GOING TO THE MATT: Princeton Day School baseball star Matt Cook delivers the ball in a game earlier this spring. Senior pitcher Cook came up big last week, getting the win in a 3-2 victory over Peddie. The Panthers, now 10-6, plays at South Hunterdon on May 2 before starting action in the Mercer County Tournament where sixth-seeded PDS will host No. 11 Ewing on May 5 in a first round contest. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

For the Princeton Day School baseball team, routing Rutgers Prep 18-3 last Friday was a measure of how far the squad has come since last spring.

“Last season we played them three times and they beat us up pretty good; that was a sweet win,” said PDS head coach Ray O’Brien, whose team improved to 10-6 with the victory, already more than doubling its win total from 2011 when it went 4-14.

The sweet swing of freshman JP Radvany helped trigger the rout for the Panthers as he smacked a three-run homer and piled up six RBIs in the contest.

“JP has been great; we knew coming in that he was pretty good,” said O’Brien.

“But he is only a freshman and he still had to come in and hit ball at the varsity level. I was really impressed with him in our first game back from Florida; we were playing a really good St. Augustine team and he was seeing the ball and taking pitches. He was recognizing pitches while some of our other guys were getting fooled. He is playing well above his years. He has really been good in the four-hole for us; he is hitting .529 with 27 RBIs.”

PDS has playing well collectively over the last few weeks. “We have won five out of six; we made a few changes to our lineup and the guys have settled in,” said O’Brien.

“We moved guys around. We have Rob Colton at catcher and moved Bradley Freid to his spot in the outfield. We moved Sean McCoy to first and we have JP at designated hitter. We moved one of our freshmen, Jake Alu, to third. We have kept the batting order; we have kept it the same the last seven or eight games. We can play small ball if necessary and the guys are comfortable banging away.”

O’Brien is growing increasingly comfortable with his pitching rotation. “Greg Auerbach, a junior, has given us the most innings; Matt Cook and Jacob Eisenberg are two seniors,” said O’Brien,

“Eisenberg has thrown some real good ballgames. Cook is 3-0 and pitched well against Peddie (a 3-2 win) last week. Cole [McManimon] has had a couple of victories. The pitchers have settled in and are throwing strikes and we are playing good defense behind them.”

The Panthers’ play has benefitted from blending battle-tested veterans with some precocious newcomers.

“It is a good mix,” said O’Brien. “Cook, Eisenberg, McCoy, and Beau Horan are giving us good senior leadership. Beau is playing good defense and hitting .407; things are coming together for him. We also have an influx of some good young players. Rob Colton has come in and is hitting at .500. He is a tough kid; we can’t have enough of those.”

In O’Brien’s view, the team has shown a toughness stemming from a  9-6 loss in extra innings to Pennington on April 14.

“In that first Pennington game; we were down 5-0 and then we came back,” said O’Brien. “We thought we let it slip away. We came out the next day and pounded Lawrenceville and we have been playing well ever since.”

With postseason action on the horizon, O’Brien is hoping that the Panthers can keep up its hot play.

“Right now we are playing consistently,” said O’Brien, whose team plays at South Hunterdon on May 2 before starting action in the Mercer County Tournament where sixth-seeded PDS will host No. 11 Ewing on May 5 in a first round contest.

“Hopefully we are peaking at the right time. If we play well, we can beat anyone.”