High School Baseball:
Township Opens Season With Convincing Win Over Highland

Saturday, April 1, 2000

By Art Redd
SJSports Staff Writer

The year 2000 high school baseball began on Saturday morning with teams trying to get an early start on a successful season. The Washington Township Minutemen traveled to Highland High School and wanted to get their first win on the road. Township rolled all over Highland by scoring early and often to post a 15-5 win in a non-league game.

Washington Township showed early why they are a competitive team with a lot of talent up and down the lineup. First baseman slugger Rob Eagan (senior) didn't get a chance to show his hitting skills as he reached base all four times (3 walks, 1 hit by pitch). So his on deck batter, Dan Fratontoro came through with a bases loaded triple to account for the three of the six runs scored in the first inning. The Minutemen batted around in the first inning to post a 6-1 lead.

The runs kept coming in the second inning as Irv McFarland (3 for 3, 3 runs scored and 2 doubles) lined a single to score Jeff Brown to plate the first of three runs. The Minutemen sent eight batters to the plate and led 9-1 after two innings. Highland finally put together four straight singles, ending with Frank Marciano's two RBI single. Art Barilotti's single scored Marciano for the fourth run of the inning and Highland closed the gap to 9-5.

After posting three runs in the fourth and fifth innings, the game ended in the bottom of the fifth because of the 10-run rule. Ryan Hoffman finished the game with 5 RBIs, a triple and two singles. Ken Condit picked up the victory for Washington Township and struck out three.

	1	2	3	4	5
Washington Twp.	6	3	0	3	3	15
Highland	1	0	4	0	0	5

Photos by Art Redd