Defending champ Hopewell holds off South Brunswick
EWING » Familiarity has been a theme for the Hopewell Post 339 baseball team through the 2018 New Jersey American Legion Final 8 thus far.
The defending state champs faced their second Mercer County American Legion League opponent in this year’s State Final 8 Sunday at Fred Walters Field in Frank Moody Park.
That has not necessarily made things any easier on the MCALL champions, but lucky for Hopewell, familiarity breeds success.
After beating Hamilton Post 31 and a rainstorm Saturday, manager Mike Coryell’s team had to work hard to defeat South Brunswick Post 401, 5-3, Sunday to improve to 2-0 in National Division pool play.
With one pool play game remaining against Washington Township Post 521 at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Post 339 (26-8) is in good shape to advance to Wednesday’s semifinal round.
Meanwhile, South Brunswick (17-12) will need a win against Hamilton Post 31 at 12:30 p.m. Monday to have a shot at escaping pool play.
With that in mind, manager Monty Forthun put Justin Cross on the mound to battle Hopewell’s Zack Bregenzer.
The two threw well enough for six innings to keep their teams in the mix.
“It seems like these types of games have been our motto for the season,” said Cross, who will be a senior at South Brunswick High in the fall. “We’ve played a lot of close games.”
While Cross had his moments against Post 339, Hopewell Post 339’s Zach Bregenzer got the win on the mound against South Brunswick Post 401.
Bregenzer was back on his game as he was for most of the MCALL regular season.
“I think it was just more me being confident,” said the soon-to-be sophomore at Penn State-Abington. “My last coulple games I haven’t had it. Even this game, there was still room to improve. This was closer than I wanted it to be.”
Things started well enough for Hopewell when Andy Blake singled, Luke Blair walked and Jake Tobia singled home Blake, three batters into the bottom of the first inning. But Cross settled down and got an inning-ending double play after Nick Psomaras’ sacrifice bunt.
The following inning was more of the same as Jeff Bartlett reached on an error and scored on a single by Cole Hare. But, after a sacrifice bunt, by David Iorio, Cross avoided further damage by getting Kenny Tagliareni to ground into an inning-ending double play.
“When the game started, I was a little anxious,” Cross E — Ruckdeschel, Perdoni, Glassman, Psomaras; DP — South Brunswick 2, Hopewell 2; LOB — South Brunswick 4, Hopewell 3; 2B — Campigotto; SAC — Glassman, Psomaras, Iorio; CS — Psomaras.
IP H R ER BBSO SOUTH BRUNSWICK POST 401 Cross L,3-3 6.0 9 5 HOPEWELL POST 339 Bregenzer W,6-1 6.0
Blake S,1 1.0 7 0 3 0
3
3 0
1
1 0 3
1 2
said. “Once I settled down, I realized they’re just another team. They’re beatable.”
Spurred on by the challenge, Bregenzer got Will Niven to ground into an inning-ending double play after Kyle White singled for Post 401’s first hit in the top of the third. When Tim Ruckdeschel singled to lead off the fourth, Bregenzer enticed Chris Perdoni to hit into another twin killing.
“I’d pitched against them already this year,” Bregenzer said. “So I knew they’d be more difficult this time.”
Iorio singled in Psomaras in the bottom of the fourth to give Post 339 a 3-0 cushion before South Brunswick got one run back in the top of the fifth when Nick Campigotto doubled and Will Beck singled him home.
Psomaras singled in courtesy runner Josh Gaynor (running for Blair, who singled) in bottom of the fifth before pinch runner Grayson Russo (running for Tobia, who singled) scored on an error to give Hopewell a 5-1 cushion.