Tri City Renegades complete strong fall season It seems late in the year to many people, but on Nov. 12, the Tri City Renegades U18 baseball team ended its fall season with a loss to Baseball U in the semifinals of the Jersey Shore Fall Baseball League (JSFBL) U18 fall league. This semifinal-round loss coupled with Nov. 11’s quarterfinal win, left the Renegades with a final record of 16-6. During the 20-game regular season, the Renegades finished 15-5 to finish fourth in the 32-team league. The Renegades were then seeded fourth of eight teams for the season-ending playoffs. The JSFBL is run by the directors of the Atlantic Baseball Confederation Collegiate League (ABCCL), which is a summer league in New Jersey for collegiate players only. This season was the first time for the Renegades in the JSFBL. For many seasons prior, the Tri City Renegades were a tournament team coached by Gary Costello, of Little Silver, and Darryl Breckenridge, of Fair Haven. For the fall 2006 version of the Tri City Renegades, Darryl Breckenridge started with the U16 tournament team version of the Renegades and added players from Rumson-Fair Haven, Shore Regional, Raritan and Christian Brothers Academy. Breckenridge was the head coach, and Rick Miles and Ron Immesberger served as assistants. Throughout the fall season, pitching was the key ingredient of many Renegade victories. The team’s starting pitching was anchored by Billy Cerruti, a senior at Shore Regional, Robbie Somers, a junior at Shore Regional, and seniors Ben Miller and Brian Velsor of RFH. The bullpen pitching was handled by the Rumson’s McDonough brothers, Mike, a senior, and Tom, a junior, along with, Mark Lamb, a senior at CBA, Ian Wladika, a sophomore at Holmdel High School, and Deuce Thompson, a senior at RFH. For the season, Cerruti was 6-0, pitching 47 innings, allowing only three earned runs. His battery mate, Miller, was 5-2, allowing seven earned runs in 43 innings. Velsor finished with a 2-1 mark and also picked up a save. Out of the bullpen, Mike McDonough was 1-0 with two saves. JSFBL play requires that the batters use wood bats as opposed to the aluminum bats used during the spring high school season and the summer American Legion season. With wood bats, the coaches and players found that the games moved faster and were more pitching dominated; however, the Renegades still amassed impressive hitting statistics. The key to the Renegades offense was getting men on base — eight Renegades had on-base-percentages of greater than .350. Robbie Somers led the team, followed by junior D.J. Breckinridge of RFH, Billy Cerruti and John Griffin of the Hun School, junior Clark Langille of RFH, senior Steve Giordano of RFH, Mike McDonough, and junior Gary Costello of RFH. In addition, four Renegades batted above .300, led by Somers and followed by Cerruti, Langille and Griffin. Breckenridge led the team in runs scored and stolen bases, and Giordano was followed him in both categories. In the runs-scored statistic, Griffin was third. The team RBI leaders were Giordano, Somers, Griffin and Langille, in that order. During the season, the Renegades were proficient at moving runners along the bases via sacrifice bunts. The Renegades had 31 sacrifices led by Costello and Velsor. Without solid team defense, good pitching is most likely wasted. Successful baseball teams are strong up the middle with catching, second base, shortstop and center field as the most demanding positions. In center, the Renegades received a gold-glove effort from Giordano, who played the entire season error-free, making 36 putouts with one assist. At catcher, Costello and Griffin worked the entire season with only three passed balls, catching 13 runners trying to steal. During the season, the Renegades swiped 67 bases, getting caught 12 times, while the opposition stole 29 bases and was caught 13 times. In addition, Renegade pitchers picked off 16 opposing base runners; Cerruti had 11 pick-offs, and Miller had four. Other Renegades with impressive fielding averages were second baseman Breckenridge, shortstop Somers, and junior, outfielder Joe Doerrer of Raritan High School. Coaches Breckenridge, Immesberger and Miles are already planning for next fall when the Renegades plan to play in the JSFBL again. Many of the Renegades will be back, but the coaches hope that the team will provide a springboard for the spring 2007 high school season and for the future college careers of many of the Renegades.