Beyer’s bat paces Hamilton to MCALL season title

LAWRENCE » Rick Freeman feels his Hamilton Post 31 baseball team is playing its best ball of the season, which pretty much coincides with rightfielder Jake Beyer swinging his hottest bat of the season.

Beyer went 4-for-4 with a home run and four RBI to pace Post 31 to a 10-3 victory over Lawrence at Eggert’s Crossing Tuesday night. The victory clinches Hamilton’s 30th Mercer County American Legion League regular-season championship and second in three years.

“I’m in a pretty good groove,” said Beyer, who has 11 hits and 15 RBI in the last three games. “Practicing every day and playing games every day really helps a lot. I think it’s a big part of my success.”

Manager Rick Freeman feels it has more to do with diet.

“Whatever he’s eating I’m gonna start eating it,” said Freeman, whose team has won eight straight entering this weekend’s district tournament. “Jake Beyer is just unbelievable right now.”

Lawrence (10-10), which is fielding one of the best teams in coach Jason Zegarski’s five years, took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Dan Brauer doubled and scored on Steve Kop’s single. But Ryan Meszaros settled in from that point, pitching a complete game six-hitter.

“Awesome job by Ryan,” said third baseman Chris Cote, who was part of a solid 1-2 punch at the bottom of the lineup. “He put his head down and just worked out there. You can’t ask for much more on a hot day like this.”

Hamilton (18-4, 21-5 overall) left seven runners on base over the first three innings, but exploded for six runs in the decisive fourth. Cote, who was 3-for-4 with two RBI in the No. 8 slot, led off with an infield single and Brady Plunkett followed with his second hit to set the table for the top of the lineup.

CJ Pittaro’s ground-out plated Cote and Ryan Mostrangeli, who was 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs, delivered a sacrifice fly for a 2-1 lead. Beyer followed with an RBI single, Matt Ricci blasted a run-scoring double and Cote went 2-for-2 in in the inning with a two-run single.

“I was in a slump in the beginning,” Cote said. “But we have a few good coaches here, they worked with me and got my swing back on track.”

Just as Hamilton got its season on track after a pedestrian 3-2 start. Post 31 generated some late-season momentum by going 3-1 and winning the inaugural Hamilton Holiday Classic two weekends ago, and won its final six league games.

“It’s always a big thing to win the league,” Beyer said. “We always come out and try to play our best every game, try to win every game, try to win every year. We’re fortunate enough we came out on top even with the rocky start we had at the beginning of the season. We’re just happy to win and move on to districts.”

Asked what turned it around, Beyer compared Hamilton’s hot play to his hot hitting.

“I just think once we got in the groove of playing the game every single day that really helped us out a lot,” he said. “We got the bats hot and our pitchers just stayed in the groove all season long.”

And if anyone is qualified to talk about grooves these days, it’s Beyer.

Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores

Hamilton Lawrence 2B— RBIs — 000 000

H: Ricci, Mostrangeli, L: Brauer; H: Beyer; H: Beyer 4, Mostrangeli, Pittaro, Ricci, Cote 2, Plunkett, L: Kop, Hiner 2.

Meszaros; Carroll.

H (18-4), L (10-10).

WP — LP— Team Records — 611 2—10 010 1— 3 14 6 HR— 1 2