BY SHAWN LAYTON
Staff Writer
MILLTOWN – Last week was a hectic one for the Milltown Post 25 Senior American Legion team.
In a three-day period, Post 25 played a quarter of its 2006 schedule and won an impressive eight of 10 games in the final week of the regular season.
The team finished the regular season 18-4 and a game behind first-place South Brunswick, who ended the season at 19-3.
“We fell just a tad short,” Milltown Post 25 head coach Dan Fredericks said. “It really was a week from hell, but most of the credit is due to our team’s pitching staff. Last year the team had 18 guys showing up for every game and this year we get 10 and sometimes nine. The pitching staff has kept us going.”
Post 25 entered last week with a 10-3 record to take on South Plainfield in the first game of a double-header. Milltown defeated South Plainfield, 3-2, in nine innings before dropping its second game of the day to Edison Post 435 by a 6-1 score.
The team followed the next day with another double-header against Franklin. After trailing 6-0 in the first game, Post 25 rallied for a 7-6 win. With momentum in its dugout, Post 25 completed the two-game sweep with a 5-1 victory in the following match up.
Later that same night, Post 25 ran out of gas in a 13-5 defeat to Piscataway. As a result, Piscataway earned a spot to play South Brunswick for the county championship July 16.
“Playing five games in a 24-hour stretch was difficult,” Fredericks said. “We came out with a winning record and played well despite being exhausted.”
Post 25 still had a chance to get back to the state tournament by winning a best-of-three game series with John F. Kennedy. The two teams met for game one on July 16 with Post 25’s Billy Kraph hurling against JFK’s Chris Grimes.
“I think most people would agree Billy Kraph has the strongest arm from the outfield in the county,” Fredericks said. “His college coach put him on the mound this past season and groomed him into an excellent starting pitcher. Billy has made this a formidable staff.”
On Sunday, Milltown took game one, beating JFK 5-2, and then closed out the series on Tuesday with an 11-3 win, behind the complete-game effort of Willie Beard.
In last week’s marathon of double-headers, Post 25 simply ran out of starting pitchers. In the game to decide second place in the league, third baseman John Michael Berner took the hill for the first time and tossed a complete-game three-hitter to record the victory over Middlesex.
“Berner never pitched before and he was outstanding,” Fredericks said. “He came on, took the ball, and gave us a gutsy performance.”
Post 25’s discovery of Berner’s pitching capabilities may have come just in time as the team tries to get back to the state tournament for a second straight season.
Next up, the state tournament
Milltown is one of seven Middlesex County teams that has advanced to the district section of the state tournament.
In years past, there have been four district tournaments across the state, with the top two teams advancing to the state finals. This year, there are eight district tournaments, each producing one winner for the “Final Eight.” Overall, 64 teams will participate in the double-elimination state tournament this year. Each district site will produce a winner, who will go on to the state finals starting July 29 at Moody Park in Ewing, Mercer County.
Milltown enters the state tournament at 20-4, and will head to the District 6 Tournament, held at Moody Park. The draw for each tournament will be decided tonight. Milltown will be the only Middlesex County team in this district.
South Brunswick, who won the county title with a 6-3 win over Piscataway on Sunday, will head to the District 4 Tournament at Teener Field in Union, where they should be a top seed.
Piscataway will be the host team in the District 5 Tournament, which will be held at Memorial Stadium in New Brunswick.
Edison’s Father & Son team will play in the District 3 Tournament, being held at Rabkin Field, also in Union.
Clara Barton will also advance to the state tournament, after beating Old Bridge 2-0 in its best-of-three playoff series earlier this week, as will Franklin, who beat Iselin, 2-0, in its playoff series.
The final spot will go to either South Amboy or Middlesex, with South Amboy taking game one of their best-of-three series, 8-6, on Monday.
The remaining three Middlesex teams will play at either Breslin Field in Lyndhurst in the District 1 bracket, Union Field in West Deptford in District 7, or in Cape May County in District 8.
While teams won’t know their first-round opponent until later tonight, Milltown knows it will be playing the Morris/Sussex representative on Saturday at 4 p.m.
While Milltown has certainly had plenty of offensive firepower throughout the season, they are hoping to add one of the most feared hitters in the state, East Brunswick’s Chris Affinito, to their lineup before too long. Affinito is currently playing for the N.J. Pilots in the Atlantic Coast Elite Baseball League, but will join the Milltown squad once the Pilots’ season wraps up.
Affinito’s presence in an already potent lineup would certainly make Milltown one of the favorites to advance to the state’s Final Eight.
South Brunswick will play the host team from Union at Teener Field at 4 p.m. on Saturday, while Father & Son will take on an Ocean County representative at 10 a.m. at Rabkin Field.
Piscataway will open with an Ocean County representative at a time to be determined on Saturday.