By: Rich Fisher
Lenny Bergen has gone from average to good on the pitching mound, and Angelo Trento has gone from cold to hot at the plate.
Between the two of them, Monroe Post 519 is getting some definite highlight film material during its first season in Middlesex County American Legion play.
Bergen, a senior-to-be at Monroe High, is Post 519’s top pitcher. With nine straight scoreless innings after Tuesday night, the southpaw has lowered his ERA to under 2.00.
Trento, who started the summer splitting time between Junior and Senior Legion after a stellar JV campaign for the Falcons, has quickly grown comfortable with the big time and is now tearing the cover off the ball.
During this season of growing pains, in which Post 519 has three wins and a number of heart-breaking losses, it’s always a positive to see individual gains being made. Especially by players who will be returning next year.
Manager Mike Quaglietta has been trumpeting Bergen all season, and the pitcher has been living up to the hype.
In Tuesday’s 10-6 loss to Old Bridge, Bergen entered in the top of the third with the bases loaded and none out. Monroe trailed 6-0 and desperately needed to keep it close, and Bergen induced a 6-4-3 double play then ended the inning with a strikeout.
Last Saturday, Bergen allowed no runs and three hits in seven innings before Monroe eventually fell to a tough Milltown team in extra innings. He was also aided by a triple play.
"Lenny has been unbelievable," Quaglietta said. "He has just been lights out."
Bergen has pitched so well this summer that Quaglietta invited a number of college coaches to watch him throw against St. Joe’s Thursday night (after press time). As of Wednesday, Quaglietta had commitments from Division II Felician, Division III national champion Kean and Division III power Montclair to come watch.
"He only had one win in high school," Quaglietta said. "I didn’t see any of the games, so I’m not sure what happened there. But I’m e-mailing these coaches and letting them know that this kid is a 6-foot-3 lefthander, so, he’s worth looking at.
"That’s what it’s about, to get these kids exposure so they might play college ball. If we didn’t have this team this year, I don’t know if Lenny would even be playing legion ball this summer."
And then there’s Trento, who might be bound for big-time exposure if he continues to make strides like he has this summer.
"He’s probably raised his batting average from .200 up to about .300 in the last week," Quaglietta said. "He was struggling because he was used to Junior Legion and junior varsity. Now he’s playing varsity competition and beyond, against combined towns with college freshmen also in the mix.
"He found his groove, I’d say, about four or five games ago. He’s been hitting the ball hard and really showing some power. He’s showing confidence, he can hit the ball with more power and swing hard because he’s got that confidence."
When Trento is not sharing catching duties with Anthony Modugno, he is also doing the job as a pitcher.
"I expect good things out of him on the mound, he’s my number two pitcher," said Quaglietta, who saw good things in Trento from the start.
"I knew he had talent," the manager continued. "He was my number one junior guy out of the three. Around the fourth game, I brought him up and I saw the talent he had and knew he belonged with us.
"He’s stayed with us, and adjusted to a higher level of pitching. That might have taken a little bit of time, adjusting to faster pitching and breaking balls. Now he’s in his groove, and he’s hammering the ball."
On Tuesday, Trento was 2-for-2 with a double, triple, walk and run scored. His hard hit balls were finally finding holes.
"He hits the ball hard every time up," Quaglietta said. "Before Tuesday, he had been smoking line drives that are just getting caught. It happened to him twice against Old Bridge. He smoked a ball between the third baseman and the line, and the guy dove and caught the ball.
"Later in the game, he ripped one back that the pitcher caught. I never saw a ball hit that hard. You couldn’t even see it off the bat."
But if Trento keeps hitting like this, you may see a lot more like them off his bat.
* * *
Monroe’s triple play was "nuts" according to Quaglietta. With Milltown runners on first and second, the batter blooped a ball that shortstop Dan Palisay made a diving catch on and doubled the runner off second. Joey Ruopoli threw wild to first trying to get the second runner, but Bergen backed up the play and threw a seed to Palisay back at second to complete the ol’ 6-4-1-6 triple play.
"Everything had to go just right, and it did," Quaglietta said.
Monroe won its third game of the season on July 3 with a 7-6 victory over New Brunswick. In the top of the eighth inning, Dan Lezzo led off with a double, and eventually scored the winning run on Bergen’s double.
Modugno was 3-for-4 with an RBI, Palisay had an RBI single, Trento had a two-run single and Jeff LaPollo had an RBI single.
"This is a different team than I had the first two weeks," Quaglietta said. "They’re playing with more desire to win. At beginning, they were just happy to be there."

