Sean Moylan Sports Writer
In baseball, momentum, positive or negative, is never suppose to last into the next game because every game brings with it a new starting pitcher.
The Bordentown Post 26 baseball team, a fantastic club that never lost a Mercer County baseball game by more than a handful of runs, disproved that theory when it suffered a 14-3 Mid-Atlantic Regional loss to New Castle, Delaware on Saturday following a devastating 7-6 loss to Morgantown, West Virginia on Friday night.
”We just had a little letdown after the (West Virginia) game,” said Bordentown Post 26 manager Tom Dolan, whose team was eliminated from the tourney with Saturday’s loss. “It was a great run and these kids don’t have anything to be ashamed about.”
So the greatest season in Bordentown Post 26 history is over.
The last time and only time Bordentown had been 10-runned this season was in a non-league Binghamton Tournament game midway through the season. Yet Dolan wouldn’t have traded in that tourney for anything because the team spent a lot of time together at Binghamton to get to know each other and develop into the closest team in the MCALL.
”We used that tournament to bond,” added Dolan.
Ironically in the New Castle game, the one player on Bordentown who was probably not physically and emotionally drained by the Morgantown game was Post 26’s starting pitcher Danny Agos. But with a week and half layoff from pitching, the talented fireballer from Northern Burlington may have had too much rest and had a tough second inning as a consequence.
”Danny (Agos) didn’t have it,” said Dolan, who was nonetheless very proud of the tremendous season Agos put together.
Jon Hibbard came in and gave a gutsy six-inning performance, but New Castle hit the ball much like Bordentown usually does and scored seven runs off of him too. Dolan gave New Castle a tremendous amount of credit. Moreover, he never said his club would have beaten New Castle. He just knows his boys would have given New Castle a better game if they had a little more time to shake off Friday night’s loss.
Once again, Bordentown shortstop Stevie “The Wonder” Giambrone proved what we’ve all known all along that he can hit anyone and everyone. Giambrone was 2-for-4 and drove in a sixth-inning run with a single up the middle. Giambrone ended up leading the entire tourney in hitting with a .538 batting average. Lou Barbieri, who batted .455 during Regionals, was 2-for-3 with a run scored and he also had an RBI single up the middle in the sixth. Previously, Barbieri had scored Bordentown’s first run on Chuck Krichling base hit in the fifth.
Rob Miranda also had a big game, going 2-for-3 with a run scored and Mike “Line Drive” Loffredo went 1-for-3 and scored a run. With the loss Bordentown ended up going 1-2 in the Regional tourney and its record fell to 29-10.
Many Bordentown players like Moceri (Potomac State), John Harvey (Washington), Agos (the University of Delaware) and Andy Hoyer (Camden County Community College) were due to start college soon and would have had to have made special arrangements had Bordentown moved on to the World Series. But this club was all about winning so it was a problem everyone would have surely loved to have had.
VS. MARYLAND
Cecil County, Maryland was supposed to have been the unbeatable foe. They were the club with 14 college players, most of whom came into last Thursday’s opening contest American Legion Mid-Atlantic Regionals at West Lawn, Pennsylvania’s Ted Palka Park with strong reputations and hefty batting averages.
But its opponent, Bordentown Post 26, had something Cecil County didn’t have. It had phenomenal team chemistry and a never-say-die attitude. And consequently Bordentown used that teamwork to demolish Cecil County, 9-4.
”That was a good game. John Harvey (4 and 2/3 innings pitched, three runs allowed, six hits, four strikeouts, no walks) had a gutsy performance. Everyone had them as being the favorite. They were good but they did not play as a team. We did,” said Bordentown’s manager Tom Dolan.
Although Harvey wasn’t as dominating as he usually is, he found a way to keep Bordentown in the ball game That’s what good pitchers do. Then Zach Koss, who was at the top of his game, allowing just two hits and one run in 4 and 1/3 innings, came in for Bordentown and shut down Cecil County’s explosive lineup to earn the win.
