Bordentown hangs on to beat Lawrence

LAWRENCE » The bats woke up, the gloves went to sleep and the starter proved he could close.

It all finagled its way into a 5-3 victory for Bordentown Post 26 over Lawrence in Mercer County American Legion baseball Thursday night.

Bordentown’s bats awoke from their early doldrums as the 26ers collected seven hits, including two for extra bases. But four errors led to two unearned runs, which led to a tense finish.

Jason Zegarski’s team had cut deficits of 4-0 and 5-1 to 5-3 with two runs in the sixth. After six strong innings from Bordentown starter Joe Horton, manager Tom Dolan turned to his bullpen. But Lawrence (2-2) loaded the bases with one out on a hit, a hit batsmen and a walk, forcing Dolan to bring in Sam Irvin.

“We’ve got a lot of good pitchers, and it was just his turn to come out,” Dolan said. “Sam’s usually a starter. He threw really well against Broad Street. He stepped up big time tonight.”

He sure did, striking out both batters he faced to end it with a flair. Irving did not throw a ball to the first hitter, and ended it with a called third strike on a full-count fastball.

Not bad for a guy not used to such situations.

“I like the pressure,” Irvin said. “But it’s a little out of my comfort zone. I wasn’t playing all day so it was hard to come into a game like that. I just stayed relaxed and focused on one pitch at a time.”

The biggest question was how much his arm had in it, as he got a hurry-up call to get ready.

“I didn’t get a lot of time to warmup in the bullpen; and that was my first time throwing to Cam (Clauser) down there; he didn’t even have a catcher’s mitt on,” Irvin said. “So I was like ‘I’m just gonna throw fastballs, try and throw it by them.’ Usually it works pretty good for me.”

Irvin saved it for Horton, who allowed three hits, two walks and one earned run with five strikeouts in six innings.

“The pitchers threw well, we kept the ball down,” Dolan said. “We got some timely hitting, I wish we got some timelier hitting, we left some guys on base with two outs.”

Bordentown (3-2) took a 4-0 lead off Rob Buecker, who pitched outstanding for Notre Dame in the spring. In the second Jim Porcelli had an RBI single and scored on Cody Schroeder’s triple. In the third, Dillon Drew singled home a run and Chris Wade hit a sacrifice fly.

Lawrence got one back in the fifth when Jake Kmiec singled and scored on a throwing error. In the sixth, Aidan Jodoin and Ryan Sullivan hit consecutive doubles and Sullivan scored on an error to make it 4-3.

The 26ers got a big insurance run in the seventh when Cody Schroeder hit his second triple and scored on a single by John Schroeder (no relation). “It’s good to see Cody come back,” Dolan said. “Being 19 and unfortunately not playing in college this year, it took him a couple games to get focused in. But that’s what he does. That’s him.”

Armed with a two-run lead, all Bordentown had to do was survive a frantic seventh and get ready for its weekend tournament in Boyertown, Pa.

“This is good momentum going into this tournament,” Wade said. “It’s good to show that we’re still in this league and that we’re gonna be in it, we’re gonna make run in the states, districts and hopefully win the league too.”

Bordentown(3-2) Lawrence (2-2) 2B:

Jodoin, Sullivan (L); CSchroeder 2 (B); JSchroeder, Drew, Wade, Porcelli, CSchroeder (B), Sullivan (L).

Horton;

WP— LP— 022 000 000012 3B:

Buecker.

1 — 5 7 4 0—330

Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @Fish4scores

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