By: Shane Petagna

As the 2022 ABCCL regular season comes to a close and the heat turns up, so will the action on
the field when the playoffs begin. Just eight teams remain, the top four from each division with
games throughout the day for Sunday’s Quarterfinal round.

The top seed in the North Division is Complete Performance Baseball Academy, who boast a 19-
9-1 record for the best in the league. On the offensive side, CPBA is led by infielder Chris Flynn,
who has dominated with a .392 batting average and 1.299 OPS in 59 plate appearances in the
regular season. The rest of the infield is strong as well, including Jon Primerano and Matthew
Myers who are both hitting over .300 this season.

On the pitching side, teams do not want to face the CPBA bullpen. Brendan Hughes is the
definition of a shutdown reliever, who has four wins out the ‘pen this season and has not
allowed an earned run since May 31.

CPBA will host the four-seed Gamers in the first game of the day on Sunday. The Gamers should
not be taken lightly, as they have just as many electric players on both sides of the ball. The
Gamers have one of the most high-powered outfields in the league, as Jake Blozy leads the
team with a .429 average and Joseph Grigas and David Potenza are batting over .300. In
addition, All-Star catcher Matthew Silvestre and his .410/.507/.607 slash line cannot be ignored.
Look for the Gamers to ride Matt Crawford, one of the top pitchers in the ABCCL with a 1.65
ERA across eight starts.

In the other North Division matchup, Legends Baseball hosts the CGI Monsoons.
The Legends are propelled by a fantastic pitching staff, with arguably some of the best arms the
ABCCL has to offer. Orin Winslow leads the league with 64 strikeouts and is tied for first in wins,
along with a 2.21 ERA. Christopher Brown and Anthony Gonzalez round out what will make for
a strong playoff rotation for the Legends. Brown is second in the ABCCL with 57 strikeouts in
the season over 32 innings, and Gonzalez has the fourth-best ERA of 2.07 amongst qualified
pitchers across the league.

CGI might have to face the best collection of pitching, but the Monsoons will be bringing some
of the best bats with them. Tyler Ruban holds the ABCCL batting title for qualified hitters,
posting a .413 average in 80 at-bats. Backing him up is CJ Tomalavage, who has four homers
and 23 RBIs, and is second in the ABCCL for both categories.

The name to remember for CGI on the rubber will be Sam Bass. The right-hander was last
season’s strikeout king and has put together another incredible campaign in 2022 with 51
strikeouts and a 2.10 ERA.

On the other side of the state, the Shore Division playoffs will have no shortage of their own
stars.

The top seed in the shore are the Garden State Junebugs, who enter as one of the hottest
teams in the ABCCL. Winning eight of their last ten games, the ‘Bugs have a very balanced
lineup and some of the strongest arms in the league. Their ace is Ryan Pozo, who posted a 1.02
ERA over seven starts and has sole possession of ERA crown for the regular season.

The Junebugs will take on NJ Elite, who had to do a lot of work late just to make it here. They
went 6-4 over their last ten games to turn their season around while Langan Baseball slumped
out of the playoff picture.

For NJ Elite, their offense will need to power them their entire way. They are led by eight
dfferent players batting over .300 on the season, including Peter Cortez and his .415 average.
Rounding out the Shore Division will be the two-seed Frazier hosting the Wall Clippers. Both
teams have very strong lineups, and their game is poised to be a slugfest.

Frazier has a deep lineup with seven hitters batting over .300. Trevor Coltenback has a .373
average over 86 at-bats, making him one of the best hitters in the league.

Wall holds the advantage in slugging over Frazier thanks to Jack Scrivanic and the Homerun
Derby champ Christian Bauman. Scrivanic, by far the biggest power threat in the ABCCL, has
seven homers on the season. Scrivanic and Bauman hold the two best slugging percentages in
all the ABCCL.

The winners of Sunday’s games will advance to their respective Division Championship games
on Tuesday night. From there, the best-of-three League Championship Series will start on
Saturday, July 30 with Game 1. Games 2 and 3 (if necessary) will take place the following day.