Lawrence rounding into form before district playoffs
LAWRENCE » When a family sets out to accomplish something together, it can do great things.
The Lawrence Post 414 baseball players have learned to be that type of family this summer.
With two games left in the Mercer County American Legion League’s regular season, manager Jason Zegarski’s team has put itself in solid position to be one of the league’s five guaranteed district representatives.
After Sunday’s five-inning, 13-3 win over Princeton Post 218 at Mike Pezzicola Field in Eggerts Crossing Park, Post 414 finds itself in fourth place in the MCALL standings with four regular season days to go.
“We’re drawing from three different schools, so a lot of us had to learn to work together,” Notre Dame High graduate Justin Frascella said. “As we’ve jelled more, we’ve become a better team on and off the field. Now everyone’s contributing. It’s really nice.”
Frascella helped out against Post 218 with one of Lawrence’s hits, one of its runs PRINCETON LAWRENCE
abrhbi Franzoni ss 2 1 0 0 Pria-Vrn cf 1 1 0 0 Cooke p 3121 YlsnAgln1b 2 0 2 1 Murdck2b 30 01 Durbin rf 3000 Chawla 3b 2000 Bocian c 2010 Flahive lf 2000
Totals
20 3 5 3
Princeton(5-15) Lawrence (13-7)
abrhbi Mains ss 3100 Jodoin rf 2310 Kmiec cf 2211 Bueckr dh 3 1 1 1 Conti c 2000 Kop cr 0100 JFrsclla 2b 3 1 1 2 Sullivan 1b 1 1 0 0 D’Anglo 3b 3 2 1 0 McGuire lf 2 1 0 0 Totals 21 13 5 4 Game ended by 10-run rule.
E — Cooke 2, Chawla, Flahive 2, Mains; DP — Lawrence 1; LOB — Princeton 6, Lawrence 3; 2B — Cooke; 3B — Buecker; SAC — McGuire; SB — Cooke, Murdock 2, Franzoni, Jodoin, Kmiec 2.
IP H PRINCETON POST 218
Cooke L,3-3 4.0 LAWRENCE POST 414
Castoral W,5-1 5.0 5 3 232 HbP- by Cooke (Sullivan), by Castoral (Paria-Veron); WP — Cooke 2; PB — Bocian. 5
00300—3 430 6x — 13
R ER BBSO 13 453
scored and two of its runs batted in.
Five Princeton errors led to nine unearned runs, leaving the visitors a little shellshocked despite getting the same number of hits (five) as the home side.
“We’ve just got to make plays, and we’re in the game,” said Princeton cleanup hitter Zachary Yoelson-Angeline, who had two hits and an RBI along with pitcher Paul Cooke. “Paul gave us what should have been a great outing. We shouldn’t have had to have this happen.”
With a very talented roster, Post 218 (5-15) was a team many picked to climb in the standings this season. But manager Tom Parker’s squad never came together the way Post 414 did during its 13-7 campaign.
Aidan Jodoin had a hit and three runs scored, while Jake Kmiec had another hit, two runs and an RBI for Lawrence. But it was Robbie Buecker’s RBI triple at the heart of a four-run first inning which started the Post 414 family moving forward.
From there, three unearned runs in the second inning and six more in the fourth spoiled Princeton’s three-run burst in the third.
While Post 218’s defense struggled, Lawrence pitcher Ryan Castoral saw surer hands behind him and matched Cooke for five innings, scattering five hits to pick up his fifth win.
Before Frascella heads off to Fordham and Yoelson-Angeline heads off to Bucknell in the fall, both players are hoping they can steer their teams to bigger and better things over the final two games of the regular season and beyond.