AMERICAN LEGION
By: Tim Falls
The Lawrence Post 414 American Legion baseball team ended its season with two playoff losses.
Despite the defeats, Post 414 remained in contention to win both games, showing just how far the team had come this season.
Lawrence lost to Ewing, 2-1, on Saturday and then finished its season with a 10-8, eight-inning loss to Broad Street Park on Sunday.
The losses were tough to take especially with Lawrence fans questioning the calls in Post 414’s extra inning finale.
"We got hosed by the umpires," said Lawrence manager Angelo Capuano Jr. "He called a ball fair that was foul by two feet."
Broad Street Park’s Anthony Sorrentino gained an RBI triple on a hit, Capuano and Lawrence fans felt landed foul. That run send BSP ahead, 7-6, for its first lead of the game.
Lawrence took a four-run lead in the bottom of the first inning and maintained that advantage by matching Broad Street Park with two runs in the third inning. BSP cut the lead in half with two runs in the fourth inning. After BSP took the lead in the sixth on Sorrentino’s triple, Lawrence tied the game in the bottom of the inning as Jason Zegarski singled and worked his way to third in time to tie the game on a wild pitch.
Geoff Kimmel nearly sent Lawrence ahead in the seventh, but a costly call at the plate caused Capuano to question the umpire’s competency.
Still, despite the way the season ended, Lawrence displayed a lot of improvement this season.
Lawrence finished fourth in the Mercer County American Legion League standings.
"It’s a big improvement from finishing ninth or 10th last year," said Capuano. "I’m pleased, very pleased."
Capuano, who returned to coach the Lawrence Legion team this year was very happy with how quickly the team came around.
"It didn’t take long, just a couple of practices," said Capuano. "The kids came in with the right attitude and turned the whole thing around for themselves."
Kyle Goodwin and Tom Lanigan drove in two runs each for Lawrence against BSP. Zegarski, Kimmel and Matt Parsons all doubled, while Parsons, Bobby Marx and Matt DeMille all had an RBI.
Against Ewing, Parsons drove in Christian Cox to tie the game, 1-1, in the third inning, but Post 314 edged Lawrence with a run in the fifth inning.
Dan Ciccone struck out six in six innings for Lawrence and held Ewing to five hits, while Ewing’s Mike Slowikowski struck out seven in seven innings and gave up only four hits.
Cox, who led the MCALL with five triples this season, was named the Joe Logue Player of the Year, in memory of the Trentonian Sportswriter. Zegarski was also named a team sportsmanship award winner.