Chapter 9: Enter The Juniors




Junior left fielder Glen Gulyas makes a play at LaMonte Field





     “Hey Romanok, be ready to start at third against Ridge today,” murmurs Coach Martin in home room on a hazy Friday morning . “Izzo has to work.”

“Sure Coach,” croaks the junior outfielder, masking his shock at being brought up from JV in a new position for the conference championship game.

“I need your bat in the lineup,” bawls junior ace Sean Doremus from across the room. “My arm’s sore and we’ll need all the hits we can get.”



     Our senior sluggers had carried us through most of that season in which we were averaging eight runs a game. As June arrived one of those big hitters had to leave the team for a summer job that would help his single mom keep their house when her cafeteria job ended. The understandable departure of third baseman Tony Izzo right before the most important game of the year seemed a devastating blow.

     Enter the juniors. Outfielders Rob Corsini and Glen Gulyas and designated hitter Mike Sepesi had been clutch hitters all year and would need to step up even more. Several other underclassmen had been playing well on the JV team including Ernie Hernandez on third base, Eric Winchock at shortstop, and John Romanok in left field.

     Some teammates were surprised at Coach Martin's pick to replace Izzo, but I knew John was from a baseball family. I'd been the eight-year-old batboy for a senior league team featuring his brother Alan at pitcher and third base. My family lived right behind the Park Inn that Mr. Romanok co-owned and which always had a baseball game on the television mounted behind the bar. I trusted that John knew the sport and could play third base because he'd been a regular in our early teen pickup games at Codrington Park.



     "There's our new Izzo!" claps Coach Martin from the bench as Romanok smacks a double off the fence in left center to take the lead in the top of the eleventh inning.

"Way to keep it going!" our manager roars as Sepesi knocks John home with a shot into right center.

"Insurance runs!" he beams to the rest of us in the dugout after Gulyas completes the junior hit parade for a three run lead that would give us the Mountain Valley Conference championship.



Final score: Bound Brook (20-3) 7 - Ridge (25-4) 4



     

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