BY SHAWN LAYTON
Staff Writer
MILLTOWN — The Milltown Post 25 Senior American Legion team steamrolled through an unbeaten week to improve its record to 9-1.
The team finished the week with an impressive 8-0 win over the South Brunswick team that handed Milltown its only loss earlier this summer.
Despite beginning the week with a 7-2 win over New Brunswick, Milltown head coach Glenn Fredricks felt the team’s performance was less than best.
“The guys simply went through the motions,” Fredricks said. “I was kind of upset although we were lucky enough to get the win. I called them out in order to see what they were made of, because I knew this was the week we needed to make a statement.”
The team responded to Fredricks’ challenge with a 20-2 victory over Clara Barton before the rematch with South Brunswick.
“Things were set up perfectly for us going into the South Brunswick game,” Fredricks said. “We had Eric Hines on the hill, and he did an amazing job keeping South Brunswick off the scoreboard.”
Hines tossed a complete four-hitter game with one walk and seven strikeouts.
“He’s becoming more polished,” Fredricks said. “He’s bigger and stronger than he was last summer after a year of college, and he’s able to hit spots and move the ball in and out on batters. When his slider is working, he’s virtually unhittable.”
Hines was backed up with flawless defense and an offensive attack that was missing slugger Chris Affinito. Affinito was on a college commitment and was replaced behind the dish by starting center fielder Bill Krapf. With Krapf behind the plate, left fielder Steve Abbott moved to center.
“Going into the rematch without Chris changed the complexion of our entire team,” Fredricks said. “They responded with a complete team effort and put forth the type of effort I expect from them every time they take the field.”
At South Brunswick, a field without an outfield fence, Abbott made three sensational plays when the game was still close.
“If the ball gets past Steve, who knows what happens,” Fredricks said. “He did a great job, and so did Billy Krapf. He controlled the game from behind the plate like every good catcher should do.”
James Corbett and Andy Anderson led the offensive attack in the win. Both went 3-for-4 with Anderson smacking two doubles.
“Andy had been pretty quiet this summer,” Fredricks said. “I put him back in the two-hole after having him hit third in the lineup. We moved him in the Clara Barton game, and he’s been dominant ever since.”
This week, Milltown knocked off Middlesex, 10-0 on Tuesday behind Nick Meyers’ one-hit shutout (five innings), and will travel to Edison to take on Father and Son at 5:45 p.m. today before hosting South Amboy at East Brunswick Vo-Tech Friday, also at 5:45 p.m.
“This is going to be another important week for us because we will get our first experience playing out of our league,” Fredricks said. “This weekend we will play against some of the best teams in the state at the Health Quest Invitational.”
Milltown will meet Immaculata in its first tournament game at 10 a.m. Saturday. Tournament games are scheduled to be played at Hunterdon Central High School and at Health Quest Park in Flemington.
“This weekend should really test our pitching and let us see where we’re at,” Fredricks said. “It’s a good midseason break with eight of the state’s top 10 teams competing.”