American Legion baseball has gotten to the point where a lot of players would rather end their season early so they can use their beach badges and Great Adventure passes longer.
Not the case for Broad Street Park this year.
“I talked to these kids getting knocked out of states or districts, and they’re like, ‘All right. I get my summer back,’” Post 313 designated hitter Kyle Harrington said. “We’re getting knocked out, and we’re upset. We wanted to be there. We didn’t want to stop playing. We came to practice every day. Some teams go to practice, and hit batting practice for an hour. We worked every single day in practice two hours a day. We all bought in, and it paid off.”
It paid off in the second American Legion state title in Broad Street history and first in 43 years. But the season came to a stunning end when BSP lost two straight in the Mid-Atlantic Regionals after winning their first two games in come-from-behind fashion.
A dismayed group of Hamilton baseball players were not thinking of the shore after the season concluded with a loss to Leesburg, Virginia.
“We didn’t want the season to end,” centerfielder Darius Land said. “We wanted to play together until we couldn’t play no more after we won the whole thing in states. Unfortunately that couldn’t happen. It didn’t last.”
But the memories sure will.
In accomplishing something not done since Jack Rafferty became Hamilton Township’s first elected mayor in 1975, BSP finished 26-8; was second to Hopewell in the Mercer County American Legion League, went 10-3 in the postseason and had the MCALL’s Player of the Year/triple crown winner in Harrington, the Pitcher of the Year in Tim Sharpley and the Manager of the Year in Mike Petrowski.
BSP had a .296 team batting average and an outstanding 1.75 team earned run average. Six regulars hit over .300—Harrington (.422, 9 HR, 41 RBI, 34 runs), Jose Rodriguez (.333, 19 RBI, 18 runs), Land (.330, 4 homers, 20 RBI, 29 runs), Justin Wiltsey (.309, 23 RBI) and Mason Fitzpatrick (.303). Brien Cardona hit .253 but had a team-high 20 walks and scored 18 runs; and became a table setter when Land and he were moved to 1-2 in the lineup during the district tournament. Steven Meckel drove in 12 runs on 14 hits while alternating with Fitzpatrick at first.
The starting pitchers were Sharpley (7-0, 1.48 ERA), Fitzpatrick (5-1, 1.68, 52 strikeouts) and Adam Drosos (5-3, 2.04). Adam Chiacchio was stellar in long relief, going 4-2 with a 1.20 ERA and two saves, while closer Nick Diaz was 4-0 with a 3.50 ERA and two saves. Diaz’s ERA is misleading as one bad inning against Whitehouse in the states caused it to balloon.
Harrington couldn’t say enough about the staff.
“Mason’s going to Monmouth, I told him, ‘Dude go try out.’ I think he’s got a shot,” the former catcher said. “He’s got that tall frame where it’s just coming straight down and he keeps it low.
“Our pitchers just ate up this year. Tim hits his spots, he knows he’s not gonna overpower people. Let them hit the ball and get out of it. Same thing with Chock (Chiacchio), he’s got a lot of late run on his ball, he’s hard to hit. Diaz was a good reliever. Adam struggled a little bit, but he came around. He always pitched against the hard teams like Bordentown and Hopewell, and he pitched great in the regions.”
Stats were only a small part of the equation, however. According to Harrington, chemistry is what made this team go.
“We were one,” the Mercer County Community College player said. “It was like a family for us, we believed in each other. We knew we would pick each other up. I’ve never been on a team like that, it was great. Everyone played their part. Not one person who sat the bench complained. There was none of that. There were no parents on the side complaining; they just let Petrowski coach. There was nothing that was sour about our team. It was a really cool thing to be a part of.”
Harrington’s reference to everyone playing their part is especially significant when it comes to catcher Connor Luckie and third baseman Sean Elefant. Neither were offensive stars but both could be given credit for saving victories with their defense. Luckie had 18 assists and threw out three Brooklawn baserunners trying to steal in a state game. Elefant made just four errors at the hot corner and had a .951 fielding percentage.
“Sean is so solid; he shows up to play for Petrowski, and he’s lights out on third base,” Harrington said. “Every double play he makes it, every ball that’s smoked he makes it, every bunt he makes the play. He gets down the bunt every time you need a bunt, he knows how to work his way on base. He’s a solid baseball player.
