By Andy Loigu

Following a splendid 2022 season in which he batted .481 for the Hackettstown Tigers, Nick Struble has agreed to stay in-state and play at the college level at Rowan University in South Jersey next season.

To prepare for the next level of competition and face more experienced pitching, he is training in Wharton at the Morris County Cubs’ facilities in their summer program.

Struble, honored as one of the top 100 seniors in New Jersey, was selected to the Northwest Jersey All Stars recently and played second base at the New Jersey Senior All-Star Games at Diamond Nation in Flemington.

“He was our shortstop at Hackettstown, but was moved to second on the Northwest team because we had several good defensive shortstops in our area. Overall, for both offense and defense, I believe he was the best player in Warren County this year,” said veteran Tigers coach Gary Poyer, who has seen a lot of players over the past two decades.

Generally the most athletic infielder on a team plays shortstop because it is the most demanding infield position, requiring range covering ground to the left and right, a strong arm for the long throws from the hole and dexterity on double plays around the second base bag. 

Struble was named first team All – Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference and second team All – State. Along with getting on base with amazing consistency (38 base hits in a 20-game season), he stole 13 bases and scored 24 runs while driving in 22 runs.

Tiger juniors Jon Scalera and Andrew Carida were second team NWJAC honorees.

Also, Pope John’s Mike Bello batted .514, with 18 extra-base hits. He will be playing in the high profile Southeast Conference with Auburn in the spring, so we can expect to see a lot of him on television next year.

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Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.