As he was taking the warm-up tosses before facing University High of Newark in the opening round of the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2, Group I baseball playoffs last Monday, Hoboken High School sophomore pitcher Kenny Roder just knew it was going to be his day.
“I don’t know why, but everything was working for me,” Roder said. “The accuracy was there. All my pitches were working. I had more confidence than ever before. I just felt it. I just knew I was going to have a good game.”
In fact, after the first inning, Roder turned to his teammates and mentioned the unthinkable.
“I said I was going to pitch a perfect game,” Roder said.
Wait a minute. A perfect game? In the state playoffs, no less? It’s one thing to talk about a possible no-hitter, but a perfect game on the high school level is next to impossible, considering that there are usually a ton of walks and a host of errors that allow opposing runners to reach. As everyone knows, a perfect game is exactly that – perfect. No one can reach base at all.
So Roder making that claim was a pretty bold one. Maybe it’s fitting that Roder is a lefty. It’s known that left-handed baseball players tend to be a tad on the flaky side.
Roder had a good reason for feeling so confident. He was coming off his first varsity win, a four-hit shutout against Marist in a game where Roder struck out 12. Before the Marist victory, Roder was winless in five prior decisions. But the win over the Royal Knights boosted his confidence.
“I finally had my mojo back,” said Roder, doing his best Austin Powers impersonation in the process.
Veteran Hoboken head coach Buddy Matthews knew that young Roder had the makings of being a fine pitcher.
“He pitched in a lot of hard luck this year,” Matthews said. “He lost 2-0 to County Prep and 4-1 to Memorial. The defense didn’t play well behind him and made a lot of errors. But he’s been our best pitcher of late and we wanted to ride the hot arm.”
Matthews knew nothing of Roder’s in-game prediction of perfection.
“But he is a bulldog on the mound,” Matthews said. “He’s pitching with more confidence and getting ahead of hitters. He also keeps the ball down and stays out of trouble. He’s really come along.”
Roder is also not the biggest kid around.
“In fact, I’m probably the smallest,” Roder laughed.
He stands about 5-foot-6 and weighs about 150 pounds. It’s not the kind of frame that is going to inflict fear in the opposition.
“I’ve always thought that it’s not the size of the body, but the size of the heart,” Matthews said.
As the game went on, Roder continued to mow down the University batters, not allowing a single runner to reach first. He was striking out batters left and right.
“It was incredible,” Matthews said. “He only reached three balls on a batter once. He was in command and from the get-go, he knew what was going on.”
“I knew I was perfect,” Roder said.
He sure was. Roder pitched a perfect game, striking out 11, leading the Red Wings to an 18-0 victory over University to advance to the second round of the Group I state playoffs. Roder was the first Red Wing hurler since John Quinones in 2003 to hurl a perfect game.
For his efforts, Roder has been selected as The Hudson Reporter Athlete of the Week for the past week.
Roder also becomes part of the first-ever brother/sister combination from Hoboken to receive the weekly honor. Kenny’s older sister Raquel was an Athlete of the Week in 2007 as a softball player at Hoboken, before she moved on to play softball at William Paterson University.
“Seeing what Raquel did in high school really motivated me,” Kenny Roder said. “I wanted to do the same things that she did. We have a good relationship.”
While Raquel was a sensational player at Hoboken, earning All-Area honors twice as a pitcher and a hitter, she never pitched a perfect game in high school.
“I guess I got that one on her,” Roder said.
Roder said that he utilizes five different pitches – a fastball, curve, change-up, slider and a knuckleball, a pitch he threw three times in the win over University.
“It dances and flutters,” Roder said. “It’s a good pitch.”
Roder credits the work of Hoboken pitching coach Ben Cueto, who has helped Roder develop.
“He calls my pitches,” Roder said. “At first, I didn’t want to trust him, but now, we work well together.”
Matthews believes that this could be just the start of some big things to come for the diminutive Red Wing hurler.
“Kenny has really showed his composure lately,” Matthews said. “He’s maturing. He’s throwing strikes and not getting down on himself. That’s the key.”
How could anyone who has “mojo” lose confidence? Roder has collected 64 strikeouts in just 38 innings this season and has walked only 14. His earned run average is a tidy 1.93.
After the game was over, Roder’s teammates mobbed him.
“Everyone picked me up and were screaming,” Roder said. “It was a great moment, one I’ll always remember. They poured Gatorade on me and made my hair sticky.”
Roder is not going to rest on one perfect performance.
“Hopefully, I want more,” Roder said. “It’s a very good feeling, one I can’t explain.”
As flaky as Roder is, Matthews knows that he has the basis of a great pitching staff next season, along with fellow sophomore lefty Abe Groomes.
“They’re both going to be our aces for the next two years,” Matthews said. “I brought both of them up to the varsity this year because I knew that they were well taught and they conducted themselves well. It’s a good feeling to know they’ll be here for two more years.”
And Roder’s star is on the rise.
“Without a doubt,” Matthews said. “He’s always had a good fastball, but now he’s getting his curve over and mixing in other pitches. He’s become a strikeout pitcher. Everything is working right for him right now.”
Roder was set to get another chance to add to his recent string of success in the next round of the NJSIAA Group I playoffs against Lyndhurst. – Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.