ROOM & BORD
Post 26 edges Allentown to wrap up MCALL regular season
BORDENTOWN » It was a game that meant nothing baseball-wise for Bordentown. But it meant everything to Post 26 and the Mercer County American Legion League in general as one of its most popular figures was back in uniform.
After missing nearly the entire season due to a serious health issue, a recovering Doug Moore managed Bordentown to a 2-1 win over Allentown Wednesday night.
Moore came back for one game last week, missed a few more in order to get treatments, and was on the bench and in the third base coaching box for the regular-season finale. Collective breaths were held in the midst of Post 26’s winning rally when a throw ticked off a glove and hit Moore in the head. He not only got up, but was yelling at the runner to go home.
“It means a lot for him to be back,” said Chris Wade, who was in the middle of Bordentown’s two-run fourth inning. “He’s a good coach and just now (in post-game) he was getting a little (emotional), so that’s great. He just wanted to be back.”
It was Wade who stood on third when Moore went down.
“I was right in front of him,” the infielder said. “He waved it off. He was trying to send me home because of the rules, that the throw came from the outfield (and went out of play).”
After Matt Coiante’s single gave Allentown a 1-0 lead, the excitement started in the fourth when Josh Berg rapped a leadoff single and went to second on Ben Jones’ sacrifice. Wade singled to center and Mike Cottrell hit a sacrifice fly. Alex Popovich followed with a single and as Wade headed for third, the throw knocked down Moore and rolled out of play to allow Wade to score. Moore laughed about it afterward. “I saw the throw coming and I ducked down,” he said. “It caught me on the wrist first and then kind of hit me in the dome. But I was actually trying to get the run to score. I was playing it off a little bit. I just wanted a way to score and (the ump) said ‘Yeah he scores.’ I said ‘All right good.’”
Although getting stronger, Moore still has a long road ahead. But he refused to worry about taking a blow to the head.
“I can’t think that way,” he said. “I thank Mr. (Chris) Hoyer and Tom Dolan for filling in for me. They did an admirable job and I appreciate it. What I’m going through is hard, but being away from my team was even harder. Thank God I had game changer so I could watch. It just made me stronger and just made me want to get better. I probably shouldn’t be out there, but I can’t stay at home and I wanted to be here for at least one more game.”
He hopes it’s even more. Bordentown finished in a tie for third with Hopewell at 16-6 and will choose to play districts in New Milford. Moore has a treatment tomorrow and hopes to be with Post 26 over the weekend.
Despite the win over Allentown not changing what order Bordentown selects its district site, Wade felt it was important to go into post-season on a high note.
“You gotta go out there thinking ‘We want to go into districts strong so let’s get some momentum,’” he said. “And you gotta go up, work the fields straight away and opposite field when you’re batting.”
“We wanted to give some pitchers a chance,” Moore said. “And we wanted to win the game too. We take pride in finishing in the top three.”
With what he’s gone through, Moore can take even more pride in being there to see it.