Marsch hopes to get back to World Series
BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer

Jordan Marsch again is ready to step up to a big game challenge on Brookdale Community College's baseball team and he has the stats to prove it.

The former Brick Township star is batting .449, including .583 in the Garden State Athletic Conference, with a dozen doubles and 25 RBIs.

"Everything is going good this year, like last year," said Marsch, referring to last year's team that reached the World Series. This year's team is 31-12, finished tied for first place in the Garden State Athletic Conference with Burlington, and plays in the region tournament on Friday against Gloucester.

But Marsch has picked up his average, which he hopes earns All-Region selection when it is announced later this week. He drove in the winning run in the opening World Series victory over Allegheny last season. Brookdale went 3-2 in the five games it played and finished No. 3 in the nation among junior colleges.

"I'm more relaxed," said Marsch. "I was in a bit of a tough spot last year when I was a DH coming off the bench for an at-bat. It was the first time I did not play in the field in my whole life."

This year he's playing in right field, where he has played nearly flawlessly as the successor to Carlos Guzman, who signed with the Mets organization. Marsch threw one runner out at the plate when he played a ball hit over his head off the fence in a game against Middlesex.

"Last year was a sophomore-based team and the sophomores this year did not play last year, and so the team has dropped down a bit," Marsch said.

That could change if Brookdale, which finished tied for first for the conference lead, comes on strong again. Marsch is ready to do his part, hitting primarily in the No. 2 spot in the batting order and has a .514 on-base percentage.

"We've been off for two weeks so we're going over all basic stuff," said Marsch. "We have a lot of young freshmen and sophomores ready to step up."

And Marsch is ready to do his part. He badly injured the index finger of his right hand on a squeeze play that kept him out of the lineup for six games shortly after a season-opening trip to Florida. Marsch was trying to bunt and still determined to get the ball in play as the pitch came in on him and he met the ball entirely with his finger exposed, fracturing his finger and causing a bad blood blister.

Marsch was the designated hitter for two games after that, a role he had on last year's team, because he still had trouble swinging the bat for a while before returning to regular duty.

Marsch saw the makings of another solid season after the Florida trip where it split its first 14 games of the season against the likes of Division 1 power Miami Dade and some NCAA four-year Division II programs. The young players showed signs of coming of age, winning nine in a row. During that time, the coaches moved Marsch to the bottom of the lineup so Brookdale could get base runners later for the top of the batting order that followed. But his hot hitting and speed on the bases made him a better fit for the move to the No. 2 spot for the second half of the season.