Somerville’s Kolbie Stellpflug (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Every coach at the beginning of every season has expectations as to how his or her team will be, and what parts of the game will need work, and what parts are going to be A-OK.
The Somerville bats will be just fine for the Pioneers’ baseball team. So will the baserunning.
The 6th-ranked Pioneers sent 31 batters to the plate in the first four innings of a 15-4 Opening Day win over “home team” Immaculata at Diamond Nation in Flemington, as heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
The Somerville pitching wasn’t bad either, as junior Kolbie Stellpflug threw five innings of four-hit ball, allowing four runs, though two were unearned, coming on a two-base throwing error in the third. He struck out four, but did walk six on a chilly day where both starters struggled to find control with temps in the low 50s and brisk, gusty winds making it feel much colder.
Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with Stellpflug after the game:
But it was the bats that were in mid-season form, banging out 14 hits to get the Pioneers 15 runs. Senior third baseman Tyler Stone hit a solo home run in the seventh and went 2-for-5 with a pair of runs scored. Senior DH Garret Koplitz was 2-for-4 with with two runs scored and an RBI double in the fourth.
Every player in the lineup scored at least one run; six scored twice. And everyone got to hit.
The one through three hitters got to the plate in each of the first four innings. Six men came to bat in the first, seven in the second, eight in the third, and ten in the fourth, before the Pioneers’ went one, two, three in each of the next two innings, then added three more runs in the seventh.
Click below to hear Somerville head coach Chris Banos with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko after the game: