Indians Thinking Big in 2011

Most people in Connor Kaden’s shoes would not have much to prove going into their final season of high school baseball.

The senior right-hander at Toms River South has already committed to pitch at Wake Forest University and is coming off a junior season in which he posted dominant strikeout numbers on an Indians team that won three separate championships.

But this is Toms River South baseball. There is always something to prove.

The bar is high for every player in the Indians program in the 2011 season, which begins Friday against Central Regional, but no player has a higher standard to live up to than Kaden. The future Demon Deacon sported a 6-3 record with a 2.00 earned run average and 69 strikeouts in 42 innings, but his stellar year paled in comparison to teammate and current Monmouth University left-hander Andrew McGee.

McGee went 12-0 with a 1.05 ERA and 104 strikeouts while throwing 84 2/3 innings and 12 wins were the most ever for any undefeated pitcher in the storied history of Toms River South baseball.

Kaden’s challenge will be to fill in for not only McGee, but also for McGee’s predecessor Tyler Gebler, who is now the No. 1 starter as a sophomore at Rutgers University.

“It has really motivated me,” Kaden said of McGee’s record-breaking season. “McGee and Gebler have had a big impact on my career and I go out everyday thinking of following in their footsteps. But following up a 12-0 season, those are some big footsteps to fill.”

Kaden admits he doesn’t realistically expect to match McGee’s historic season, but he also finds no harm in trying. If there was any hole in his game last season, it was that he was not always as economical as he needed to be, running up high pitch-counts that led to more walks than Kaden would have liked.

“Last year, I would try and overthrow a lot," Kaden said. "I would get a kid in a 0-1 or 1-1 count and I would try to blow them away and before I knew it, I’m down 2-1 (in the count). We have a senior team with a great defense, so I just need to let those guys work and let the strikeouts come.”

Kaden’s challenge of matching his all teammate is a plight that he shares with the team as a whole. The Indians finished last year 22-4 with a Shore Conference Class A South championship, an Ocean County Tournament championship and a Shore Conference Tournament title, but they lost in the first round of the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV playoffs. While its ace is not all that concerned about living up to the numbers of Indians pitchers past, the entire Toms River South team is locked in on topping last year’s accomplished squad.

“We lost a couple key players, but like every South team, we’re going to bounce back,” senior catcher Kyle Perry said. “We’re just going to play baseball. We can match-up with anyone in the state, so we just have to go out and play baseball.”

 Despite missing a brief stretch of games with an injured ankle, Perry had wildly productive season as the Indians’ catcher and lead-off hitter. The Monmouth University recruit hit .475 with 33 runs, 17 runs-batted-in and 23 stolen bases in 25 attempts.

“He’s the carburetor,” said coach Ken Frank, now in his 33^rd year leading the program. “You need a carburetor to start your car and we need him to start us up. It doesn’t matter where we put him on the field, he makes it happen.”

Toms River South also returns senior starters Mitch Dressing at shortstop, Dave Egeland at first base, Steve Petrosino at second base and Chris McKenna in left field. Senior Dan Scheller also returns as a designated hitter and back-up catcher when Perry needs a break.

When he is not in left field, McKenna – who will also play at Monmouth next year – will take the mound as the Indians’ No. 2 starter after posting a 1.26 ERA in 16 2/3 innings last year.

Senior outfielders Rocco Mellot and John Nogiewich join the starting lineup and Mellot appears poised for a breakout season after hitting four home runs in Toms River South’s first three preseason games. R.J. Devish is the lone junior in the starting lineup and will man third base this season.

“We’ve been scoring double-digit runs and getting double-digit hits pretty much every game this preseason, so we’re feeling pretty good about swinging the bats,” Petrosino said. “We feel like we have guys not only back from last year, but some new guys who are going to step up and make a big impact for us.”

Frank has been happy with his team’s progress and pitching will determine how far the Indians advance in the postseason. Although Toms River South has a deep roster of hard-throwing pitchers, the Indians also must replace two starters in McGee and current Brookdale Community College starter Rich Gabriel.

“We’ve always had pitching step up here and it’s his turn to step up,” Frank said. “He had six wins for us last year so he’s a good guy to have back.

“This is a program here. It’s based upon the guys that played before you and having role models and trying to emulate what they did. In other words, he (Kaden) wants to be like a Gebler and a McGee and try to leave his own mark here.”

McGee was the winning pitcher in all three of Toms River South’s wins over Jackson Memorial, which also returns a talented roster in the loaded Class A South division. Toms River South edged out Jackson for the division title and beat the Jaguars in both the Ocean County and Shore Conference Tournament finals.

Fittingly enough, the lone win Jackson – which lost in the Group IV championship game to Randolph – had over Toms River South was the one started by the Indians’ new ace, Kaden. In that game, he allowed six runs in 1 1/3 innings in a 12-2 Jackson win. If Kaden needed any incentive to dig down for a few more miles-per-hour on his fastball, another shot at the Jaguars should do the trick. The Indians’ first of two regular season meetings with Jackson is slated for April 6.

“I’ve wanted Jackson since my sophomore year when I saw McGee light them up,” Kaden said. “I hope I get the ball when we play them, but if I don’t, I know we’ll have somebody out there who can get the job done.”