BY SHAWN LAYTON
Staff Writer
MILLTOWN — The Milltown Post 25 Senior American Legion team is on a collision course to face Edison Post 435 for the Middlesex County Championship.
The title game will be held on Saturday, though both the game time and location is yet to be determined.
The Edison team entered the week holding a comfortable lead in the Central Division with an 18-1 record, while Milltown was holding on to a five-point lead over South River in the South Division.
Milltown needed win two of its remaining four games to clinch a berth in the championship game. The top two teams in the county automatically qualify for the district tournament, but the winner has the luxury of choosing which district to compete in while the loser is subject to traveling.
Milltown is currently resting atop the South Division with a 15-2-1 record. Friday’s 5-1 win over South Amboy brought the magic number to two behind the pitching performance of Eric Hines. With the win, Hines upped his record to 3-0.
"Eric gave us a really strong performance," Milltown Post 25 head coach Glenn Fredericks said. "He gave up a double in the first inning, but nothing after that."
Closer Nick Meyers came in to strike out the side in the seventh to preserve the win.
"Nick hasn’t allowed a run since his first appearance," Fredericks said. "He hasn’t allowed a run in seven straight appearances now."
The Milltown offense was led by first baseman Andrew Silver. Silver went 3-for-3 with three RBIs. Milltown scored the other two runs off South Amboy miscues.
On Thursday, the team handed Middlesex an 11-3 loss. Greg Slavicek pitched four innings, scattering just two hits and allowing no runs to improve his record to 4-0.
Slavicek only issued one walk while fanning eight.
Matt Niglio and Matt Merrigan closed it out with solid relief. Second baseman Andy Anderson led the team at the plate going 3-for-4 and maintaining his season average above .450.
Also, utility player Ricki Pace doubled and drove in three in the lopsided victory.
"Ricki is someone who can do whatever is needed and jumps at the opportunity," Fredericks said. "He is also good at whatever position he plays."
Pace and Anderson spearheaded the balanced attack, in which the team finished the contest with 12 hits.
"It was one of those games where we just kept hitting," Fredericks said. "We really pounded the ball."
Left fielder Steve Abbott started to scoring barrage with a leadoff double off the wall to ignite a seven-run third inning.
Fredericks and company are excited about the opportunity to face the league’s best team in the county finals. In their first meeting, Edison won 8-4.
"We were missing some players that would have made a difference, but we battled to the end," Fredericks said. "They have excellent ballplayers and they played a heck of a game. It looks like we will get another shot at them in the finals."
This week, Milltown was scheduled to finish the regular season with a Wednesday matchup with South Amboy and a meeting tonight with South River. Wednesday’s game was slated for a 7 p.m. start at Waterfront Park in South Amboy, while Milltown plays host to South River at 5:45 p.m. at Spotswood High School. Milltown topped South River 10-7 in their prior meeting.
With four games on the schedule this week, Fredericks entered the week looking to manage his pitching rotation to enable the staff to be fresh for the playoffs.
"I want to make sure everyone in the rotation is healthy and rested heading into the big games," he said. "It is tough when you have so many kids that can get the job done, but we plan to get it done by committee this week."
Fredericks credits much of the success of this summer’s team to its ability to come to play against quality pitching, and the help of his assistants.
"The win over South Brunswick’s Brian Sock in the beginning of the season was a real confidence-builder," Fredericks said. "That game told us how good we could be."
His coaching staff of Danny Fredericks, Shawn Dyckman and Joey Catenacci has been priceless.
"All of the assistants are accomplished players, and the team feeds off their expertise," Fredericks said. "It is a lot easier with these guys around. They help me stay sane."
Diamond notes… The Middlesex County league’s playoffs are scheduled to start on Sunday and run through Tuesday, with the top six teams from the three division in action.
Only four teams will advance from there to district tournament play, with two of them staying close to home to take part in the District 3 tournament, which will take place at New Brunswick’s Memorial Stadium.
Of the remaining two state tournament-bound teams, they will play at either District 2 (Mercer) or District 5 (West Deptford). All of the local teams will be hoping to avoid District 5 for a couple of reasons —the amount of travel involved, and the presence of Brooklawn, who draws its players from Gloucester Catholic and has won 13 of the last 16 overall state legion titles.