Flashes rally in seventh to force extra inning
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
LAWRENCEVILLE — When Joe Frappolli Jr. reflects on this past season, his fondest memories will be of the players that helped the Florence High baseball team put together one of its finest seasons.
”These guys have been pounding away all year,” Frappolli Jr. said after the Flashes lost to Audubon, 6-5, in eight innings in the state Group I semifinals last Tuesday at Rider University. “They have had goals all year and they have strived for those goals. First was the Freedom Division championship. The second was the Central Jersey Group I championship.
”They have had a mindset all year of where they wanted to be and they have never quit. We’ve come from behind this year when we needed to with some big hits and big plays defensively.”
Florence had one last goal of winning a state Group I championship, but came up just short when Audubon came away with the win last week. It was a game Florence led through four innings, 3-1, only to see Audubon take a 5-3 lead heading into the seventh. But Florence rallied to tie the game with two runs in the top of the seventh before Audubon won the game with a run in the eighth.
”I saw the guys coming off the field after we got a big out to end the inning and they knew they were going to do it,” Frappolli Jr. said of the Flashes’ seventh inning rally. “It started out with Jake (DeWitt). He’s been doing that all year. You always have a shot with him. And then we did the things we needed to do to get the second one.”
Dewitt hit a home run to open the seventh to get Florence to within a run. Then the Flashes tied the game when a sacrifice fly by John Zoppina drove in Jake Foehr.
Earlier, Florence had grabbed a 2-0 first inning lead when Cameron Lung singled to drive in Heath Fillmyer and Greg Perri. Zoppina drove in the third run when he singled home Foehr for a 3-1 lead in the third. But Audubon got one run in the fifth and three in the sixth to take a 5-3 lead before the Flashes rallied to tie the game. Audubon went on to win the state title with an 8-6 victory over Waldwick.
The loss closed the careers of a talented group of seniors who helped Florence finish 18-3. Frappolli Jr. will remember the group fondly for years to come.
”Every single one of them, the overall character and the leadership and hard work has been tremendous,” the Florence coach said. “Every one of them epitomizes that. I have known half of them since they were five years old, watching them grow up and get better. It doesn’t get better than that as a coach, to watch them grow and improve. And that’s where you want them to be their best, in their senior year.
”DeWitt, Foehr, Lung, (Paul) Fletcher, they are all great kids and you couldn’t ask for a better group of kids.”
Frappolli Jr. is hoping that leadership and what the seniors showed all season gets passed on to the returning players.
”You look to the leadership of the older guys,” Frappolli Jr. said. “We have a good junior class and a ton of freshmen. You look for those guys to learn from the senior class and I have been telling them that for weeks. You look to pull something from them because that is how you get better.”