By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Even after three tough losses to open the season, Ellis Bloom could sense something positive was building with the Princeton Post 218 baseball team.
”Our first three losses were one-run games against the best teams in the league,” recalled Bloom, the third baseman for Post 218. “After that we started to pull out the close games and it is really nice to see we can win the one-run and two-run games.
”Winning close games builds confidence for our team. We knew at the beginning of the year we were playing some of the perennial powerhouses in the league. But we also knew we had good pitching and we know some of the players on the other teams and how they can hit. We played some sound games and saw we could hang with the top teams.”
After opening with three losses, Post 218 did much more than hang with teams — they started winning. The team won six of its next seven games to improve to 7-4 heading into a tough stretch at the end of last week.
Princeton’s seventh win — and sixth straight — saw the team score five runs in the bottom of the seventh to beat Allentown, 5-4.
”We have had some nice wins,” said Bloom, who just graduated from Princeton High School and will attend Gettysburg College. “The Ewing game was huge because we know they have a lot of really good players. Jacob (Eisenberg) was able to shut them down and that was a great win for us. Allentown was a team that beat us earlier in the year and we found a way to wiggle that one out. We have been able to hang in there against teams and then put it together and pull them out.”
Post 218 has gotten solid pitching all year from Rohit Chawla, Mike Dunlap, Andrew Frain and Eisenberg. The team has come together nicely to get off to its best start in years at 7-4.
”We have a couple people back from two years ago that didn’t play last year and some from last year,” said Bloom, who is one of those players who did not play last year. “The combination and experience we have gained has helped and paid dividends for our success. Our chemistry is very good and gets better with every win. We have all gained a lot of confidence.”
Princeton has continually rallied and found ways to win as it looks for its first above .500 season.
”Our pitching has been phenomenal,” Bloom said. “We knew coming in that it would be important because some games we knew we wouldn’t hit as well as we can and getting good pitching keeps us in every game.
”They have all had success throughout the season. Jacob Eisenberg has been great, especially since he didn’t play this past year while he was a freshman in college.”
Bloom and his teammates just hope the roll they were on early in the season continues.
”It has been great,” he said. “We have all been seeing the ball well and putting good swings on the ball. Sometime we do not hit it as hard but it still falls in for a hit and sometimes we crush it and that gets caught. It is all about the law of averages.”
Through the first half of the season, those averages have been going the right way for Princeton Post 218.
