Jets waiting to break out

The mantra for the 2011 Jets on the baseball diamond is simple: Use good pitching and even better defense to pile up wins. It has held up for the most part through the first eight games, as East Meadow has put together a 5-3 start (2-3 in Conference AA-II), but a little consistency at the plate could go a long way in boosting the team’s fortunes in conference matchups.

The Jets fell for the third time in four games last Monday, dropping a 7-0 decision to MacArthur in a contest that had just a two-run spread until the final two innings.

“It looked like we were going to score some runs and then [Joe Chiaramonte] managed to keep us off-balance,” coach Ken Sicoli said of the Generals starter who pitched 5 2/3 innings of shutout baseball and struck out nine. “We never really hit. We had some hard balls hit today and the [MacArthur] kids made plays,” he added.

The loss was East Meadow’s first by more than two runs and came on the heels of a hard-fought three-game series with Baldwin where the two teams combined for just 15 runs and the Jets were outscored by just a 9-6 margin. “Starting with Baldwin and MacArthur in conference play is a good yardstick of what [the season’s] going to be like,” coach Ken Sicoli said. “I told the kids that we could have won all three Baldwin games or lost all three games. An [extra] base hit by us or them and someone could have been undefeated or 0-3.”

The Bruins managed to squeak by in two of the three games, taking the rubber match, 6-4, last Friday. Junior Matt Castaneda went the distance on the mound in the loss, giving up a tie-breaking two-run double in the fifth inning that proved to be the game-winning hit. Senior Rob Franzese pitched all eight innings of a 3-1 victory in the second game of the series on April 14, with outfielder Billy Koebel providing late-game heroics. The junior drove in senior outfielder Chris Mancino with the go-ahead run on an eighth inning single. Mancino finished the day 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles.

The Jets infield defense is anchored by Franzese at the hot corner and senior Kyle Berger at first, although senior catcher Anthony DiTomasso and the double play combination of senior second baseman Joe Gismondi and junior shortstop Rob Healy have more than handled their share of opportunities. “Our pitchers are not overpowering,” Sicoli said. “They’re not going to strikeout a lot of guys but they’re not going to walk a lot of people. They throw strikes so we have to play [good] defense in the field.

“We have to make a lot of plays and we’ve done that. We just have to have a little more consistency [at the plate] and a little more timely hitting.”

East Meadow hosts Herricks Monday at 10:30 a.m. and visits the Highlanders Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.