Porcello wins national POY and faces DBP tomorrow

My alma mater is facing Seton Hall Prep and Rick Porcello tomorrow. A win would be sweet for DBP. Supposedly Porcello was recently clocked at 99 and 100 mph in a relief appearance. I wish I could be there tomorrow.

Prep's Porcello to be named national player of year
Thursday, May 31, 2007
BY BOB BEHRE
For the Star-Ledger

The days leading up to next Thursday's Major League Baseball First-Year Players Draft probably won't drag for Rick Porcello, because the senior right-hander at Seton Hall Prep could be pitching in the biggest games of his high school career before that exciting day comes.

Porcello took a break from his quest for a state championship last night when he dined with his family and representatives from Gatorade and was told that he is Gatorade's National High School Baseball Player of the Year.

A press conference will be held today to make the formal announcement.

Porcello joins Willie Banks of St. Anthony of Jersey City as the only New Jersey players to receive the national baseball award, which was originated in 1986.

Banks was honored in 1987 and a few days later was drafted third overall, becoming the highest draft pick in state history and the last New Jersey pitcher selected in the first round. Porcello is expected to join that exclusive first-round company, with assorted scouting services projecting him as the second choice overall by the Kansas City Royals.

"I'm very grateful for the award and very fortunate to be in the position I'm in," Porcello said. "It's something I'd never take for granted. I had no idea this was coming. It's really nice."

The pitching numbers for the 6-5, 200-pound Porcello are spectacular enough to separate him from his national competitors for Gatorade's honor, but his hitting numbers are also outstanding.

He has an 8-0 record with as many as three games left for Seton Hall (29-1), which is No. 1 in The Star-Ledger Top 20 and also No. 1 in the USA Today national rankings. The West Orange school plays tomorrow against Don Bosco Prep of Ramsey, the state's No. 2 team, in the NJSIAA North Jersey, Non-Public A semifinals and could play in the sectional final Tuesday and the state Non-Public A championship on June 9.

Porcello has 96 strikeouts and just 11 walks in 56 innings, allowing a paltry six runs, five earned, for a 0.63 ERA and 31 hits. He also pitched a perfect game in the Greater Newark Tournament semifinals. The cleanup hitter is also batting .475 with 38 hits, including nine doubles and 10 home runs, and 46 RBI and has a .580 on-base percentage and .988 slugging percentage.

Porcello has committed to North Carolina and will continue his career there if he doesn't sign with a major-league team.

"Rick has such a high level of poise and maturity on the mound," Seton Hall Prep coach Mike Sheppard Jr. said. "He doesn't get rattled, no matter who he's facing and no matter what the situation is. He's the consummate hard worker and his greatest attribute is his personal makeup. He possesses tremendous integrity and humility."

The national baseball award's first winner in 1986 was current Detroit Tiger Gary Sheffield. Other winners have included Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez.

This marks the first year in which New Jersey has had two national winners. Brayan Martinez of West Orange was named the top boys soccer player on Tuesday.

http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/inde...220.xml&coll=1

Just an FYI...DBP is supposedly hammering Porcello. It is 7-2 Don Bosco in the 5th.

He'll get the last laugh when he gets millions next week, but this is sweet.

Here's the final story. Sounds like an unbelievable game. Too bad the good guys lost. :(

Quote:

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Bosco rocks nation's best pitcher, but loses

Saturday, June 2, 2007

By ART STAPLETON
STAFF WRITER



WEST ORANGE -- Four outs from victory Friday, Don Bosco was poised to do something nobody expected against Seton Hall Prep, especially not with the nation's best high school pitcher on the mound.

Just when it seemed a celebration was imminent, though, the Ironmen watched events unfold that left them in disbelief and ended their State title hopes.


Seton Hall Prep rallied from five runs down in the bottom of the sixth inning before completing a remarkable comeback an inning later with a bases-loaded walk, stunning Don Bosco with a thrilling 9-8 triumph before a crowd of 2,500.

The second-seeded Pirates, ranked No. 1 nationally by USA Today, will play top-seeded Immaculata for the North crown Tuesday in Morristown.

"We came out here thinking we could take them and for a while it looked like we would," Don Bosco sophomore Anthony Gomez said. "To go from up 7-2 and lose the game, that takes a lot out of you. We just didn't think it was going to happen, that we would lose this way."

No one packed into the ballpark at Seton Hall Prep could have, not with the way the Don Bosco hitters had their way with Pirates' ace Rick Porcello all game long.

The senior right-hander had given up six runs all year -- Don Bosco scored seven through six innings and tacked another on in the seventh, tying the game before Seton Hall Prep (30-1) went back in front for good in its final at-bat.

Gomez opened the game by smacking the second pitch from Porcello over the fence in right field for a home run. Sophomore Brett Knief later added a solo shot as the Ironmen, No. 1 in The Record's Top 25, collected 12 hits against the Gatorade National High School Player of the Year, the most for any team all season.

For six innings, Don Bosco junior Eric Pfisterer was the best pitcher in the game, keeping Seton Hall Prep's offense in check by changing speeds. It was the most impressive performance of his career.

None of that held, though, once Wyckoff's Steven Brooks laced a two-run single off Don Bosco reliever Jeff Hoffman in the sixth, finishing off Seton Hall Prep's stunning rally that gave the Pirates an 8-7 lead.

"When we were down, it wasn't over for us, not through the 45-minute [lightning] delay, not when they came back right after that and went ahead 7-2," said Brooks, a senior center fielder headed to Wake Forest. "It wasn't going to be over for us until they got the last out of the seventh inning."

Don Bosco (25-2) was not done, either, as it scratched across its eighth run in the top of the seventh when Brandon Boykin scored on an error. Porcello (128 pitches, seven strikeouts, one walk) picked off two Ironmen in the inning and got a comebacker to end the threat, however, setting the stage for more heroics in the bottom of the inning.

"They were ripping my fastball, they're a great hitting team," Porcello said. "We just tried to grind it out, do the best we could to hang in there. Down five runs against a great team like that, there's not much hope, but there's still hope."

By the time Seton Hall Prep junior Mike Martinez of Wayne had drawn that game-winning walk, the Pirates were the ones who were unexpectedly celebrating.

"Any time you lose a game like that, it's hard to take," Don Bosco coach Paul Sessa said. "Our kids played like champions. We got 12 hits off the best pitcher in the country, we just fell one run short."

Blog: northjersey.com/varsityaces/stapleton

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