Prep Baseball Report

Leiter Near Perfect in 2-1 Triumph in Morris County Finals


TJ Hunt
Director, PBR New Jersey

There's no other way to describe it - Jack Leiter was absolutely dominant last night. The senior right hander and Vanderbilt recruit led Delbarton over West Morris Central to take the Morris County Championship.

Leiter took a perfect game into the seventh inning with two outs, before surrendering two walks in a row and a clean RBI single to uncommitted 2019 Kevin Kennedy. Kennedy's single broke up the no hitter and shutout - and put the tying and go-ahead runs on base. Leiter would fan the next batter, his 14th of the game to end it. 

It was the Jack Leiter Show from the first pitch of the ballgame until the last. He sat 94-97 touching 98 once - and broke off a couple hard, wipeout sliders at 84-86. He didn't have as much feel for his curveball, which usually has more 11/5 two-plane depth surprisingly, in a game where he was near-perfect - but was able to snap a couple off at 74-78.

LEITER 97 MPH

Leiter set the tempo for the game and never faltered, allowing just one hard hit ball to Kennedy in the 5th, a ball that left fielder Aidan Kane caught at the fence in left-center.

Delbarton scored first in the bottom of the first ininng, when Vanderbilt recruit SS Anthony Volpe singled to left and advanced to third on Kane's double down the LF line. Volpe would score on Shawn Rapp's sac fly.

The Green Wave's second run came when Volpe turned on a Connor Staine breaking ball and sent it over the LF wall for a solo shot.

The Maryland recruit '19 Connor Staine was the hard-luck loser, but kept his team in the game. The lanky right hander went 6 innings and scattered 6 hits, allowing 2 runs and punching out 4. He was 86-89 touching 90 for most of the game and wrinkled a breaker at 70-73 with gradual 11/5 bite.

VOLPE HOME RUN VIDEO