The Glen Rock High School Baseball team has started off the 2017 season with eight straight victories, the most recent being Tuesday’s 10-4 win over Hawthorne. The 8-0 start for Bill Crispino’s club has earned the Panthers the No. 6 ranking in the nj.com Top 10 for Group 2 baseball teams in the entire state.
Three pitchers – seniors Noah Kastelman and Connor Smith, and junior Matt Kopyta – are 2-0 so far, and Kopyta leads the team with 14 strikeouts in 12 innings while allowing only one run. Smith has thrown two complete games, and struck out 11 batters in his 14 innings. Sophomore outfielder Ashton Dalessio has the team’s top batting average (.417) with five hits in 12 at bats, and senior first baseman Matt Carbone leads in hits with 11 in 28 at-bats (.393), plus 11 RBI. Six of Carbone’s 11 hits are doubles. Senior outfielder Colin Morrow (.385) leads the team with 12 RBI, and junior outfielder and leadoff hitter Ian Dorsey, with a .290 batting average and .371 on-base percentage, has been a spark at the top of the lineup and leads the team in runs scored (10).
Defensively, the team is led by senior infielders Matt Williams and Luke Nuzzo, who play shortstop and second base, respectively. Williams is a two-year starter at shortstop, and he and Smith are the team captains. And beyond the varsity level, Glen Rock has great depth in the program, as the JV (6-0) and freshman teams (5-0) are also undefeated.
The Panthers have three games coming up in the next three days, with a road matchup at Rutherford Thursday, and home games vs. Pompton Lakes Friday and Dumont Saturday, at 11 a.m.