Cecil County led 1-0 when Andy Hoyer (4-for-4, four RBI, two runs) smoked a three-run homer to right field. Lou Barbieri (1-for-4) had knocked in the first run of the inning with an RBI grounder. Bordentown added two more runs in the fourth when Barbieri reached on a two-out error and scored on Stevie “The Wonder” Giambrone’s subsequent RBI double. Then Hoyer plated Giambrone with a single to left.
Giambrone started another big rally in the seventh when he reached on an error, moved to second on Hoyer’s bunt single and both players scored when Matt “The Bat” Moceri pulled a ball down the left field line for a three-run dinger.
”Stevie (Giambrone) was banged up and it hurt every time he swung at a ball. He still hit and fielded the ball,” said Dolan, who is an great admirer of Giambrone’s toughness. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he made the All-Regional team. He’s the best two-strike hitter I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Giambrone was 2-for-4 with three runs scored and ended up being the tourney’s leading hitter with a .538 average. Mike “Line Drive” Loffredo also singled and scored a run for the winning side.
It was a big upset win and a great way to start the tourney. Moreover, Bordentown gave the other teams in the tourney a blue print on how to beat Cecil County, which ended up going two and out. There wasn’t just one hero, though. Giambrone, Hoyer, Moceri, Koss, Harvey, Barbieri and Loffredo were all able to share in the limelight and they wouldn’t have had it any other way.
VS. W.V.
The talented Bordentown Post 26 American Legion baseball team’s 7-6 loss to Morgantown, West Virginia late last Friday night at Owls Field at Ted Palka Park will forever be known as the big Mid-Atlantic Regional game that got away.
”We should have won that game,” said Bordentown manager Tom Dolan whose team fell just short of a great win.
Post 26 took a 5-3 lead when Lou Barbieri and Stevie “The Wonder” Giambrone each singled and scored on consecutive RBI sacrifice flies by Andy Hoyer and Chuck Krichling in the bottom of the fifth. Morgantown tied the game at 5-5 by scoring a run in both the sixth and the seventh.
In the bottom of the seventh frame, Barbieri and Giambrone, two of Bordentown’s best hitters at Regionals, went to work again. Barbieri led off with a two-bagger to left and Giambrone followed by lacing a run-scoring single down the left field line to give Bordentown a 6-5 edge.
Matt “The Bat” Moceri started for Bordentown and though he surrendered just four earned runs (five overall) against a powerful squad, he gave up eight hits and five walks, which was hardly like him.
”Next time I’ve got to make sure my pitchers get in more side work. In the first game (John) Harvey wasn’t Harvey and Moceri wasn’t Moceri in the West Virginia game,” said Dolan.
Bordentown had over a week off in-between States and Regionals and it showed as the club’s two aces didn’t have their usual sharpness and pinpoint control. If a similar situation occurs in the future Dolan will try to scheduled a pick-up game just to keep his pitcher’s arms fresh and his batters’ bats on fire.
Moceri, nonetheless, had a lead when he left the game after seven innings. Unfortunately, Morgantown took the lead with a pair of eighth-inning runs off the combination of Jon Hibbard and Russ Stupienski. Stupienski did bounce back to hurl a scoreless ninth to keep Bordentown alive.
Down 7-6, Post 26 had some of its hottest hitters up to take their last licks. Unfortunately, Barbieri and Giambrone both grounded out sharply and Hoyer hit a shot which shortstop Jed Gyorko snared to end the game.
Earlier in the contest, after falling behind 2-0, Bordentown scored three runs in the third to grab its first lead of the game. Sal “Buey” Garofalo and Giambrone (3-for-5, two runs scored) both reached on singles and Hoyer was intentionally walked to load the bases. Then Krichling drove in a run with fly ball and Moceri smacked a single to chase home two more base runners.
On the bright side, Bordentown scored six runs against Kevin Holdsworth, a phenomenal pitcher with a perfect 8-0 record. But Bordentown wasn’t in it for moral victories. It wanted to win. It was a very emotional loss which made it very hard to get up for the next day’s game. Even so Bordentown went down fighting.

