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Sports

Blue Devil Baseball Wraps Up Memorable Season

Team focus and Jenkins' star power contributed to success.

Coach Bob Brewster will remember this baseball season for a very long time.

The Blue Devils ended their season 16-6, finished third in the Watchung Conference and played in both the Union County Tournament finals and also the NJSIAA state sectional semi-finals, losing both games by one run.

While the success is nice, that is not the only aspect Brewster will remember about this team.

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“This is the nicest bunch of kids I’ve ever been able to coach,” Brewster said. “This was one of my favorite groups to work with. [They] loved to practice and work hard.”

With 15 new faces on varsity, lack of experience could have been detrimental to the team. However, pitching and defense keyed Westfield all season. Brewster cites three of the most memorable plays he can recall in a high school game occurring this year. One of the most impressive was when Mike Lessner went above the wall in Watchung Hills to take away a homerun in the state sectional semi-final. According to Brewster, two other big diving plays could have been posted on ESPN’s Web Gems.

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Star senior pitcher Chris Jenkins has put Westfield on the map this year by becoming one of the best high school pitchers in the nation.

“Everytime Chris Jenkins was on the mound was a highlight film,” Brewster said. “He has the ability to be that good.”

Stanford-bound Jenkins possessed a fastball clocking between 91-94 mph. With a good slider, Jenkins could be unhittable. Jenkins recorded one no-hitter and was a dropped fly ball from a perfect game. He was also second in school history with a .71 ERA, second in strikeouts-per-game and third in career strikeouts with 235.

The Blue Devils' success came from a group of solid contributors focused on developing the entire team. Each game provided a new player who stepped up, including outfielders Mike Lessner, Mike Forgash and Mike Clark. Third baseman Matt Isabella posted a .360 batting average while, according to Brewster, shortstop Robby Granstrand is one of the finest athletes to come out of Westfield in a long time. Other senior contributors were Dave Babetski, Jake Fox, Kyle Hayden, James Hughes, Greg Mucci and Phil Queller.

The team was first in Westfield school history in on-base percentage at .472 and first in stolen base percentage at .947. On the mound, they ranked first in least hits per game at 4.64 and first in least runs with 68.

Two sophomores also made a major impact on the team this year. First baseman and lead-off batter Danny Kerr batted .383 and led the team with 17 walks. In addition, he also set the career fielding record for highest fielding percentage at 1.000.

A.J. Murray is the other sophomore and was the Blue Devil clean-up hitter who batted .492 and led the team with 30 RBIs. The big question was going to be if he could handle catching a pitcher throwing in the 90s.

“Murray far-surpassed all my thoughts,” Brewster said. “Chris [Jenkins] came to me and said that A.J. is as good a catcher as any he has pitched to.”

Murray is also already sixth in Westfiled history for career triples with seven.

With both sophomores possessing an excellent work ethic, Brewster feels that their future in baseball is unlimited. In addition to the two sophomores, next year’s seniors will consist of Rob Anderson, Mike Buontempo, Max Fusaro, Joe Ondi, Phil Russo and Aiden Scanlon.

With the lettermen returning, the future of Westfield baseball looks good. Scanlon will likely step into Jenkins' shoes on the mound next year. He was throwing between 81-82 mph and with what Brewster considers a great curveball and phenomenal changeup. In addition, Robby Anderson and Phil Russo should contribute on the mound as well.

“We had a JV team that won the county championship,” Brewster said. “These kids know what it’s like to win a big game and it puts them in the position to work a little bit harder.

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