There will be a new New Jersey American Legion baseball state champion in 2017.
EWING--There will be a new New Jersey American Legion baseball state champion in 2017.
Flemington Post 159, the defending champion, ran out of gas Tuesday against Hamilton Post 31 in the final game of American Division pool play. Facing a Post 31 team with an extra day of rest, and who played one less game in the tournament due to the expulsion of District 1 champion West Deptfor Post 100, Flemington could not muster enough offense to counter an early five-run rally from the Mercer County team.
Hamilton won 8-1, and advanced to play the winner of the National Division, which was set to be determined in the 7 p.m. game Tuesday night.
Steve Farsiou, the Flemington head coach, spoke about the loss which knocked his team out of the tournament at the earliest point since 2011.
"Every year, we are playing between 40 and 50 games," Farsiou said. "This was our 43rd, and tiredness is an excuse that we won't accept. It is what it is. The bottom line is, our pitching staff was tremendous all summer, and our hitting was sporadic.
"We just did not hit enough to win. I think if you look at our roster, we are just as good as anyone in the state. We just didn't prove it in this tournament.
"We won't make excuses about how many games we played. I know it is hard job to deal with what happened here. When you have a team like Ridgewood that drops out, that is really, to me, that is really bad to make that decision that would affect seven other teams.
"Do I think Hamilton not having to play their game yesterday helped them? Sure, I think it helped them. But when we play our game, we can beat anybody. But we just did not do that today."
The Tribe finishes the 2017 campaign at 38-4-1, as winners of the Pyramid League, the Berks County Invitational, the prestigious Rhode Island Firecracker Invitational (for the fourth time in six years), and the Army West Point tournament.
"We will look at guys like Mark Saponara, who have been here for three years and won over 100 games," Farsiou said. "Those tournaments we play are just to get us ready. They are always nice to win, but that will never define our seasons. Our seasons will have to be defined by how we do at the end. This is the first time since 2011 where we haven't been top four.
"I just have to thank Whitehouse Post 284, and the support Dan Dorf and the post gave us this year. He has been great. They helped us out a lot this year."
Backs to wall, Flemington Post 159 comes out fighting to save repeat hopes
The New Jersey American Legion Final Eight is supposed to be a celebration of baseball.
But the 2017 event has now descended into chaos.
The event began Saturday, with eight teams in two pools of four. Each team was supposed to play three games, with the two teams from each division advancing to the semifinals Wednesday night.
As the tournament entered the last day of pool play Tuesday, the District 1 champion Ridgewood had forfeited out, and the District 3 champion West Deptford was thrown out for using players that attended a showcase on the weekend. One third of the 12 games of pool play are now forfeits. Four of the final seven games, which should have been the most exciting part of pool play, were scratched off the schedule.
For the three Mercer County teams, the forfeits were a huge advantage. Bordentown Post 26, Hamilton Post 31, and Hopewell Post 339 each played just two games, with two of the three advancing to the next round, and Hopewell all but assured of a berth pending the outcome of the late game Tuesday.
Brooklawn Post 72 and Flemington Post 159, who have contested the last two state finals and account for all eight of the New Jersey state championships back to 2009 (Flemington 2009, 2016; Brooklawn 2010-15), each had to play three games at the tournament. With pitching rules, and the extra eight or nine innings the two other teams had to play, there is an inherent advantage to the Mercer County teams at the tournament.
Bordentown won the American Division on the field, with wins over Flemington and Hamilton; the final game forfeit would only have mattered if West Deptford had beaten Hamilton. Post 26 will play Hopewell in the semifinals if Brooklawn beats Washington Township Post 512 Tuesday night. A Washington Township win will send the National Division to the tiebreaker procedure.
All this comes at a time when American Legion baseball has lost over 75 percent of its teams in little over a decade. From close to 200 teams just a decade ago to less than 40, American Legion has been eroded to a shell of what it was. The state used to send two teams onto the regional tournaments, but a lack of teams has now lowered it to just the state champion advancing on to the Mid-Atlantic Regional.
In 2008, 64 teams contested eight district tournaments throughout the state, with only the champion advancing onto the Final Eight. In 2017, 24 teams played in three districts, with the top two, plus the two best third place teams, moving onto Moody Park to the finals.
Contact Sean Miller at seanmillertrentontimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheProdigalSean
U.S. Marine Dan Baldassare, of Colts Neck. (U.S. Marine Corps)
