Broad Street Park advances to state championship
EWING » It won’t be an All-Mercer County final like last year, but the county will still have a representative in the New Jersey American Legion State Tournament championship game.
Broad Street Park saw to that by taking a 4-2 win over Washington Township in Thursday night’s semifinal game at Moody Park.
BSP (24-5) will meet Whitehouse, a team it defeated 4-1 on Monday in pool play, Friday at 4 p.m. for the state title.
It is Broad Street Park’s second trip to the state final and first since 1975, when Post 313 won the state title.
“No,” said manager Mike Petrowski when asked if he thought his team could get this far at the season’s outset. “No one even thought we could get here coming into this tournament when we were in a pool with Whitehouse and Brooklawn.”
But they did so with clutch pitching, aggressive baserunning and timely hitting.
It was a Tale of Two Adams on the mound for BSP, as Adam Drosos went four innings to get the win, and Adam Chiacchio came on to throw the final three frames for the save.
“Chiacchio was the key to that game,” Petrowski said. “We made some mistakes with signs, baserunning mistakes. Chiacchio kept us in the game. He didn’t have great stuff but he somehow gets it done. He’s a tough kid.”
BSP took a 1-0 lead in an odd manner as Ryan Farley allowed one walk before striking out the side, only to find himself trailing.
Darius Land led off the first with a walk, went to second on a ball in the dirt and took third on a wild pitch. Kyle Harrington struck out for the second out but the ball got away from the catcher again. As Harrington was thrown out at first, Land raced home, and the inning ended with another strikeout.
Washington moved ahead in the third when an errant pickoff throw put runners on second and third with one out. Ryan Colbert followed with a sacrifice fly, and Montana Millward delivered an RBI single.
Sean Elefant saved a run for BSP Broad Street Park’s Kiefer Goss scores a run during the third inning of Thursday’s American Legion New Jersey Final 8 game at Ewing’s Moody Park.
in the fourth. With Jeff Spaeth on second with two outs, Ryan Swift’s grounder was knocked down by a diving Elefant to keep Spaeth from scoring, and Drosos got the tough Wil Gougon looking on a 3-2 pitch.
Farley carried a no-hitter into the fourth before red-hot Harrington smoked a triple off the centerfield fence. Justin Wiltsey then hit a chopper that was bobbled for an error as Harrington scored. Wiltsey stole second and Jose Rodriguez delivered a run-scoring single to put Broad Street up 3-2.
Elefant saved another run in the fifth to help BSP maintain it’s lead. With runners on first and second and none out, Chiacchio entered. Washington tried to sacrifice but Chiacchio fielded and alertly threw
to third. The throw went low however, and Elefant did a great job digging it out to make the out and prevent the ball from going down the left field line. Chiacchio easily got the next two batters.
Broad Street picked up some insurance with an unearned run. Kiefer Goss stole second and third, and when he took off for the third the throw went into left field to allow Goss to score and make it 4-2 and complete the scoring.
Wash.Twp(22-17) BroadStPrk(24-8) 3B:
Harrington (BSP); Colbert, MMilward (WT), Harrington, Wiltsey, Rodriguez (BSP). Drosos (4-3); Farley; Chiacchio (2).
WP— 002 000 100 210 RBIs: LP— 0 — 2 9 2 x — 4 4 1 S—
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