A year ago, the Hopewell Post 339 American Legion baseball team won 20 games and was the runner-up at the District 4 tournament to advance to the Final Eight of the state tournament.
This year, Post 339 would like to build on the success of the Hopewell Valley Central High School season and go a step further.
“This is a team that had a lot of success last year and also had success this spring with the high school,” Post 339 manager Mike Coryell said. “They had a good high school season even though they didn’t win any titles. That was the big thing we had to improve upon. They lost in the Mercer County Tournament in the second round and also in the first round of the states.”
Hopewell came into the season with a deep roster that includes players from HVCHS as well as the Pennington and Hun schools. Together they form the nucleus of a squad that should contend for the Mercer County American Legion League title and a berth in the state tournament.
“We have all the guys to do it,” said Will Karp, who returns as Post 339’s starting shortstop. “I believe we have a good team and we can make a big run to the playoffs and make the Final Eight and hopefully have success there. It comes down to executing to the best of our ability.”
Karp is one of the veterans for Post 339. He’s part of a deep roster that includes some talented younger players along with those who played a big role in last year’s success.
“The hard part as a manager is juggling everybody,” Coryell said. “These guys are all pretty good ballplayers so it is hard to keep everybody happy. We’re doing the best we can. The league has done a nice job with a rule change where last year we started with re-substitution, which doesn’t sound like much but it makes my job as a manager so much easier because you can get more kids into games.”
In addition to Karp, the Post 339 roster includes Andrew Blake, Zach Bregenzer, Cameron Cane, Chris DeClerico, Josh DeDufour, Dominick Gambino, Greg Gasparro, Tynan Mayer, Tony Morency, Tom Pecora, Nick Psomaras, Ryan Royner, Mike Savas, Jim Smiegocki, Jake Tobia, Moses Vigo and Adam Wijaya.
“We have a lot of depth,” said Karp, who will play for Haverford College next spring. “We have guys that are pinch hitting late in games that for a lot of teams would be starters and batting in the middle of the lineup.”
The lineup is deep, and so is the pitching staff. Coryell said there are 12 kids on the roster who can take the mound and throw strikes if needed. One of better pitchers, Jim Smiegocki, pitched in college (at Johnson and Wales) and didn’t pitch a lot. So he is just working his arm back, Coryell said. Tynan Mayer had arm problems early in the season and is just now throwing for the first time this year.
While Post 339 would love to make a run at a league championship, the main goal is to get back to the state tournament and hopefully a return trip to the Final Eight.
“Our goal is to make it back to the Final Eight. Winning the league would be nice, but all we need to do is finish in the top five or six to make it to the state tournament and then take it from there,” Coryell said.
Karp wants his final season with Post 339 to be a success. He’s had a long career with Hopewell baseball that has seen him evolve into one of the league’s top shortstops after starting his baseball career behind the plate.
“In middle school, I was a full-time catcher,” Karp said. “That was how I started to get on the field. When I was really little I played third base, so I had both in my background. My freshman year, I caught and then halfway through the season moved to third base. My sophomore year my coach asked me to play short and over the past three years I have played shortstop and in the summer I would catch for my travel team.”
No matter where Karp happens to be playing, Coryell knows he has a good player on the field. “I believe he would be the best catcher in the county if he wasn’t busy being the best shortstop in the county,” he said. “He hits well and he can field the position.”
And he fits in quite well on a team that will be looking to make another strong postseason run.
Hopewell Post 339’s Nick Psomaras is called out attempting to evade a tag at home plate against North Hamilton on June 12, 2016. (Photos by Suzette J. Lucas.),
