BSP routs North Hamilton with big bats
HAMILTON » With the biggest game of the season two nights away, Broad Street Park was not about to let down or look past North Hamilton.
Post 313 collected 12 hits – eight for extra bases – in taking a 12-3 win over the Hibernians Monday night in a Mercer County American Legion League game at Hamilton High West.
Next up is Hopewell, the team that gave BSP (14-1) its lone loss of the season. Post 339 (11-1) dropped its first game Monday to Lawrence Post 414 and has a contest Tuesday with Hamilton Post 31, so Wednesday’s showdown should have a little more zip than some of the more mundane regular-season Legion games.
“No doubt,” said BSP’s red-hot Kyle Harrington, who was 3-for-3 with three runs scored, three runs batted in and a two-run homer. “We’re ready. We’re excited to play them. The first time we played them, we had to be ourselves. We weren’t. We didn’t come to the field ready. Now we have another shot at them. The excitement is there.”
“This is what you want in Legion baseball,” manager Mike Petrowski said. “It’s as big as it gets. We’ll be 14-1, they’ll only have one or two losses. The top two teams in the league. I know our guys will be ready to play. It will come down to who’s gonna execute.”
It will also come down to whether Hopewell can stop Broad Street’s torrid bats. Unlike North Hamilton (5-6), which can’t seem to buy a hit with runners on base, BSP is cashing in on most of its opportunities.
“They got the big hits, that was the difference in the game,” said North Hamilton skipper Matt Maher, who was tossed in the fifth for arguing what he felt was a strike that wasn’t called on a 1-2 pitch, giving Harrington a chance to hit his home run. “We had a lot of opportunities the first part of this ball game. We have bases loaded, our three-four hitters up and don’t score. That hurts.”
The Hibos actually took a 2-0 lead in the first on Tony Morency’s RBI ground out and a wild pitch. BSP tied it in the second when Kiefer Goss scored on an error and Jose Rodriguez ripped the first of his two run-scoring triples. Broad Street went ahead for good in the third on Justin Wiltsey’s basesloaded triple.
The second of three Jake Fanning hits pulled North Hamilton within, 5-3, but BSP sealed its ninth straight win with three in the fifth and four in the sixth. Harrington followed a Steven Meckel single with a bomb over the left field fence for his third home run in the last two weeks.
“It was a curve ball. I smoked it,” Harrington said. “It just went for me. In the dugout, they told me it was on the knee. I put a good swing on it. I saw the left fielder turn around, so I thought it had a chance. I hit it off the end of the bat, but it felt good.”
Harrington has been on a tear over the past eight games. It took a while to get his timing back after red-shirting at Mercer County Community College in the spring.
“Everything takes time,” Harrington said. “The last thing that comes is timing and feel. The last two weeks being in the box, I felt comfortable again. The first few weeks I was like a stranger to it. It’s just weird. I was patient about it, and it finally comes.”
N.Hamilton (5-6) 200 100 0 — 3 8 3 BroadStPark(14-1) 023 034 x —12 12 1 2B:
Hoffman, Land 2, Goss (BSP); JsRodriguez 2, Wiltsey (BSP); Harrington (BSP); Fanning, Morency (NH), JsRodriguez 2, Harrington 3, Wiltsey 5 (BSP).
Diaz (2-0);
WP— HR: LP—
Rojek (1-2). Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @ fish4scores doubling twice and driving in three.
Dakota Ditmars plated Luke Sodomin with Ewing’s lone run.
Hamilton(9-5) Ewing (3-9) 3B: RBIs: 450 005 010 000 —14 13 0 —1 43