By:Sean Moylan
This year the Bordentown Post 26 American Legion baseball team started the season with more pitchers than it knew what to do with. But as is almost always the case, Bordentown lost a few of those arms along the way. Even so, two pitchers have come through for Bordentown all season long – Paris McLean and Chris Larcome.
"These two (McLean and Larcome) have literally carried us," said Bordentown manager Tom Dolan, who is a strong proponent of pitching. Larcome and McLean are a big reason Bordentown is 8-5.
Last Friday Bordentown won a 9-1 contest versus Trenton Post 93 at Gilder Park. Then on Monday, Lawrence defeated Bordentown 7-3 in a suspended game. But Bordentown rebounded to defeat Lawrence 3-1 in the regularly scheduled contest at Lawrence. And Hightstown Post 148 beat Bordentown, 12-5. at Gilder on Tuesday.
In destroying Trenton last Friday, Paris McLean was almost unhittable – allowing only a single unearned run and three hits in seven innings.
"We finally played Post 26 baseball. We played our best game," said coach Dolan about the win. "Paris (McLean) pitched the whole game and the funny thing was he wasn’t even supposed to start."
McLean filled in for an injured starter and almost got injured himself when he collided with his second baseman Adam Spisak in the first inning while going after a ball. However, McLean is a tough kid and he just shook off the blow and went out and pitched a gem. Bordentown gave him a lot of runs too. Frank Moceri was three-for-four with two doubles, two runs and an RBI. Joe Maus cracked a double, scored twice and drove in a pair. Gene Darling produced two hits and two RBI. And Dave Miller collected two hits in the game. Gene Darling also made several sparkling plays in the game.
"He (Darling) is tremendous," said coach Dolan of his standout shortstop. Darling has been getting a great many key hits for Bordentown.
After waiting over a week to resume its 3-3 contest versus Lawrence, Bordentown lost. Justin Potpinka was a little wild and he surrendered four runs in one inning and suffered the loss.
Usually, Potpinka would settle down and throw a few scoreless innings after tossing a bad one. However, in this game he didn’t have that luxury because the contest was already in the ninth inning when it was resumed.
After, in the regularly scheduled game, Chris Larcome had complete control over the Lawrence batters, despite his feeling sick. Larcome (2-0) tossed an eight-strikeout, complete game and only allowed a single unearned run. "They don’t come any tougher than Chris Larcome," said coach Hoglen following the game.
Brent Lovejoy had a big RBI double in the third inning that plated Jon Wetzel, who had reached on a walk.
In the sixth, Justin Potpinka (two hits) and Rick Lee had back-to-back hits and then with two outs, Dustin Quig and Gene Darling (two-for-three) each drove in runs with RBI singles. Bordentown put together 11 hits and never trailed in the game. Frank Moceri also contributed a pair of hits.
At home versus Hightstown on Tuesday, Bordentown had an off-night. McLean (3-1) had his first bad outing of the season. Still, after falling behind 7-0, Bordentown battled back to make the score 7-4. But Hightstown pulled away in the late innings.
"That was the worse game we could have played against a good team," said coach Dolan. "We better use this as a wake up call."
Even so, Bordentown’s Jon Wetzel somehow managed to go two-for-four in the game.
Bordentown may be 8-5 but it has to keep its intensity level up – it can’t afford any letdowns with the opponents it has coming up.
Bordentown is scheduled to host North Trenton Post 458 tonight. Bordentown is then scheduled to host Mitchell Davis Post 182 on Saturday. And on Sunday, Bordentown’s Rick Lee, Dave Miller, C.J. Kessler, Chris Larcome and Paris McLean are all scheduled to compete in the all-star game, which will be held at 2:00 at Rider. Then on Tuesday, Bordentown is scheduled to play Hamilton Post 31 at Steinert. If Bordentown can somehow beat Post 31, then we’ll see some real fireworks on Independence Day.
Bordentown’s Dustin Quig, Justin Potpinka, Jon Wetzel, C.J. Kessler and Julius Jenkins all got to play in the Carpenter Cup at the Vet in Philadelphia last week. Burlington County was 1-1 in the tournament. Nonetheless, its lone victory was an impressive 9-0 win over Philadelphia Catholic. Justin Potpinka scored a run in that contest.
