Despite the fact that the West Windsor-Plainsboro American Legion team opened its summer season on June 7 with a loss against Hamilton Post 31, it bounced back with an 11-1 win over Princeton and a 4-2 win over North Trenton. And coach Don Hutchinson expects his team to be stronger this year and finish with a better record than last year’s 12-11.##M:[more]##
Despite the rough schedule — the boys will be playing all of their 22 season games in a short period of time (almost every day), as the season ends July 10 — “I believe we’re a good team, as good as anybody in the league,” Hutchinson says, adding that he hopes to be in the running for the league championships and for endurance in the playoffs.
What makes the season’s outcome harder to predict is that coaches do not know how many teams will move on to district play, which depends upon the number of berths each league is allotted, Hutchinson says.
Last year, the team was in the playoff position for the last spot, but lost in the deciding game. But, “I think we’re a little stronger because just about the entire group is back,” says Hutchinson. “We’ve added a few players that did not play last year who had played the previous year.” Those players include David Bachner and Scott Kelly, who were leaders at High School North this year, where the baseball team won its first sectional title and made it to the NJSIAA semfinal round for the first time, where it fell to Shawnee. Last summer, both players played elsewhere during the Legion season.
“We were one of the younger teams in the league last year, so it’s a pretty experienced team,” says Hutchinson. “Our strongest point is our pitching and the depth of our pitching staff. A couple of them had outstanding high school seasons. The difference is that you need several more in the summer because of the number of games in a short time.”
Among the returning players are Ralph Aurora, Taylor Titsch — who was unable to play for North this year because he had surgery — Chet Otis, and Greyson Van Dyke, a WW-P graduate who returns to the team from Rider. Van Dyke also had arm surgery at the end of last season and was unable to play in college, although he is looking to get in shape to compete for a sport on the Rider roster.
Hutchinson, who remembers the athletics atmosphere before High School North was built and the WW-P district was divided into two high schools. Although he says building the second high school was needed, “it did divide our town up a little bit, and this creates a chance to bring these kids back together and be teammates. We compete as rivals during the school years, but we come together to represent the WW-P community as a team.”
The team’s next game is scheduled for Saturday, June 13 at 11 a.m. at home against Robbinsville Post 530.