“It’s the same thing with Luckie. His arm in freshman year wasn’t that strong, but he worked at it, and it started coming around for legion last year. This year he’s got a gun. He threw out so many runners and hardly had any passed balls. That’s nuts. He was so solid, I trusted him with everything.”
BSP’s defense was strong up the middle with Luckie, Rodriguez at short, Cardona on second and Land in center. It was Land’s first season of playing with his old youth teammates, as he played high school ball at Trenton Catholic and travel ball in the summer. He was coerced into playing legion by Cardona, Rodriguez and Alex Venutolo, and he re-joined forces with Harrington, his old Hamilton Little Lads and Babe Ruth teammate.
“I always wanted to play with them, but I ended up going to TCA, so it was good to come back and play,” said Land, who plays for Cumberland County College. “It’s a lot more exciting winning states this way. I would rather do it with people that I knew my whole life than people I just met.”
It seems strange to think it now, but BSP nearly missed even getting to states after losing to Hamilton Post 31 in the districts. They came back to win nine straight when Petrowski re-shuffled the lineup in a must-win district game against Warren Hills.
“I think it was a great change,” Land said. “Just me being batting leadoff and being in that spot, I’m used to it and I liked it. Me getting on and Brien moving me over or getting on base did a lot, and then Kyle hitting us in.”
While all admit it was a team effort, the most magical singular moments belonged to Harrington. In the state final, BSP watched a 2-1 lead turn into a 4-2 deficit when Whitehouse scored three runs in the seventh. In the bottom of the inning, BSP loaded the bases before Harrington drove a 2-2 fastball over the left field fence at Moody Park for a miraculous, walk-off grand slam.
After winning its first region game, BSP trailed Vienna, Virginia, 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh. It got one run back before the Walk Off Dude hit a game-winning, two run homer.
“It’s so funny,” Harrington said. “I’m running around the bases thinking ‘I did it again.’ Then I was thinking ‘How the hell did I do it again?’”
Land had complete faith, saying, “I knew he could do it just from playing with him all my life. I had 100 percent faith in him.”
Broad Street suddenly felt like a team of destiny, which made it so shocking when it lost the next two games, 2-1 to Delaware and 9-3 to Leesburg to go home early.
“Our bats just weren’t there,” Land said. “They weren’t there when we needed it. All of our hits were spread out, instead of back to back. We kind of just got down about it.”
“Things weren’t going our way,” Harrington added. “In the first inning of the Delaware game I smoked a ball at shortstop, the kid turned his head and just stuck his glove out and he caught it. We were hitting balls right at kids, nothing was falling for us. Right away, the switch flipped, and it completely changed. In the next game, I was sitting in the dugout down 9-0 just in disbelief. Lawrence was better than that team. It made no sense. I couldn’t even understand it.”
Despite the loss, most of the Post 313 players looked upon the season as the best, or one of the best baseball experiences they ever had. Harrington gives much of the credit to Petrowski.
“Honestly, he’s my favorite coach of all time,” Harrington said. “I don’t know what it is; maybe it’s the fact he’s no BS. If he knows you’re getting screwed over, he fights for you. He jokes around when it’s OK to joke around, and he knows how to win. And he’ll talk to you. He’s straight up with you. If he thinks something’s up he’ll call you out on it, and kids actually like it. It’s not hiding it and you know why you’re not playing.”
Conversely, Petrowski gave his players a ton of credit. One of his favorite refrains after their continuous comeback wins was “these kids just keep battling. There is no quit in them. You can’t coach that, they just have it.”
And now they have a state trophy last seen at BSP before the players or Petrowski were even born.
“It’s incredible,” Land said. “It shows how hard it is to win a state championship in New Jersey and how tough we are and how much we fought.”
And how little they wanted the season to end and trips to the shore to begin.
Members of the Broad Street Park Post 313 baseball team celebrate BSP’s state American Legion championship win July 27, 2018 at Moody Park in Ewing, after defeating Whitehouse Post 284, 6-4. For more on Post 313’s historic season, turn the page. (Photo by John Blaine.),
