By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Chris Sumners had hoped for a more successful final season in the Mercer County American Legion Baseball League.
Sumners, a Hun School graduate, finished up his fifth season with the Princeton Ppst 218 baseball team on Wednesday with a 19-2 loss to South Brunswick. With the loss, Post 218 finished the season with a 2-21 record.
“My first year out here I was just a young guy playing with a lot of older guys,” Sumners said on Tuesday following Post 218’s 11-0 loss to Allentown. “As the years went on I started to get more time and I have had a bigger roll the last couple of years. This year it is just me and Zach (Dudeck) as seniors on the team.”
After a successful high school career that saw Sumners play a part in two straight state Prep A titles for Hun, the last two seasons have been tough for Post 218. The team won just one game a year ago and two this season.
“The games can be tough,” Sumners said. “We have a lot of young guys on the team and we go out and play the best we can. We’ve had some games where we are in it early and then we have a bad inning or two. You just try to set a good example for the younger players and hope they keep getting better.”
Post 218 is as young as any team in the league this year. All but two players could return next year, which means the experience the younger players gained this year can only help in the future.
“We didn’t have the best regular season as far as wins and losses,” Post 218 manager Tommy Parker said. “But we had a lot of young kids who got better and I think have bright futures. We have a bunch of players that got a chance to play this year and hopefully that experience is going to help them next year.”
Princeton posted a win over Trenton early in the season and added a win over Lawrence later, but overall wins were tough to come by. But Parker, always the optimist, feels like if his young team can stay together the future could be a bright one.
“Some of the young guys have really shown me something this year,” Parker said. “Bryce Powell, Tommy Bocian, Alec Silverman. They are all young guys that I though really improved a lot this year and are going to get even better. We only had a few veterans with Chris Sumners and Zach Dudeck and John Girouard. It’s been a tough season but I think the kids have learned some things and they have hung in there this year. I really feel like we have a bright future with some of these young kids that we have on the team.”
Sumners won’t be a part of that future. After getting started with Post 218 following his eighth grade year at Hun, he’s now finished in the MCALL. He’ll play football next year at Stone Hill College but hopes to still dabble in baseball.
“I am looking forward to getting started with football,” Sumners said. “We get started with camp August 7. They plan to play me at defensive end. It should be fun.”
And while he won’t head off to college having helped Post 218 to the playoffs, Sumners was able to help Hun to a second straight state title.
“That was great,” he said. “Coach (Tom) Monfiletto came in and had a good plan for us. We were able to win for Coach (Bill) McQuade in his last year and then for Coach Monfiletto his first year. That was fun to be a part of this year.”
And hopefully, Sumners left a good impression on the younger players who will return for Post 218 next year as the team looks to make something positive out of the experience it gained this year.
“One thing we tried to do was help the young guys get used to playing at this level,” Sumners said. “Hopefully we were able to do that.”
