Baseball’s Top High School Prospect Is A Bengal

Friday is supposed to be opening day for most of the spring high school sports including baseball, softball, track, tennis and golf.  I say “supposed” because if the weather forecast is correct some of those sports may face opening-day postponements.

Among the baseball openers scheduled is Pinelands at Barnegat, a game in which all eyes will be on Bengals pitcher Jason Groome.  After spending a year at IMG Academy in Florida the 6’6 lefthander has returned to Barnegat and much has happened since the spring of 2014.  Groome was a highly-regarded prospect when he left southern Ocean County for the Sunshine State but returns even bigger than that.

He is the #1 high school pitching prospect in the country and experts are predicting the Phillies will pick him with the top overall selection in the June first-year player draft.  The player taken in that spot last year received a signing bonus of $6.5 million so we are talking about serious money but Groome appears just as focused on the present as the future.  That means leading a very good Barnegat squad to a championship season and the prospects for that are clearly on the upswing.  For more on Jason and the Bengals read Matt Manley’s outstanding article “Runaway Groome” on shoresportsnetwork.com.

By the way if Groome was selected by the Phillies that would mean he could spend some time with the Lakewood BlueClaws which would be very exciting.

Former Toms River South softball standout Danielle Gabriel is now a junior at Manhattan College and yesterday was honored as the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week.  A junior right-hander, Gabriel came on in relief Saturday in the second inning against Sacred Heart and threw six innings of three-hit shutout ball to lead the Jaspers to a 3-2 victory as they improved to 11-8.

Danielle’s father Dick was an outstanding pitcher and classmate of mine at Central Regional who unfortunately lost his life to cancer six years ago.

Mets fans can breathe a sigh of relief as Matt Harvey’s non-baseball medical problem was an uncomfortable bladder infection that created a blood clot which he passed on Monday.  The cause apparently was Harvey holding in his urine too long so I guess when the catcher gives the #1 sign this season it might not always be for a fast ball.  Harvey is expected to take the mound in Sunday night’s season opener.