Making Strides: Long Branch Baseball Preview

With a core of five seniors returning, Long Branch’s baseball team should certainly improve on its four wins of a season ago.

How much it improves, however, depends on a young crop of pitchers behind returning ace Paul Tracey and the performance of an up-and-coming group of position players.

“The bottom line is that we’re going to go as our young guys go,’’ said Long Branch head coach V.J. Muscillo. “They will determine how successful we will be because my core guys are going to do their job.’’

That group of five returning starters includes Tracey, a senior lefty who also plays in the outfield, senior third baseman John Jones, senior outfielders Jarred Fernandez and Isaac Ramirez, and senior second baseman Matt Amato.

They give Long Branch some stability up the middle defensively and in the outfield, and defense has been a strength of the Green Wave thus far during its preseason scrimmages. The main question is the pitching behind Tracey, who may not be on the hill until a week or two into the season after suffering a slight tear in the AC joint of his pitching shoulder during his season as a 215-pound wrestler for Long Branch in the winter. He is expected to be cleared by the doctor to play in 7-10 days, according to Muscillo.

Tracey gives Long Branch the ability to go toe to toe with anyone in a tough Class B North division, as he showed last season in a 1-0 loss to division co-champion Ocean and another duel with a strong Red Bank Regional team. He throws in the mid-80s with a two- and four-seam fastball as well as a solid curveball and an improving changeup. Long Branch is also happy to have him back, as he started this school year enrolled at Ocean before returning to Long Branch only a few weeks into September.

“I think we have the talent to definitely improve,’’ Tracey said. “We have some more pitchers this year who I think are going to help us, and we have more guys playing baseball year round.’’

That last fact has been an issue at Long Branch, which often draws much of its roster from players who participate in multiple sports. Tracey is a perfect example, as he was also a football player and a wrestler, but he cut a deal with Green Wave head football coach Dan George that allowed him to play some fall baseball around the football practice schedule. Long Branch also had several other players participating in the fall leagues as well as having played American Legion baseball in the summer.

“Since I've been doing this, I have always had to share athletes, but I don't have a problem with that because I played three sports myself in high school,’’ Muscillo said. “Still, I understand the nature of the game today, and it helps to have kids play on a year round basis. Over the last couple years, we have also been getting more and more kids that are playing baseball only.’’

“We have much more guys playing during the offseason, which is huge,’’ Tracey said. “You see all the top teams in the Shore, and I play with a lot of those guys in the summer and fall. All those teams have a bunch of guys who play year round.’’

As for the remainder of the roster, senior infielder Frank Minnisch is another returner with some experience, while sophomore Tom McCauslin looks to be the starter at shortstop, with sophomores Tom McGlennon and Dom Mincieli battling for time at first base. Junior Aaron McCue helps round out the outfield group and junior Diego Espinosa steps in at catcher for graduated standout Joe Wagner.

McCue also looks to be one of the primary starters backing up Tracey in the rotation, so much of this season could hinge on his improvement.

“We’ve been working really hard, and we have the talent, so we just have to go out and show it,’’ McCue said.

“(McCue) has prepared himself well this year with workouts and lessons all winter,’’ Muscillo said.

Perhaps the most intriguing pitcher is sophomore righthander Ashwin Mudiraj, who is 6-3 and has a frame that leads Muscillo to believe that he can continue to pump up his velocity and become more effective as he becomes acclimated to the varsity game.

“I don’t know if he understands what varsity is all about, but he has no fear, and that’s a good thing,’’ Muscillo said.

A huge key for Long Branch may be getting off to a promising start in a division that includes heavyweights like Ocean and Monmouth Regional, as well as Red Bank Catholic, which is now in Class B North after moving from Class A Central in the latest Shore Conference realignment.

If the Green Wave can keep their heads above water early on, they could be a sleeper. Conversely, if they get off to a poor start, it could snowball into a lost season in a hurry for a team that finished 4-16 last year.

“Confidence is everything,’’ said Muscillo, who is seven wins shy of 100 entering his 14th season as head coach. “Especially with these young players, if they start to get a feel for winning and build off it, we could be in good shape. I would love to get over the hump and us back in a division title hunt.’’