseman Marcus Rivera went 3-for-3 with three singles, one RBI and two runs and also had three assists in three chances from his hot corner position.

While it was impressive that the Raiders banged out 16 hits — with all nine batters in the lineup producing at least one — Rivera realizes the importance of getting a well-pitched game.

"This was his first varsity appearance, he was a little shaky, but he can work from this, get better and I know he'll be better in the long run," Rivera said.

Head coach Tom Baylock was pleased with what he saw for Reilly's first regular season game. He showed progress in three scrimmage efforts.

"He did a good job, threw strikes and got the win," Baylock said.

Reilly threw 39 strikes and 22 balls and faced a total of 19 batters. He threw 25 pitches in the first, 21 in the second, five in the third and 11 in the fourth.

"It wasn't his sharpest outing," Baylock said. "He had three real good outings in March. He had a layoff because he was sick for a couple of days. He was in a routine where he started every few days and then he was sick for a couple of days, so he didn't throw, so I think that was part of his problem today with hitting spots. He wasn't in a total groove because of his layoff. He battled and did what he had to do."

There was really no time during his four-inning stint that Reilly appeared to be in major trouble, despite one walk to the mound by Baylock. The double play by Maxwell and the double play that ended the fourth were, obviously, big as JP Stevens sought to chip its way back in the game.

"We told him to be in the strike zone, make them put the ball in play and we'll play defense behind him," Baylock said.

Scotch Plains made only one error in five innings, with standout putouts made by Shevlin and Maxwell.

With Reilly not being a strikeout pitcher or having the kind of fastball to just fire past batter after batter, the Raiders will be tested defensively with him on the mound.

"He throws a two-seam fastball that just runs," Baylock said. "I don't know if it was his arm angle, but his ball wasn't running like it was, so a lot his fastballs ended up being straight and he doesn't throw hard enough to throw a straight fastball. He probably only throws about 78 to 79 miles an hour, so a straight fastball is going to get hit. He's more effective when his two-seam fastball is running away from a righty, but running in on lefty batters. It's hard to get good contact on it because it's tailing away from them. So, with most of his pitches today, they weren't running."

With Scotch Plains ahead 8-4 going into the bottom of the fourth and with Reilly's pitch count being what it was, Baylock thought it best to end Reilly's first varsity start at four complete innings.

"I was hoping to get four or five innings out of him," Baylock said. "After four innings it was 8-4 and he wasn't really sharp, so we went to Maxwell and were hoping to score some runs in the bottom of the fourth, which we did."

Reilly's next scheduled start is this Thursday when the Raiders play conference rival Elizabeth at 4 p.m. at Williams Field.