Kean’s Rivera helps Post 31 reach state championship

By Rich Fisher

When Noah Rivera returned to Hamilton Post 31 for his final American Legion season this summer, he did so in a hurry.

After pitching for Kean University in the spring, Rivera learned to adhere to the pitch clock, which is a practice he brought back home even though Legion ball does not put hurlers on a timer.

“I felt good this year. It’s good to be back,” the Steinert grad said. “Going to college for a year definitely changes your perspective on the game with the pitch clock now. And just speeding up the game. I’m on the mound speeding everything up, I’m going 20 seconds between each pitch and I think I’m working faster in Legion. Sometimes it will be 2-0 or 3-0 and I’ll take a breather behind the mound, which I couldn’t do in college.

“But I like the quicker pace. I think it helps you block out everything more and just focus on the batter and not let you mope about previous pitches.”

Rivera had little mope about this sum- mer, as he helped pitch Post 31 to the New Jersey state championship game, where he and Hamilton fell to Brooklawn, 5-0. Prior to that game, Rivera went 6-1 with a 1.26 earned run average, 50 strikeouts and just 12 walks. His only regularseason loss was a 4-3 setback in which his defense collapsed in a three-run sixth inning at Bordentown.

In the State Tournament District 2 opener, Rivera allowed just one earned run and struck out six in a 10-3 win over Rochelle Park. In the first round of the State Final 8, Noah surrendered just two runs in 7 2⁄3 innings and kept Hamilton in the game long enough that it was able to pull out a 4-3 win over Lawrence.

“He’s been huge for us coming back from college,” Post 31 manager Rick Freeman said during the regular season. “You see the growth and maturity from pitching at the level he pitched at. He appeared in 18 games. That’s a lot of pitching, and that’s helped him a great deal. He’s brought that experience back to our younger guys and I think they’re learning from him.”

Rivera first came on the scene as a Spartan junior when he went 2-0 with 1.94 ERA. He had 14 strikeouts and allowed five walks in 18 innings pitched. As a senior he blossomed into one of Mercer County’s top pitchers, going 8-2 with one save and a 1.77 ERA and 1.045 WHIP in 59-1/3 innings. He struck out 69 and walked just 16. Over his two varsity seasons he forged a 1.81 ERA.

He had a strong legion campaign in 2022, winning Pitcher of the Year, and also pitched for the South Jersey Kings in the Atlantic Coast Baseball League.

“It was a wooden bat league,” he said. “That was fun, that was different. I’d never done that before.”

Rivera then embarked on his collegiate career under the tutelage of Neil Ioviero, one of the nation’s top NCAA Division III coaches.

“I was mainly a reliever this season,” he said. “My ERA wasn’t too great, it was around a seven (7.39 to be exact). It was all relieving so it was different after being a starter. But I didn’t just go in for blowouts. I pitched in some pretty crucial games.”

Noah allowed 23 earned runs in 28 innings. He did not record a decision but did pick up two saves, including one against rival Montclair in a New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament game. The right-hander struck out 23 and walked 18, and actually hit 11 batters, which led the team.

His improvement was apparent toward the end of the season, as in his final four games Rivera pitched five innings and allowed just three hits, two walks and no runs while striking out five. His overall stats were inflated due to three rough outings, but he was fairly solid in his other 15 appearances and did not allow a run in eight of them.

More than anything, however, it was a learning year for Rivera. And he learned his lessons well, as witnessed by his Post 31 campaign.

“He throws a little harder than he did, and his breaking ball’s a little sharper,” Freeman said. “He’s always had a great change-up. He knows how to move the ball around and that’s what happens when you have to get better hitters out.”

Rivera credited Ioviero for helping fine-tune some of his repertoire and his approach to pitching.

“He taught me different things in terms of pitching-wise and mechanics-wise and

I think I’ve incorporated that to add more velo to certain pitches and take something off on other ones,” he said. “He taught me how to actually pitch and not just blow by everybody with fastballs.”

Along with that, Rivera began to understand things on a larger scale.

“Yeah, the game within the game,” he said. “The little stuff really matters. All the travel coaches discourage bunting, they want the big flies, the home runs, the doubles. But it’s the little things that really win you the game. Bunting, sacrifices, hitting a single when a guy is on second. It all really matters.”

Rivera served notice of what kind of summer it would be on opening day for Post 31, when he pitched a three-hitter with five strikeouts in a 3-1 win over defending state champion Allentown. He went the distance again with seven Ks in a 7-3 win over North Hamilton and was brilliant in his third game while pitching a three-hitter with eight strikeouts in a 1-0 decision over Allentown.

Noah threw another shutout against Hightstown and won a 3-2 decision over Lawrence before embarking on his state playoff heroics. Freeman, who served as Rivera’s pitching coach at Steinert, has watched with justifiable pride as his pupil has grown.

“I just think he embraced the role he was given as a junior at Steinert and that carried over into that summer,” he said. “As a senior he was one of the leaders of that staff and that carried over into last summer. I don’t know if it was one thing where you could say he grew, but he was a breaking ball-change-up guy and now his fastball is coming into play more.”

Rivera enjoyed playing the game as much as ever this summer. He is another example of how legion baseball can be of value to players, and should serve as a symbol as to why it is still a viable option for competitive baseball.

“It definitely can serve a purpose,” he said, just prior to the state playoffs. “This is the most innings I’ve thrown since legion last year. I had 28 innings at Kean and I have 41 innings this year, which is a big jump. And my arm feels great and it’s getting better. The first few starts it was a little iffy but after that I started to feel good. I hadn’t thrown over 70 pitches in a game since last year.”

Thus, he had no interest in opting for a college league over legion. He got to play with his old Steinert buddies and got the necessary work.

“I like the kids on the team,” Rivera said. “They’re all great. I just wanted to come back and be close to home. I just wanted to pitch as much as possible and get as many innings as possible. Those college leagues, it’s like two innings here, three innings there. I wanted to get as many innings as possible because I want to be a starter at Kean next year.”

Rivera’s arm helped Hamilton to a strong run over the second half of the season, as Post 31 finished the regular season 16-6 after a 5-4 start. Hamilton advanced to the Final 8 by winning two straight District 2 games. It then won its first two state games, both by one run, fell to Montgomery, then came back to beat Montgomery and earn a spot in the final.

Asked what turned things around after a three-game losing streak in mid-June, Rivera said “I don’t really know. I think we’ve been pitching really well this season with the short amount of pitchers we have; and the hitting has been coming alive. I think it was a culmination of us hitting our stride at the right time.”

Rivera was the anchor of a standout staff that also included Joe Loreti, Joey Ditta and Andrew Wolak. Whenever possible, he would impart the wisdom he gained from playing at the next level.

“I try to teach everybody stuff that I learned my first year of college; or what I learned just throughout my life,” he said. “I try to be a leader.”

With the knowledge he soaked in over the past year, he certainly has the credentials to lead.