By Anthony Williams, Special Writer
The Bordentown Patriots of the South Jersey Men’s Senior Baseball League 35 and Older Division played host to the Runnemede Phillies in the opening game of the best-of-three series for the American East Championship on Sunday at Gilder Field.
After an off-season managerial change, Rich Mercantini took over at the helm, and Bordentown cruised through the regular season with a 14-3 record and earned a bye into the finals. Runnemede, the defending champion, had to earn its way into the championship series after finishing second, including being swept by the Patriots in their four regular season match-ups.
Dave Krol, of Princeton, started the game for Bordentown and seemed to get stronger over the first three innings despite the searing heat and rising humidity. Krol allowed one hit over that span and retired the Phillies in order in the third, but the Patriots were unable to capitalize offensively as they stranded Riley Berton, of Bordentown, on third after leading off the second with a triple.
Daryl Petrocelli, of Bordentown, would eventually score the game’s first run in the bottom of the third inning, scoring on Ray Vetter’s RBI double. Petrocelli led off the inning with a base hit, stole second base, and scored on Vetter’s line drive to the outfield with two outs.
Vetter, of Chesterfield, would extend Bordentown’s lead to two runs when Kurt Appleby, of Bordentown, plated him with an RBI single. Troy Dilemme, of Bordentown, would ground out to shortstop to end the inning, but not before the Patriots got on the board.
Bordentown’s lead and excitement would not last long as Runnemede responded with back-to-back-to-back doubles to start the fourth inning and knotted the score at two. The next batter put the Phillies ahead 3-2 as Appleby overthrew first base to score the runner on second base and put the inning’s fourth batter on second with no outs. Krol would eventually battle back and stop the bleeding, retiring the next three batters without the ball leaving the infield, but the damage had already been done.
Both teams would exchange zeros over the next three innings, with Runnemede getting out of a jam with runners on first and second and no outs in the bottom of the seventh. Dilemme, who started off the inning getting hit by a pitch, was thrown out at third on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Tim Tyler, of Fieldsboro. After a second fielder’s choice and an inning-ending strikeout, the Patriots had wasted a golden opportunity to erase the one-run deficit stranding two runners on base, including leaving Berton on third for the second time in the game.
Runnemede would add insurance runs in the eighth and ninth innings to extend its lead to three runs entering the bottom of the ninth. The Phillies took advantage of a throwing error by Krol to start the eighth inning, eventually plating the runner on a double to deep right center field to make the score 4-2.
Bordentown would make a pitching change to start the ninth inning, replacing Krol with local rock legend Keith “Rat” Trout, of Bordentown. Trout would struggle early, walking the leadoff hitter, who would score on the next batter’s base hit to make the score 5-2.
Bordentown would get out of the inning with no further damage done, as Trout would settle down and quiet the Phillies’ bats with a pickoff at second on his third consecutive attempt.
Trout was unable to help his own cause in the bottom of the ninth as he was barely unable to leg out an infield grounder to start the inning. However, the Patriots would make things interesting as the top half of the line-up tried to sneak Bordentown back into the game.
Vetter used a tough at bat to earn a walk and advanced to second on Appleby’s line-drive single down the left-field line. Dilemme quickly got the Bordentown faithful excited as he cut Runnemede’s lead to two when he followed Appleby’s efforts with a single to make the score 5-3 with runners on first and third and one out.
After a strikeout put Runnemede one out away from a victory, Tyler came to the plate with a chance to redeem his failed sacrifice attempt in the seventh and move Bordentown one step closer to capturing its first SJMSBL championship. Tyler drove a waist-high fastball to the warning track in deep right center field, but came up 3 feet short of a walk-off homerun; thus ending Bordentown’s comeback chances.
Despite committing four errors throughout the game, the Patriots played gritty baseball and were never really out of it. Bordentown still has a chance to win the series, but must travel to Runnemede this coming Saturday and win in order to force a decisive winner-take-all game three at Bordentown on Sunday.
To follow the Bordentown Patriots and the rest of the South Jersey Men’s Senior Baseball League, visit www.SouthJerseyMSBL.com.

