Ewing has WW-P’s number
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
HAMILTON — In the end, the better team won.
But West Windsor-Plainsboro made the most of its American Legion baseball season before finally seeing it come to an end on Saturday with a 9-3 loss to Ewing in a playoff game for the league’s sixth and final berth in the state tournament.
”I was happy with the season,” said WW-P manager Don Hutchinson, whose team finished 12-11. “We played well this year. We were competitive and a lot of the younger players got experience. I’m not disappointed in the season. Ewing deserved to go on. They beat us four times. They’re better than we are.”
WW-P held a 2-0 lead heading into the bottom of the third thanks to a pair of RBI groundouts by Greyson Van Dyke. But Ewing chipped away with three runs in the third and three more in the fourth to open a 6-2 lead. A sacrifice fly by Van Dyke cut the lead to 6-3 in the fifth, but Ewing added two more in the bottom of the inning and one in the sixth on the way to the win.
So, while a berth in the state tournament would have been a nice accomplishment for this team, finishing above .500 and playing for a spot in the tournament was a nice way to finish.
”We went 8-0 against the four teams under us in the standings,” Hutchinson said. “We didn’t have any letups and that’s a good thing. We also knocked off some good teams. We knocked off Hamilton and Bordentown, which were the top two teams in the league. So that was a nice accomplishment.”
WW-P was competitive in just about every game it played this year, which should help build the confidence of both Hutchinson’s WW-P South High School team and the team from WW-P North.
”The kids from my high school team had a tough high school season,” Hutchinson said. “We didn’t have much success. This was a step up. I think they all blended well with the kids from North.
”We had a lot of young guys playing and they’ll be back next year with more experience.”