CARSON SHOW: Hun School baseball player Carson Applegate takes a big swing in a game earlier this season. Last Wednesday, junior star Applegate pitched and hit Hun to a 10-0 win over Lawrenceville. The Raiders, who improved to 5-1 with a 7-0 win over Blair Academy last Saturday, host Hill School (Pa.) on April 21, Perkiomen School (Pa.) on April 23, plays Trenton Catholic on April 24 at Veteran’s Park, and then host the Peddie School on April 27. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

After pitching and hitting the Hun School baseball team to a 10-0 win over Lawrenceville last Wednesday, Carson Applegate autographed a baseball for the home plate umpire.

In the only misstep of a day, which saw the junior star hurl five scoreless innings of two-hit ball while striking out 12 and walking just one and pounding out three hits, Applegate’s handwriting was a bit sloppy.

“It was a poor signature,” said Applegate with a chuckle, noting that he has known the umpire for years.

Coming into the game against Lawrenceville, Applegate was primed for a big day.

“This was our first home game in about two years,” said Applegate.

“I have been thinking about this game since the schedule came out. Luckily I was able to pitch today. I probably didn’t say a word the whole day because I was so focused and so excited to play. It is great being back on the field.”

In the top of the first inning, Applegate struck out three batters and then in the bottom of the frame he led off with a single, stole two bases and scored the game’s first run. An inning later, he smacked a run-scoring triple off the center field fence.

“I love leading off, I love starting a game off,” said Applegate, who ended up 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and an RBI.

“Today, I didn’t even take batting practice. The triple felt great, I just got under it a little bit. I have been working on keeping my hands smooth and keeping my hands through the ball. It felt pretty good. As I slide into third, I did a little fist pump to the dugout, just seeing all of the guys excited is awesome.”

Applegate was also excited about his mound effort. “I was really confident today, I was pretty locked in,” said Applegate, who has committed to attend the University of Kentucky and play for its Division I baseball program.

“I had my guys behind me. Tyler Tucker making the play at second, Ben Petrone at shortstop, Carson Wehner at third, Ryan DiMaggio at first, and my outfield. Mike Smith did a great job catching me too. I was bouncing some curveballs and changeups. My slider was working pretty well today and so was my fastball, my two seam. The changeup was good in the first inning but I have got to work on it.”

In assessing his progress on the mound, Applegate credited Hun assistant coach Steve Garrison, a former Raider star who went on to pitch in the pro ranks, including a stint with the New York Yankees, with being a major influence.

“Coach Garrison has been awesome; he taught me my slider, I just started throwing it when we had our preseason, probably about a month or two ago,” said Applegate

“That is what he does, he is just a great mentor. He has been through everything, pitching in the bigs. He is just a great guy, he is very calm but he gets on you when he needs to.”

Hun head coach Tom Monfiletto sees Applegate as a great spark for the Hun hitting attack from the leadoff spot.

“He is a complete hitter, he is aggressive and he is an outstanding plus runner as well,” said Monfiletto. “He is the perfect combination for that role.”

With Applegate having pitched a five-inning perfect game in an 11-0 win over Blair Academy on April 5 in his first outing of the season, Monfiletto was impressed by how the junior built on that performance in the win over the Big Red.

“He was locked in today on the mound, he was 100 percent locked in,” said Monfiletto.

“You could tell in pregame that he was going to bring his best today. We knew we had to because Lawrenceville has a very good team this year. He brought his best and it was great.”

The Raiders, who improved to 5-1 with a 7-0 win over the Blair Academy last Saturday, are clearly off to a great start.

“A lot of it is the work that the kids did in the offseason on their own,” said Monfiletto, reflecting on the team’s performance so far in 2021.

“There was a lot of ownership in the preparation for his season. That was amazing and was something that we as coaches were really, really happy with. When we started practicing, we hit the ground running. There wasn’t much rust, we really got right into it.”

Against Lawrenceville, Hun got right into it with their bats, building a 7-0 lead through three innings with Jackson Kraemer capping the offensive outburst with a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to end the game on the 10-run rule.

“I was really happy with the approaches of a lot of our guys, the hits were gap to gap in the middle of the field which is something we work on all of the time,” explained Monfiletto.

“If you can stay in the middle of the field you can adjust to some other pitches. Carson had a couple to the center field, left center. DiMaggio’s was to right center. I was really happy with that. Even with two strikes, we were able to square up the ball a lot. I was very, very happy with that.”

With Applegate and DiMaggio having each thrown no-hitters this spring, Monfiletto is also very happy with his mound corps.

“It has been great, a lot of credit to coach Garrison; I do not coach our pitchers, that is all him,” said Monfiletto, adding that post-graduate Trevor Kobryn looked sharp in his Hun debut, striking out two as he pitched the sixth inning against Lawrenceville.

“Our catcher Mike Smith has had some great games behind the plate, Mike Jolly had a great game behind the plate in Carson’s game against Blair. It is something that they really care about and they really work hard with it. There is a purposeful plan for them throughout the week and we stick to it. We also like to work with them on what they like to do and how they like to prepare so it has been working out so far.”

Noting that Hun is facing a tough gauntlet of foes in the coming weeks, Monfiletto is hoping his players will maintain an upbeat mentality when they hit some bumps in the road.

“The biggest concern is that the energy is fantastic throughout games like this,” said Monfiletto, whose team hosts the Hill School (Pa.) on April 21 and the Perkiomen School (Pa.) on April 23, plays Trenton Catholic on April 24 at Veteran’s Park, and then hosts the Peddie School on April 27.

“Can we keep that up when things don’t go our way because pretty soon things are not going to roll our way. We need to understand that we are never out of any game and that we need to stay up through the ups and downs.”

In Applegate’s view, the Raiders will be energized by the tough competition. “We have got a real rigorous schedule,” said Applegate.

“I am very confident in our guys. We are going to be pretty good this year, we are going to do a lot of good stuff.”