Post 339 baseball
By: Jim Green
Second baseman Christian Lauer will always remember the 2004 American Legion baseball season for the valuable experience he received.
Lauer, who played sparingly this past spring as a sophomore for the Pennington School, finally got an opportunity to play everyday during the second half of the Hopewell Post 339 season. And he made the most of the opportunity, batting .513 (20-for-39) with 19 runs and eight RBIs.
"It was a really good time," Lauer said. "It was good to play for (Hopewell manager) Doug Allen. I just had a really good time playing with the team."
The team benefited just as much from having Lauer take over at second base. Early in the year, Allen had difficulty finding the right combination at the middle infield positions. By the end of the season, Lauer’s hot bat he hit safely in 10-of-13 games had him playing second base and leading off most days.
Lauer was able to reach such offensive heights despite going from the bench in high school to facing the area’s best pitchers on a nightly basis.
"Facing good pitchers is one of the main things I’ve gotten out of Legion," Lauer said. "I didn’t get any of that from high school."
With Lauer’s help, Hopewell won three of its last eight games, including victories over powerful squads from Bordentown and North Trenton.
"Some of the games we won were against big teams," Lauer said. "We lost against some of the lesser teams because we had a quite a few errors. Sometimes our pitching ran out. We hit well, but we needed pitching and defense."
The pitching and defensive struggles left Hopewell (7-15) with a season-ending three-game losing streak. On Saturday, Post 339 closed out the summer with a 5-3 loss to Hamilton (18-4). Lauer was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, and catcher Angelo Pagano had three hits, an RBI and a run scored. But two Hopewell pitchers were hurt by three errors behind them, leading to all five runs being unearned.
On Friday, Hopewell was swept in a doubleheader against Lawrence, although Post 339 made valiant comeback attempts in each game.
In the first game, which was the continuation of a game that previously was suspended due to rain, Lawrence jumped out to a 7-3 lead. Hopewell rallied with one in the third and two in the sixth to pull within one, but could get no closer, falling 7-6. Lauer, Pagano and right fielder R.J. Offner each had two hits, and third baseman Chris Zsenak had a double, two runs scored and an RBI.
In the nightcap, Hopewell trailed 9-5 heading into the seventh inning. The Post 339 offense plated two runs in the top of the seventh, but once again fell short, losing 9-7.
"It was pretty frustrating, how we lost back-to-back games against Lawrence, and then we almost beat Hamilton," Lauer said. "It’s pretty frustrating to know you could beat those teams, but you just couldn’t do it that night."
But the season-ending losing streak could not put a damper on what was a tremendous experience for Lauer.
"It felt good to make friends over there (with Hopewell)," Lauer said. "I seemed to fit in well with those guys. Fielding was a little different. In legion, they’re all good kids, and they hit the ball hard. Fielding is different from high school. So is pitching."
The Hopewell player that had the most impact on Lauer was Zsenak, one of the county’s best offensive players.
"I really kind of looked up to Chris Zsenak," Lauer said. "He hit balls hard and played third base, and he’s pretty much where I want to be next year."
With Lauer and Pagano, two of the Mercer County American Legion League’s leading hitters batting directly behind him, Lauer thrived from the leadoff spot.
"It felt really good," Lauer said of the team’s offensive cohesion. "It brought my confidence up a lot from where I was prior to that. Once you get into that kind of groove, you can keep going with it. Getting on is pretty much the key."
As the high school season approaches, Lauer will again have to grow accustomed to the idea of the Hopewell players being his opponents on the field.
"It’s going to be really weird," he said. "I like a lot of those guys. It’s going to be weird playing against them because I got to know them this year."
But Lauer will be back with Post 339 next summer, and he knows the team will improve with experience.
"I think we have mostly juniors and sophomores on the team," Lauer said. "We learned a lot this year, and we’re only going to get better. When we play our best game, we can pretty much beat anybody."
One reason Lauer is certain to return is the experience of playing for Allen.
"He’s really good," Lauer said. "The practices were awesome. The way he coached, I liked a lot. He would never freak out on you. Whatever you did wrong, he would try to explain to you how to make it better. I liked that."