Bordentown moves into state’s final three
By: Sean Moylan
"The Wonder" Giambrone is one of the most gifted and talented baseball players ever to come out of Florence. Everyone in the Mercer County American Legion Baseball League knows all about his hitting exploits and how he rarely strikes out (twice during the regular season) and always hits the ball hard. But what most people don’t know about Giambrone is how tough he is.
Before he chose to concentrate exclusively on baseball, many people predicted Giambrone would be an all-star football player for the mighty Florence Flashes. Some even believed he would win the team’s starting quarterback spot if he had chosen to go in that direction.
Tom Dolan, the manager of the Bordentown Post 26 American Legion Baseball team, knows all about Giambrone’s toughness. He’s seen his starting shortstop play through minor injuries and pitch his way out of impossible late-inning jams to capture the MCALL saves title.
So, with his team trailing Edison Father & Son 3-1 with no outs and the bases loaded in the seventh inning of Tuesday’s contest at Lyndhurst’s Breslin Field, Dolan didn’t hesitate to have Giambrone tag up and try to score from third on Matt "The Bat" Moceri’s shallow fly to center. In his heart, Dolan knew that Giambrone would find away to score the run.
"When ‘Mo’ (Moceri) hit the ball we thought he had hit it farther than he did," said Dolan, who decided to send "The Wonder" anyway.
According to Dolan, Edison’s catcher (Lungo) went up the third base line to receive the ball, which set up a subsequent collision at home plate.
"He (Giambrone) hit the catcher the same as the ball got there and jarred it loose," said Dolan.
Following Giambrone’s run, Bordentown went on to score three more runs in the inning, one on a run-scoring double by Mike "Line Drive" Loffredo (2-for-4), and beat Edison 5-3.
"Loffredo came up with a huge hit yesterday (Tuesday)," said Dolan, who was happy his club was able to avenge a 5-4 loss to Edison in the Final Eight opener and that his team could finish no less than third in the state.
However, a victory in yesterday’s (Wednesday) scheduled game versus Bloomfield would place Bordentown in the Regionals (either in Vermont or Reading, Pennsylvania). And if Bordentown beat both Bloomfield and Edison yesterday (Wednesday) it would be New Jersey state champs.
Playing every day, forced Dolan and his coaching staff into making some tough decisions, including starting talented Russ Stupienski in the biggest game of the year. Stupienski, who saw most of his playing time with Bordentown’s Junior Legion squad this season, has proved he’s a pure Senior Legion baseball player over the last few weeks. Stupienski tossed 6 and 1/3 innings of beautiful baseball (6 hits allowed, 3 runs allowed, 2 earned runs, 3 strikeouts, 2 walks) to keep Bordentown in the game.
"He (Stupienski) did a tremendous job. He threw the ball well and he should have went further," said Dolan, who felt Stupienski was hurt by an error and a few bloop hits.
Jonathan Hibbard, also a Northern Burlington product like Stupienski, threw 2 2/3 frames of scoreless, hitless ball to earn the win. He even struck out four along the way.
"Hibbard came in and really had them off stride," said Dolan, of his talented lefty.
But when Edison put the tying runners on base with two outs in the top of the ninth, Dolan, turned to his ace, John Harvey, for relief. Harvey, who was the losing pitcher in the first game versus Edison, was taking a lot of heat from the Edison bench when he entered the contest. However, Harvey got in the final word when he over-powered and struck out an Edison batter to end the game.
"He got mad," laughed Dolan, of the usually mild-mannered Harvey. And anyone who follows Post 26 knows when Harvey gets mad, his fastball heats up and he’s unhittable.
Bordentown appeared to take an early lead in the contest, when Giambrone hit what seemed to be a 2-out, 2-run double which plated both Matt Vereb (1-for-4 with a run) and Sal Garofalo. But the umpires ruled that Giambrone (2-for-5, 2 runs scored) had missed first base. So when Edison threw on to first for a force out and the third out of the inning both runs were wiped off the board. The only problem was after a bad umpire call on the bases in a District 2 game versus Alpha, the Bordentown coaches decided to make a huge effort to make sure their players touch every single base.
"Stevie (Giambrone) definitely touched first base. Neil Cumming (Bordentown’s first base coach) watches all my runners and he saw Stevie touch it," said Dolan. "That call changed the whole complexion of the game."
With the meat of the order scheduled up, Bordentown thought it might even blow out Edison. Instead, the Bordentown boys won in a dogfight. But that’s okay. These kids will take wins any way they can get them.
"Our guys answered with those four runs in the bottom of the seventh," said Dolan, who is pleased to be coaching the best American Legion team (27-7) in Bordentown history.
Moceri was 2-for-2 while Hoyer had one of Bordentown’s hits and scored a run. Bryan Henry also had a hit as Bordentown continues to smash the ball all over the field.

