By: Justin Feil
LAWRENCE One more inning was all it seemed that the Princeton-Cranbury 15-year-old all-star needed to stay alive in the District One baseball tournament.
But it was one bad inning in the field and three frustrating innings at bat that ended their tournament after just two games in the double elimination tournament at Eggerts Crossing. After falling to Ewing, 9-5, Saturday, P-C saw its title shots end quickly with a 5-2 loss to Hightstown on Monday.
P-C fell behind, 5-0, to Hightstown in the second inning, and struggled to catch up. They loaded the bases the final three innings, but drew only a bases-loaded, two-out walk in the seventh.
"The fundamentals of baseball are pitching, defense and hitting," said P-C manager Bill Metro. "We had our moments when we performed them. But we had two bad innings, one against Hightstown and one against Ewing.
"The kids played their hearts out though. My hat’s off to them."
Fortunately with a young team, most of the P-C squad can look to a return trip to the District One tournament next year.
"We had a lot of young kids," noted Metro. "We had 11 14-year-olds. They got to put themselves in a pressure situation. It’s a young team and they’ll be coming back. I’m looking forward to next summer."
Mario Fiorentini, who was the starting pitcher Monday and Alex Kinsey can look forward to playing in the District One all-star game on the 15-year-old team that will play the 16-year-old all-star team at Waterfront Park Aug. 10. But both would rather still be in the District One tournament.
"It’s tough to go 0-2," Fiorentini said. "There’s still next year though. It’s not the end. Baseball will get bigger and better."
For the Cranbury resident, there will be not 15-year-old team next year, but he’ll resume his career as a sophomore at The Peddie School. And making the District One all-star team wasn’t a bad way to exit the tournament.
"I was here last year and saw the guys that made it," he said. "That’s what I wanted to do so bad."
And just as much, he was hoping to help P-C extend its tournament. Other than the second inning outburst, he kept Hightstown at bay in his five innings of work Monday.
"I felt good," he said of his pitching. "I wanted to beat them bad. I knew most of them. We’ve played them a lot. It was just a fun game to play, and if I had to lose, I’m glad I lost to them."
Fiorentini and P-C had hoped to come out on top, but Hightstown took some of the air out of them with its early runs. Princeton-Cranbury still had chances, but stranded nine baserunners in the final three innings.
"It’s hard to go behind first," Fiorentini said. "We just couldn’t catch up. Somehow we have to put the hits together. The last three innings, we had chances.
"That one inning (on defense), if you take away that inning, we were in the game the whole time. We had a couple errors, and other than that, we were always in the game."
And to the end, it seemed like all Princeton-Cranbury needed was one more inning.
