The WW-P American Legion Baseball team lost a wild one to Hamilton Post 31 on Monday, June 19. The team was down 13-7 after the top of the sixth inning, but battled back, scoring five runs in the bottom of the inning to bring the score to 13-12. The home field was no advantage this time, when a timer shut the lights at Cuiffani Field, leaving the field in darkness, leading the umpire to call it an official game after six innings.##M:[more]##
The team is now 3-5, and looking ahead to games against Ewing on Thursday, June 22, (after this issue of the News went to press) and Princeton on Friday, June 23, at 5:45 p.m. at Smoyer Park in Princeton.
The WW-P offense is led by Matt Fania, batting .524, with one home run, four doubles, and seven RBIs. Kevin Maselli is right on his heels with a .520 average, eight RBIs, and nine doubles. Eric Voigtsberger, coming off an injury that shortened his final season with WW-P South, is hitting .400 with six RBIs and three doubles.
Steve Odachowski pitched a two-hitter in the team’s 5-1 victory over Lawrence. He is 1-0 with an impressive 1.00 ERA. The team pounded Mitchell Davis, 15-2, behind Gracen Van Dyke’s 11 strikeouts. Van Dyke is 1-0 with a 1.82 ERA. Brian Sigle beat Trenton, 10-4, and has a 3.42 ERA.
This is the team’s first year under coach Bill Bethea. He comes to WW-P via an Edison High School team that won the state championship in 1993. He spent a few years in the minor leagues, founded a company, Power Pitching and Hitting, and became familiar with many area players while giving clinics.
He was the first coach on many people’s minds when Don Hutchinson stepped down as Legion coach. Bethea had coached at NJCU, but couldn’t take any position as a high school coach due to conflicts with Power Pitching & Hitting. He says the timing of the American Legion season works better. “It’s the time of year that fits with the business. Kids are out of school, so most of our lessons and camps are during the day. The Legion games are in the evening, so it works out as far as the schedule.”
His team is made up of players from both WW-P North and South, but he says there are no problems bringing together players from opposite sides of a high school rivalry. “The cool thing is most of these kids played Little League or Babe Ruth together. Here it’s just one team, the Legion.”
