 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction)
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With the Princeton-Cranbury Babe Ruth 14-year-old all-star team leading Hightstown-East Windsor 6-1 going into the final inning last Thursday in District 1 play, P-C catcher Tom Hrabchak wasn't satisfied.
Holding court in a pre-inning huddle, Hrabchak exhorted his teammates to not let up, leading them in a chant of "runs, runs" as the players readied themselves to take their turn at bat. P-C, though, didn't need any more runs as its pitching shut the door on Hightstown-East Windsor with the 6-1 score holding up as the final margin.
A night later, P-C could've used some extra runs as it absorbed a 24-1 loss to Nottingham in getting eliminated from the tournament.
Notwithstanding its finale, P-C manager David Etherton was happy with his club as it posted a 3-2 mark in the tournament.
"We had one player with a migraine and Steve [Etherton] had a fever all day; the players had played four games over the weekend and they were tired," said Etherton after the win over Hightstown-East Windsor. "We had to dig deep into our pitching rotation to get the job done and the kids did it."
In Etherton's view, the way Hrabchak digs deep every day has helped hold P-C together. "Tom has really stepped forward," asserted Etherton, whose squad went 2-2 in the District 1 tournament play last year.
"He manages his own workouts. At Princeton High this spring as a freshman, he played on both the freshman and junior varsity teams. He ended up catching three or four games a week. His heart is huge. He's our captain and he's earned that every step of the way."
P-C had several other players who stepped up in addition to Hrabchak. "Steve has been our closer this year, if a couple of guys get in, there's no question he's going to come in, like Mariano Rivera," said Etherton, whose team's only run in the loss to Nottingham came on a mammoth homer by Trevor Barsamian over the wall in left center.
"Jordan Metro is hitting .867 in the tournament, he's been huge, Colin Graydon has been whacking everything too. I moved him up to No. 1 in the order because he was hitting everything."
Collectively, the squad showed improvement fielding-wise. "Defense is one of the things we've been working on," added Etherton. "We play in a summer league [in Hunterdon] and they've all been getting at-bats and they've been playing different positions in the field. They've all improved at fielding. A lot of these games are won and lost on errors and we aren't giving up the errors."
Etherton is hoping that progress will benefit both his players and the Princeton High baseball program over the long haul. "I'm trying to develop everybody everywhere so when they get to high school they are exposed to other positions," explained Etherton.
"The kids get put in one position early on but that may not be where they play in high school. They'll be better fielders and better hitters when they get to high school."
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