ON A ROLL: Princeton High pitcher Jaxon Petrone fires a pitch in recent action. Junior standout Petrone has helped PHS post three straight wins and improve to 5-4. In upcoming action, the Tigers will look to keep on the winning track as they host Robbinsville on May 12 and Trenton Central on May 17. In addition, PHS will continue play in the CVC Tournament, where it is seeded eighth and is slated to play at top-seeded Allentown on May 15 in a quarterfinal contest. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

When the Princeton High baseball team lost its first two games this season, Dom Capuano urged his players to concentrate on execution.

“Our focus is the connection between mind and body, it is understanding what we need to do and then actually doing it and putting it into play,” said PHS head coach Capuano.

“Having the conversation about it is nice but if we can’t translate it onto the field, it is only a conversation.”

Getting the message, PHS edged Ewing 3-2 on April 24 and outslugged Nottingham 11-7 two days later to get on the winning track.

Last week, the Tigers built on that, going 3-0 as they topped WW/P-South 6-0 in the first round of the CVC tournament on May 3, edged Lawrence 4-2 in extra innings two days later, and then defeated WW/P-South 6-4 in a rematch last Thursday.

“In the back-to-back wins, the offense started to come around there,” said Capuano, referring to the victories over Ewing and Nottingham.

“We are still trying to find our way a little but any time you can put up six runs, it is always good.”

The win in the CVC opener over the Pirates was an impressive all-around effort for PHS.

“We got a small lead, we had really good starting pitching from Tommy [Delany] and then Kenny Schiavone comes in,” said Capuano, whose squad is seeded eighth in the CVC tourney and is slated to play at top-seeded Allentown on May 15 in a quarterfinal contest.

“Kenny has been our best reliever, our go-to guy out of the bullpen. We were able to keep that 6-0 lead on Monday which is always nice.”

In topping Lawrence, the Tigers showed resilience as they squandered a 2-0 lead but pushed across two runs in the top of the ninth to pull out the victory.

“Early in the season we were losing these games and now we are starting to win them,” said Capuano.

“We just have to continue to improve. When the caliber of teams like Hopewell, Notre Dame and Steinert come up again, we need to be winning those games as well.”

While PHS wasn’t at its sharpest in beating WW/P-South on Thursday, it got the job done.

“That is the importance of continuing to score runs, we scored two in the second and it was a good thing we scored four in the sixth because you never know which run is going to win the game,” said Capuano.

“I thought early the first, second inning we did a good job of working their starter and getting two runs across. Finally we got to their bullpen in the sixth and we score four runs. Had we done that earlier maybe the game is more in our favor and that is the message of yesterday.”

In assessing his team’s recent surge, Capuano points to strong mound work as a key factor.

“Our pitching has really been good for the most part,” said Capuano.

“Our starting pitching has been really good this year. Any time Tommy gets the ball, we expect a good outing. Jaxon [Petrone] has done pretty well, especially his last start. I had a conversation with him after the next day and said this is your best start, this is the best you have looked and the best you have felt. I showed him some numbers and said this is why. If you start doing this better, all of these starts can be like this.”

The squad’s contingent of juniors has started to put up some numbers.

“It is two-thirds of the team,” said Capuano, who has 11 juniors on his roster.

“Jensen Bergman is leading the team in hitting. He is the leadoff hitter, he has got the second most stolen bases. He is doing a good job. Drew Petrone is quietly hitting .300, he had a shaky couple of games but since then he has been doing well. Jaxon has come up with some big extra base hits.”

While Capuano is happy with the win streak, he believes that PHS can’t be satisfied with one good stretch.

“Any time you go 3-0 in a week, you are happy; we are above .500,” said Capuano, whose team hosts Robbinsville on May 12 and Trenton Central on May 17 in regular season action.

“We are getting there, we are in a good position in states. We still have an outside chance of getting a home states game which I could not tell you the last time that happened. We are doing the right things. This has to be celebrated today but we need more. We have to keep moving forward so that this is the standard. What I am really trying to hammer home to this group is that you can really set the standard here. You can be the impetus behind a home state game every year and be perennial state contenders, stuff like that which we are hoping for and we see the things there to do it.”