Belleville Legion can't come back again

BELLEVILLE - There were encouraging signs for Belleville's Senior American Legion team in the second inning.
    Belleville scored four times in the inning to tie Caldwell Post 185 at four at Belleville High School on Monday night.
    But the good feeling did not last long as Caldwell came back with eight runs in the top of the fourth inning and Belleville could not recover.
    The Bucs were still looking for their first win of the summer, falling 12-4 to Post 185 and dropping to 0-4-1.
    Errors played a big part in the loss as Belleville committed several of them in the top of the fourth inning.
    "You can't have seven errors and expect to beat a good team like that," said Belleville head coach Joe Sorce, nonetheless adding a bright note."We stayed with them except for that one inning."

    The Bucs did get a good three innings from little-used pitcher Vinny Agosta, who did not give up a run in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
    But Belleville could not come back as Caldwell pitcher T. J. Reuter settled down after giving up the four runs in the bottom of the second inning.
    Offensively, Carlos Marzan was the lone Bucs hitter to get two hits, going 2-for-4 with one RBI. "He's a good hitter and hard worker," said Sorce.
    Also for Belleville, Gerard Gilfone was 1-for-4 with a run scored while Keith Everett was 1-for-3 and Brandon Marchi was 1-for-2 with a run scored.
    Belleville can make huge strides on Wednesday afternoon at home against South Orange. The Bucs will continue a game that was suspended at 5:45 p.m. and then will take on South Orange in another game after the suspended one at around 7 p.m.
    Against Caldwell Belleville was down 4-0 after the opening inning when Post 185 put eight batters up and got four runs against starting pitcher Josh Caba.
    "He wasn't at his best and we didn't help him with our play behind him," said Sorce about Caba. "When he is at his best he is using his fastball, change-up and curveball well."
The one pitch that Caba would like to have back was against Caldwell's John Gallagher, who deposited it over the left field wall and hit the scoreboard for a two-run home run.
    But in the bottom of the second inning, Belleville batted around the lineup and put up four runs to tie the game at four. Marzan sliced an RBI single between third and shortstop to tie the game at four, scoring Gerard Gilfone. The Bucs benefitted from a wild pickoff attempt by Caldwell pitcher T.J. Reuter at second base that scored Gerard Reimers and Gilfone.
    In the disastrous top of the fourth inning, Caldwell sent up 12 batters against Caba and Gilfone, who came in for relief. Both pitchers gave up five hits but it was the three errors that exacerbated the situation.
   A smash by Caldwell's Gallagher handcuffed Agosta and the ball went into left field, scoring a run. "When something is going wrong, the ball seems to find you," said Sorce.