Mason Fitzpatrick of Broad Street Park delivers to the plate. File photo by Michael A. Sabo.
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
July 22: Justin Wiltsey and Kyle Harrington accounted for all four Broad Street Park hits; three which led to Post 313’s two runs.
That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was just enough with Mason Fitzpatrick dealing the way he was.
The tall, lanky right-hander scattered five hits, walked three and struck out five in pitching BSP to a 2-1 victory over state power Brooklawn in a New Jersey American Legion Elite 8 pool game at Moody Park Sunday.
“I was trying to stay within myself, pretty much trying to hit my spots,” Fitzpatrick said. “(Manager Mike Petrowski) was doing a great job calling pitches, (catcher Connor) Luckie was framing well and everything.”
“And everything” included Luckie throwing out three would-be base stealers, and may have had a fourth but was interfered with by the Brooklawn batter, which was called batter’s interference and gave BSP the out at second.
“I can’t even thank him enough,” Fitzpatrick said. “He was unbelievable behind the plate, blocking the ball. On a couple pitchouts he was just firing it to second, either Brien (Cardona) or Jose (Rodriguez) were there to make the tags. It was unbelievable.”
So was Fitzpatrick’s performance, as he held down the most successful legion program in New Jersey history.
“Amazing,” Harrington said. “I knew he wanted it, I knew he didn’t want anyone else to finish that game. He pitched great today and we got behind him.”
BSP took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Wiltsey doubled, Rodriguez sacrificed and Kiefer Goss squeezed the run home. It was the epitome of efficiency.
In the fifth, Anthony DiMartino drew a one-out walk and became the only guy who could run on Luckie. He stole the first of his two bases, then rode home on Ryan Gray’s single.
BSP’s first two batters went down easily in the sixth before Harrington went after a low, outside pitch and drove it into right for a triple.
“I was a little surprised they gave him something, considering they had a couple bases to work with,” Fitzpatrick said. “But I’m glad they gave him a pitch to hit.”
Harrington admitted he wasn’t sure if it actually was a pitch to hit, but noted that Brooklawn had been careful with him all day.
“To be honest I can’t even remember it; I just went out and got it,” he said. “I couldn’t even tell if it was going to be a strike or not.”
He just knew he was going for three after the ball took off.
“As long as I saw it carry and keep going, I knew I was gonna go for it,” he said.
Wiltsey then grounded a single into left field to live up to Harrington’s expectations.
Justin Wiltsey had a clutch hit to drive in the winning running against Brooklawn. File photo by Michael A. Sabo
“I knew Justin was going big,” the DH said. “He had one ball that fell; he had another one that didn’t fall for him. I knew he was gonna come up big today.”
Re-armed with the lead, Fitzpatrick had 17 pitches left on his count to try and finish it off. After allowing a leadoff walk he got a 5-4-3 double play. He then walked DiMartino, who stole second. With a 2-2 count and high drama at its best, he threw a fastball past a swinging Gray to end it.
“Petrowski said before the game beating them is a huge thing and if we win, we’re pretty much guaranteed to go to the final four,” said Fitzpatrick, who improved to 5-2 and gained his third complete game. “He said he has all the faith in me and to pretty much do what I’ve been doing all year.”
The victory puts BSP at 2-0 in the American Division pool, while Brooklawn fell to 0-1 and Whitehouse moved to 1-0 with a win over Cherry Hill. Broad Street (22-5) can clinch a final four spot with a win over Whitehouse in Monday’s 10 a.m. game. The worst a loss would do is put Post 313 in a tie-breaker; were there a three-way tie at 2-1.
“I feel good, we have a really good shot,” Fitzpatrick said. “We’re still gonna go out and try to win tomorrow, hopefully, and that will definitely put us in, but we’ve still got work to do.”
Harrington feels Broad Street cannot get ahead of itself.
“I think it’s gonna be big for us to stay level headed and not get too anxious going into tomorrow,” he said. “They’re a good team. We need to play good, just play our game. We’re rolling right now, we’re playing good and we have to keep doing that.”
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Broad Street showed well in the MCALL post-season awards. Harrington, who won the Triple Crown by leading the league in batting (.485), home runs (4) and RBI (25) was named the Joe Logue Player of the Year. Petrowski was named the John L. Shanders Manager of the Year and Tim Sharpley was awarded the Lou Massella Pitcher of the Year after going 6-0 with a league-leading 0.60 and four complete games.
Post 31 hands Washington two runs in grueling walk-off loss
It didn’t end Hamilton’s season, but it ended the dream.
Post 31 dropped a tough-to-take, 2-1 walk-off decision to Washington Township in tonight’s National Division game, as Joey Sacco hit Eric White with the bases loaded to force home the winning run in the bottom of the seventh.
The loss eliminates Hamilton from contention for a final four spot on Wednesday, as Post 31 and South Brunswick are both 0-2 in pool play, while Hopewell and Washington are 2-0 with one game left. Thus, SB and Hamilton will meet on Monday morning in a game that be the season finale for both teams.
It was the kind of game that will be tough to look back on, as Post 31 gave Washington one run on a wild pitch and the winning run on an error.
Ryan “The Mini Dweller” Beczo nursed a 1-0 lead into the fifth inning, as Hamilton scored in the first when Sacco walked and eventually scored on a two-out throwing error.
Washington put runners on base all night, leaving a total of 11 stranded through the first six innings. But Beczo kept Post 521 off-balance and got outs when he needed them. But after Washington loaded the bases with one out in the fifth, Rick Freeman called on Joey Swindasz.
Swindasz has been outstanding out of the pen this year and would have been again, but threw a wild pitch when he first entered to tie the game. He followed by getting a pop-out and, after a walk, a fly ball to leave the bases loaded. Swindasz allowed a harmless infield single in the sixth.
Sacco entered in the seventh and was victimized by a dropped infield pop-up to start the inning. After Washington sacrificed, an intentional walk, another free pass and the hit batsmen gave Post 521 the victory.
Like Washington, Hamilton also squandered some opportunities. White threw Michael James out at the plate on a Jordan Nitti single in the third, and Hamilton left runners on first and third in the second and the seventh.
Just a frustrating way to end the dream of a state title.
