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Sports

Spring Sports Previews: Madison Baseball

Young Dodgers look to create foundation for future under new coach Mickey Ennis.

No one is quite sure what to expect from the Madison High School baseball team in 2010. Not even its new head coach, Mickey Ennis.

"We're a very young team," said Ennis, who won an NCAA Division III national title as head coach at Ramapo College. "We have one senior with a chance at starting. We don't have a pitcher coming back with a win. It's pretty much a clean slate."

Which is not to say there's nothing for the former Newark Academy coach to work with. Six varsity letterwinners return, and a stacked junior class will set up the Dodgers nicely for next year. In his first month working with the team during preseason practices, Ennis has been pleasantly surprised.

"We're athletic," Ennis said. "There's some raw talent on this team. There are some live arms that need to be developed, and we need to learn the game a little bit better. But I like the way we run, throw and swing the bat."

Three-quarters of Madison's infield was filled fairly early on in the spring, Ennis said. Alex Brownlee, Jake Meister and Connor Allen proved themselves worthy of the starting jobs at second base, shortstop and third base (Meister and Allen will also be featured regularly in Madison's starting pitcher rotation). The same could be said of outfielder Mike Haughey, who will man right field in Thursday's season-opener at Kittatinny.

But Ennis' "clean slate" meant a heated competition for the remainder of the available playing time which took until last Saturday, the day of the Dodgers' final two preseason scrimmages, to sort out (see below).

"That's a good thing," Ennis said. "The number of quality players we have is a good thing. We've improved every day, and that's all I'm looking at so far."

Returning starter Alex Ruiz will be the primary catcher, while Jamie Hunter, who saw time in the outfield last season, will likely open the season as the designated hitter.

For the Dodgers, who finished 11-11 last year, earning a 10th seed in the Morris County tournament and losing in the North 2, Group II quarterfinals to fourth-seeded West Essex, the key word is "development".

With such a young team–15 of the 18 members of the opening-day varsity team are juniors or younger–Ennis will be looking to drill in fundamentals and find the right team chemistry to complement his team's raw talent.

"You can fail with talent," Ennis said. "But I can sense the chemistry in this team. I'm not sure about the pitching or defense just yet, but even with just chemistry, we can build from there."

The ultimate goal will be to take home one championship this year–either in the Governor Livingston Highlander Classic, the Independence Division, the county tournament or the state tournament–to set up for a potentially excellent 2011.

"Maybe our goals are too aggressive," Ennis said. "But everything we talk about is winning a championship. It reflects on how we act. I don't know if it will translate onto the field, but we'll see."

The progression of the Dodgers' pitchers figures to be the most interesting subplot of the season. Like the entire Dodgers squad, the pitching staff is young but loaded with potential. Ennis, a pitching coach at Millburn and Montclair State University in addition to his head coaching jobs, is looking forward to molding a solid rotation.

"We've got guys with live arms, who haven't thrown enough strikes in the preseason," Ennis said. "They all have the tools, but how quickly they develop will have a correlation to how well we do."

Meister and Allen (who was clocked at 85 miles per hour at a recent showcase, according to Ennis) will shoulder plenty of weight, but Ennis also expects contributions from sophomore Mike Wallace and juniors Haughey, Connor Higgins and Jamie Hunter.

The switch to the new Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference-Independence Division will place Madison with some of Morris County's heaviest hitters, including Hanover Park and Pequannock.

After the April 1 opener at Kittatinny, the Dodgers kick off their league schedule Monday, April 5 at Parsippany, before playing their first home game two days later, against Boonton.

Probable opening day starting lineup:
C Alex Ruiz
1B Thomas Tracy
2B Alex Brownlee
SS Jake Meister
3B Cameron Dias
LF Connor Higgins
CF Dilan Kluge
RF Mike Haughey
DH Jamie Hunter
P Connor Allen

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