East Brunswick's Burnham no-hits South Brunswick baseball team
Senior lefthander Tyler Burnham hurled a no-hitter, striking out 10 and walking two while leading the East Brunswick High School baseball team to a 4-0 victory over South Brunswick on Monday afternoon.
“To come to our place and shut us down was impressive,” South Brunswick head coach CJ Hendricks said, noting that even though his Vikings (10-6) entered the contest on a three-game skid, they were still swinging the bats well.
READ: Greg Tufaro's roundup of all the other May 1 GMC baseball action
“What I liked most about Tyler was his demeanor. When he did wrap up the game, he didn’t celebrate, he didn’t go crazy. He just kind of slapped his glove and acted like he’d been there before. That demeanor is why he is the reigning (Home News Tribune) Player of the Year and why he’s going on to play at the Division I level.”
A Seton Hall University signee, Burnham threw 93 pitches, 59 of which went for strikes. He recorded six groundouts and four fly outs. Burnham threw first-pitch strikes to 13 of the 23 batters he faced. Victor Heutz and Kevin Reyes were the only South Brunswick batters to reach base safely as the Bears did not commit an error.
East Brunswick head coach Chris Kenney said Burnham, who has been working with pitching coach Tom Baldwin on mechanics over the past couple of weeks, had stellar control and velocity.
“On the mound he pretty much did whatever he wanted to do today,” Kenney said. “His velocity had been down and his control had been (erratic). He was trying to overthrow and everything was out of sync. Tommy’s done a great job working with him the last couple weeks.”
Burnham helped his own cause, going 2-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a stolen base. Brandon Rosenthal went 2-for-3 with a triple and two RBI. Christian Shelley also went 2-for-3 and plated East Brunswick’s other run.
“He didn’t just throw it well today,” Hendricks said of Burnham. “He swung it, too. It was really his game.”
With the win over the heavy-hitting Vikings, who entered the contest batting .310 as a team, East Brunswick remained in sole possession of first place atop the Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division.
Ryan Flynn and Brad Edwards (run scored) each went 2-for-4. Mike Falco singled and scored twice. David Bermudez doubled and scored a run.
The Bears (11-4 overall, 9-2 division) broke a scoreless deadlock in the fourth and tacked on three more runs in the fifth. South Brunswick used three pitchers.
Hendricks said Burnham had “tremendous control” of three pitches, the most effective of which was a fastball, which the southpaw established early, challenging hitters.
The Vikings got one runner to second base, who Burnham picked off. The Vikings had difficulty establishing their trademark small ball game because of Burnham’s quickness off the mound.
“I was really impressed with his mobility off the mound,” Hendricks said. “He just bounced off the mound like he knew what he was doing. His athleticism was something that stood out for me.”
The last pitcher to shut out South Brunswick was Allentown ace Jordan Winston, an Oklahoma State University commit and the son of former Bishop Ahr and Rutgers University star Darin Winston, who pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies.