Broad Street Park Pitcher Mike Anselmo delivers to the plate against Hamilton Post 31. Photo by Amanda Ruch.
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
June 21: Mike Anselmo’s long-awaited chance to try and beat Steinert while pitching for Hamilton West came to an end in a pre-season scrimmage against Bordentown, when he took a line drive off his shin that resulted in a broken fibula.
That shelved Anselmo for most of his senior season, which meant no shot at Steinert.
Instead, he got the opportunity in a Broad Street Park uniform Wednesday night and made the most of it, pitching 6.1 scoreless innings in a 2-0 victory over Hamilton Post 31.
“I mean, since the beginning of high school season I wanted these guys,” Anselmo said. “Unfortunately, I broke my leg and I wasn’t able to get my shot. I told myself ‘Look, whatever you got, you give everything you have on that mound tonight.’”
That’s exactly what he did, keeping Hamilton off-balance for most of the night with a mix of pitches that offset an average fastball. Through the first six innings, Post 31 got just three hits and had 13 outs that were either pop-ups or fly balls. He allowed two walks and hit a batter.
“During high school, I felt rusty,” said Anselmo, who only pitched in three late-season games for West. “I had trouble really throwing strikes but in legion I’m back to myself. I feel great.
“Mike gets behind three hitters in their lineup and somehow gets them out,” manager Mike Petrowski said. “He missed the barrel a lot tonight, which is key. When his ball moves a little, we tell him throw the ball in the middle, let it move, and miss the barrel.”
Anselmo, who is now 3-0, got his only strikeout to start the seventh but then yielded a single to Chris Cote and a pinch-double to Alex Coleman. With the tying runs on, Petrowski made the move to 8th-grader David Zamora, who started the game at catcher.
“You always gotta keep your head up and just do what you know how to do,” Zamora said. “You have to trust your defense and do what you can.”
That’s an ironic statement, considering the only glove Zamora needed was the one worn by his replacement behind the plate, Connor Luckie. The hurler fell behind Joey Sacco 3-0 before coming back to strike him out. That brought up the dangerous Ryan Mostrangeli, who Petrowski intentionally walked twice in moves that were successful in an earlier 3-2 win this season.
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He thought about it again, but did not want to press his luck.
“That kid right there, in the three years I’ve been coaching, he’s hands down the best hitter around,” Petrowski said. “But I couldn’t put the winning run on first base today. I could do it again and the (C.J.) Pittaro kid is a good hitter, so you don’t know how it would turn out this time.”
Zamora was not about to throw Mostrangeli a fastball for a strike. He got a swing and a miss on a curve, threw a change-up for a strike, wasted a fastball, then got a swinging strikeout on a slider.
“I don’t get Zamora often (due to travel ball),” Petrowski said. “He only threw 20 pitches this weekend so I knew I had him today, yesterday and tomorrow. For an 8th-grader that’s a helluva job he did tonight.”
It was Zamora who sparked the offense by getting hit by a pitch to lead off the second. Jesse Guerrero came in as a courtesy runner and Alex Venutolo got a bunt single. Brien Cardona sacrificed, Connor Luckie hit an RBI single and Venutolo and Luckie worked a double steal to score Alex.
The Post 313 pitching took it from there as Broad Street improved to an eye-popping 9-1.
“Oh my God; no one saw this coming,” Anselmo said “Nine and one, beating Post 31 twice? Beating Allentown, the state champion. Beating Bordentown. Who saw this? We’re rolling and we’re feeling it.”
Petrowski feels this is one of the most fun teams he has ever coached, due to the way they have battled.
“They’re tough kids,” he said. “In high school they had some tough breaks. I know they lost some close games. Before the year they were hungry. I said ‘I hope we compete for a playoff spot at the end of the year’ and they said ‘No we want more than that.’ So hat’s off to them. I just try to put them in a position to win.”
He also noted that while many teams in legion ball find it hard to get the entire team together for every game due to summer commitments, he has had his starters for nearly every game.
“Our older guys are leading the way, (Kyle) Harrington, (Cameron) Bruschini, Venutolo, Cardona,” Petrowski said. “Probably the biggest thing is we play D. Our pitchers are not gonna strike guys out. We play defense. I’ll take our outfield over anybody in the league and our infield ain’t far behind.”
As for Hamilton (6-3), it got a strong complete-game effort from Dave Stec, who threw a four-hitter with one walk, one hit batsmen and three strikeouts.
“He was outstanding, as he always is,” coach Rick Freeman said. “I still think our best baseball is ahead of us. We’ve won a couple, but we’re never satisfied.”
