Like just about every high school baseball team that will open the 2023 season this week across New Jersey, Timothy Christian will have some veterans back.
There’s shortstop Josh Francis, who hit .545 last season for the second-place team in the GMC Gold Division last year with 25 RBIs and five extra base hits. Starting pitchers Josh Thiero and Ben Wang – who combined to go 8-4 last year and toss 72 innings, striking out 84 hitters while walking only 32 – are back as well.
But there are also some newcomers, who epitomize the definition of the word. A half-dozen players on the 13-man roster at the tiny Piscataway school are freshmen, like Chris Solomine, Elisha Mena and Joseph Walker, none of whom have ever played any baseball before.
But head coach Jose Torres – a rookie head coach himself who played his scholastic ball up at Barringer in Newark in the earl 200s – says they are keen to learn, and made great strides in the preseason.
He’ll get his first chance to see how that translates in real game action when his Tigers take on the East Brunswick Magnet Tigers at home Monday in the 2023 season opener.
You can hear the game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with first pitch set for 4 pm and pregame at 3:45. Mike Pavlichko will call all the play-by-play, joined by special guest analyst Dennis McNulty. Click here to listen.
Click below to hear Jose Torres talk about his team as they get set for the 2023 season opener: