Youth Movement hits Panther Baseball

It's not often a high school varsity squad has no seniors on its roster, but that's precisely the case with the Cedar Grove boys baseball team entering this spring.

After making a run to the second round of the playoffs a year ago and finishing 15-12-1, the Panther roster has been almost completely turned over and a new era is beginning.

"We made a nice run, but we graduated a solid amount of seniors last year, so now we're young," said Panther first baseman Dan Fanelli. "We're starting over. We have a bunch of juniors and a good amount of sophomores on the varsity team, a lot of young kids, so we're going to be good for a long time. We really have a chance to be dangerous this year."

The Panthers aren't without some holdovers from last season's roster however. Mike Rowe returns to centerfield and will be batting third, Ryan Fearon returns to shortstop and bats leadoff and Paul Rufo will be at second base and hit second in the order for Cedar Grove. Fanelli is the No. 4 hitter in the Panther lineup.

The success of the team may rest on how well those four can produce at the top of the order, mainly because of a very young pitching staff that enters this spring with little varsity experience.

Ryan Fitzpatrick is slated to be the team's No. 1 pitcher, and Joe Infante, Tommy Cucuzza, Mike McNab and Eric Mungenast are a few of the others who will fill out the rotation.

"Once we start, I think we're going to play defense, I think we're going to hit, but I'm excited to see where our pitchers can take us in regards to throwing strikes and keeping guys off balance," said Cedar Grove head coach Mike Valenzano.

What will help that rotation is good defense, which, according to Fanelli, will be one of the team's strengths and mentioned Fearon as maybe the best defensive shortstop in the conference.

"We are a very good physical team. We're very good at making plays, we want to go errorless every game," Fanelli said. "We want to be perfect in the field and I think that right now, that's our strong point."

But just because there is a lot of youth and uncertainty heading into the spring, it does not mean the boys don't want to win and win now.

With West Essex moving up from the Super Essex Liberty Division to the American Division, the Liberty Division is now wide open for the taking. There's no reason to think the Panthers won't be in the mix.

"We can definitely make a push for winning the division, we really think so," Rowe said. "We may be young but I still think we're very good and we can surprise a lot of people."

If Cedar Grove is to make a run at a division, county or state title this spring, they'll likely have to get better in the close games. Last year, in games decided by three runs or less, the Panthers went 5-8. Turn that mark around and last season's 15-12-1 record would've been 18-9-1, and they likely would not have had a nine seed, forcing to face top-seeded Emerson Boro in the second round of the North I Group 1 state playoffs.

"The mark of a good team is to win one run games so that comes back to the mental tenacity of our team and the ability of our pitchers to take the ball and go up there and hold on to that lead," Valenzano said. "

Cedar Grove's season gets started on Monday April 2, at home against the Caldwell Chiefs.