Johnson Crusaders Varsity Baseball Hope Strong Senior Class Can Lead Team to Success

CLARK, NJ-  The Arthur L. Johnson High School varsity baseball team is ready to give it a go this season, but for the seniors, they hope past experiences and chemistry can lead the team to successes they’ve come close to, but fallen short in previous seasons.

The program said farewell to 2017 seniors Vin Crisafi, Mike Sot, Brendan Stanzione and Connor Fayard, the three of them being starters, but return a senior class of seven players ready to lead the team for the start of the season.

The senior class features Anthony Caldiero, Mike Casalino, Kevin Metz, Ryan Spallone, Zach Thornton and Joe Turek, many who saw chances in the lineup going back two years ago as this season is coming along quickly.

“It’s going to be an all-level commitment,” Johnson eleventh-year head coach Dave Kennedy said of his players. “If we are going to be successful, we’re going to get contributions from all over the place. We are going to have some young guys who really put in [the hard work].”

Turek, who will be catcher this season, finished his junior year with a .433 batting average, collected 29 hits (five doubles, one triple) and had 22 RBIs.

Spallone makes his first appearance on a pitching mound since his sophomore year, missing the entire 2017 baseball season and this past football season with a shoulder injury.

“It feels great to get back out there with my boys,” Spallone said. “I think we are going to have a great season. I’m here to help my team in any way I can and we’ll see how it goes.”

Caldiero saw time on the mound, going 1-2 with his lone victory coming in a 17-9 slugfest with Westfield HS. At the plate, he posted a .275 batting average with 19 hits (five doubles, two triples) with 11 RBIs.

Casalino posted a .263 batting average in his first year as a starter on the varsity team, including 15 hits (two doubles) and 11 RBIs. A few of the seniors shared their overall thoughts of what has to happen to be able to come together for a chance to go far.

“I’m confident we will have a good season as we all have gelled together well and are all looking forward to putting together a great last season,” Caldiero said. “[Like] beating GL last year, we’re looking to do some big things this year.”

“We all have a lot of talent,” Casalino said. “If we come together, we can definitely win a state championship.”

Metz, the team’s starting third baseman last year, sporting a .370 batting average with 27 hits (six doubles, one home run) and 15 RBIs. On the mound, he pitched 12 1/3 innings with a 2.84 ERA.

Metz, who was part of the success of the football team in 2015 and 2017, along with Turek, De Paz, Casalino, Spallone and Fedak, spoke of the excitement of a playoff team of how it could translate to the spring season.

“Hopefully this year, [the work ethic and postseason experiences] will be enough to carry us to the championship we have come so close to, but never achieved,” Metz said. “Having so many returning players should give us the edge needed to get there.”

The Crusaders are in the Union County Conference Mountain Division, with opponents New Providence, Union Catholic, Summit and Linden.

Opponents outside of the conference on the schedule include Woodbridge (2017 NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 runner-up), Cranford (2017 NJSIAA Group 3 State Champions), Metuchen (2017 NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 1 runner-up) and Governor Livingston (2017 NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 2 sectional champions).

“We want to measure ourselves with those [kinds of teams],” Kennedy said of the teams on the schedule. “By consistently playing against better teams, eventually the program is going to be able to adapt to bigger competition.”

“Our schedule is as tough as it’s been now than last year,” he added. “It’s always been very competitive, but we try to make it a little more competitive every single year because we want to have that county opportunity to put ourselves in a position to win a conference. That’s the mindset and a lot of guys have bought in.”

The 2017 season proved to be a roller coaster ride for the Crusaders. They started last season slow with a 1-6 record, with losses in the first half of the season coming to Summit, Old Bridge, Woodbridge, Union, Iselin Kennedy and New Providence. Their lone win in the early stages of the season coming against Union Catholic.

They followed that up with a stretch of eight wins in nine games, including a stunning 9-5 win over Governor Livingston HS in the Union County Tournament Quarterfinals (was ranked No. 1 in New Jersey on May 1, two days before the matchup), which featured Johnson leading by as much as 8-0 before they closed them out.

“It’s great stuff to build off of last year,” Thornton said of his team’s wins over Westfield and Governor Livingston last year. “We had a lot of big wins, but that just shows our potential. We are just trying to raise the bar each year. We’ve got a lot to improve on, shooting for the sky.”

Thornton, who was the starting shortshop, sported a .318 batting average, collecting 28 hits (one double) and 18 RBIs.

They also had a come-from-behind win at New Providence the next day to improve to 9-7 on the season, before a loss to Westfield HS in the Union County Tournament Semifinals, their second appearance in the round in the past three seasons.

The Crusaders struggled in the final weeks of the regular season, capturing wins over Carteret and Linden, losing six of their last eight games. Their season ended abruptly with a 6-0 loss to Raritan HS in the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 2 First Round.

The seniors are determined to not let the season come to a quick end, eager to start with the group they have.

“There’s a lot of guys coming back this year who were on [the 2017] team,” Turek said. “It shows that we can compete with a lot of really good teams in the state. We’ve just got to play a full seven innings of baseball and we’ll be fine.”

Thornton, sophomores Max Carmino and Patrick Grady, along with Kyle Adorno and Saul Lopez, round out the Crusaders pitching rotation for the upcoming season.

The Crusaders kick off their 2018 season with a road game at Ocean Township HS on Saturday, March 31 at 11:00 a.m. Their home opener will be against Summit HS on Tuesday, April 3 at 4:00 p.m.

Kennedy reiterated that although the group of players that can handle tougher situations, the team has to come together every single day to be a force on the baseball field when the season starts.

“We are also going to hope that the guys who have been there to help guys through the tougher times, so we’re looking to ham-and-egg it this season and whatever we need to do to win a ballgame that day, I think this is the type of group that can do that,” he added.

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2018 Johnson Crusaders Schedule: