By: Sean Moylan
Brian Greubel went into Thursday’s (July 19) finale versus Bordentown Post 26 with an excellent shot of winning the Mercer County American Legion League ERA title. In fact, Greubel’s microscopic 0.40 ERA was one of the best surprises of the season for Hightstown Post 148.
While both squads were blessed with terrific talent and he pitched an excellent overall game, Greubel quickly found out why Bordentown finished the year with a 19-3 record and won its first league title since 1986, as Hightstown’s MCALL record fell to 10-12 after a 10-1 loss at Mercer County Park.
For three innings, Greubel held the hard-hitting Post 26 club to just one run. But he was being asked to make one tough pitch after another. With runners on first and second with two outs in the first, he induced Matt Vereb, a tough hitter, to hit a soft line drive out to right. Greubel got a big strikeout to end the second and he changed speeds and fanned Chuck Krichling, who led the league in hits, to close out the third.
Greubel retired two out of the first three batters to start the fourth. Then Bordentown put together a two-out rally and scored a pair of runs. It was nothing new for Post 26, which had 41 RBI as a team with two outs this year.
In the fifth, Greubel struggled a bit with his control and surrendered three runs, one on a two-out walk with the bases loaded. Chris Kubik came in and retired the final batter of the fifth with a grounder to shortstop Logan Gallagher.
Up until Thursday’s contest, Greubel had allowed just one earned run to score all season. He surrendered four earned (six runs overall) versus Bordentown.
But Greubel earned the respect of anyone who attended last week’s final contest. He worked and worked and made several good pitches just to keep his club in the game. After Hightstown manager Rich Scheid took him out, Bordentown exploded with a tidal wave of offense.
Scheid never thought of not pitching Greubel Thursday, so that he could win the ERA title on the bench. Greubel gave Hightstown the best chance of winning, so he pitched.
"He was scheduled to get the start so he started," added Scheid.
Greubel acknowledged that Bordentown was the best hitting team he had faced all season. Nonetheless, he battled.
"I just went out and threw," said Greubel, who wanted the ball and was not concerned with ERA titles. "Being that it was my first year coming into to Senior Legion, I did whatever I could. We hit the ball (on Thursday)."
Hightstown did hit the ball. David Reichmann had three singles. Gallagher had a pair of hits and a walk. Moreover, Marcus McCleod and Brandon Yarusi each had a hit. But once again, Hightstown’s biggest weakness as a team came into play as it struggled with men in scoring position in the game.
Gallagher led off the fourth with an infield hit and Mike Bertuccio reached on an error and both runners advanced a base on a wild pitch. Matt Hill then walked to load the bases but the next batter fanned. Kevin McCarey then knocked in Gallagher with a grounder to third. But that’s where the rally stalled. In the fifth, McCleod and Reichmann led off with infield hits and Gallagher was issued a one-out walk. But Hightstown didn’t score in that frame either.
"We’re hitting something like .200 with two outs and runners in scoring position," added Scheid. "You’ve got to drive in runners."
Greubel ended the year with a 2-1 record and a 1.17 ERA, which is still excellent.
"Brian (Greubel) had a heck of a season," noted Scheid, whose team did make a good comeback after starting the year at 0-5.
The game versus Bordentown was pushed up to 5:45 because of bad weather reports in the area. Nonetheless, there was a half hour rain delay early in the game, which left the infield a little wet and choppy. Consequently, there were more miscues, on both sides, than usual.

