Beard delivered a dominant season

Player of the year: Despite a 91-mph fastball and a sharp, biting curve, Willie Beard of Spotswood didn't become a complete pitcher until he stopped tipping off to batters which of those pitches was on its way.

Last season, Beard was 8-2 with a 2.02 ERA, but a 12-0 loss to Old Bridge in the quarterfinal round of the 2006 Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament gave Beard some indication of what still needed work.

"I left the ball over the middle of the plate too much," Beard recalled of his loss to Old Bridge.

With his mechanics tweaked to better conceal his delivery, and his ability to pitch to the corners of the plate enhanced, the right-hander turned in a dominant season in 2007. He was 12-1 with a 1.93 ERA and 110 strikeouts in 79 2/3 innings. He was 5-0 during Spotswood's nine-game winning streak to close the season, including victories in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final against J.P. Stevens and the NJSIAA Group 2 final against Indian Hills.

In consecutive starts in the first two rounds of the county tournament, Beard pitched a no-hitter against East Brunswick and a one-hitter against Spotswood, embellishing the latter victory with 13 strikeouts.

"Willie is two times the pitcher that he was last year," Spotswood coach Glenn Fredericks said. "He was very good last year, but now he's throwing his curve with the same arm action as his fastball, he gets his fastball up to 91 (mph) and the batter can't sit on either pitch. Willie has never lost an American Legion game in four years. He's just a winner."

Beard will pitch for Rutgers next year.

Coach of the year: In Glenn Fredricks' second season as Spotswood's head coach in 2006, the team came close to scaling unprecedented heights, going 19-5-1 and reaching the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 2 final, where it lost to Gov. Livingston. But this season, the weight of heavy expectations on a team with many returning starters never appeared to faze Fredricks' team, which went 26-4 and closed the year on a nine-game winning streak. A 1994 graduate of the school, Fredricks is 63-18 at Spotswood since arriving after a stint as an assistant coach at Immaculata.

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Following its 5-2 loss to Ewing on opening day, Spotswood suffered very few speed bumps on its way to an historic 26-4 record that included the first state and county championships in the school's history.

On the days when Willie Beard could not pitch, the falloff was not appreciable with senior Mike Hohman on the mound. He was 8-1 with a 1.86 ERA. Hohman also concluded his career as the all-time hits leader at Spotswood with 115. He committed just one error this season at second base, and he batted .484 with 23 walks, 15 stolen bases and 43 runs scored.

The team hit consistently up and down the lineup, with third baseman John Berner leading Spotswood with seven home runs and tying catcher Anthony Addone for the team lead in RBI with 32.

In eight of Spotswood's final nine games, the team allowed two runs or fewer. The one exception was the 7-6 victory over J.P. Stevens for the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament championship. Spotswood wrapped up its season with an 11-1 victory over Indian Hills for the NJSIAA Group 2 championship.

Career leaders: Highland Park pitcher/infielder Rob Rubenstein concluded a spectacular career with a school-record 153 hits and a .470 batting average.

Other players who closed out the 2007 season as their school's all-time career base-hit leaders were Rafael Cordero (124) of Iselin Kennedy, John Haas (104) of South Brunswick, Chris Stallone (97) of South Plainfield and Mike Hohman (115) of Spotswood.

All sophomore/freshman team: Jared Shukis, Edison; Juan Perdomo, South Brunswick; Mike Zinno, J.P. Stevens; J.R. Seader, Piscataway; Pete Senysyn, Carteret; Elijah Yarborough, North Brunswick; Luis Batista, Perth Amboy; Mike Perone, Middlesex; Bryant Riquelme, Metuchen; Cody Pace, Spotswood; Joey Petosa, Spotswood; Brian Schroeder, Iselin Kennedy.