American Legion Hopes to Rebound in State Playoffs

Chris Politan is hoping that a loss might just be the thing for the state playoffs.

Last season, the team won the Essex County title, but was knocked out in two games in the state district double elimination tournament.

On Saturday Post 201 staged a late comeback, but fell short of its third straight Essex County championship. The team fell 7-5 to Vailsburg, a team that includes mainly Seton Hall Prep players, on Saturday afternoon at the Oval in Livingston.

Despite the loss Livingston received one of the two Essex County bids to the state district tournament since they won the American division.
Post 201 will be playing 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon against Lyndhurst in Union at Teener Field.

It was in Union where Livingston lost both of their games in the state district last summer. For this season it is also a double elimination game. The top two teams from the Union district qualify for the state finals in South Jersey.

Politan, the manager of Post 201, hopes it will be a switch for Livingston in the state district tournament with a young team that includes 13 sophomores and four juniors in high school from last school year.

In the loss in the title game, Livingston’s usual reliable pitching and defense did not come Saturday as opposed to the rest of the season. They finished with a 16-3 record, including a dozen-game winning streak. "We had a meltdown that‘s all it was," said Politan.

Down 7-2 Post 201 staged a comeback in the bottom of the seventh inning with one out. Brett Birnbaum and Taylor Parsons had back-to-back singles. Parsons’ hit scored Evan Miles and then Livingston shortstop Jordan Farber smacked a shot over the left fielder's head to score Birnbaum and Parsons to cut the Vailsburg lead to 7-5.

Farber though would be stranded at second as Connor Kimmel popped out to shortstop and Doug Bresnik flied out to left field to end the game.

Post 201 had one of its toughest innings of the season by giving up four runs in the top of the sixth inning that put Livingston behind 7-2. In an unusual play with the bases loaded, the ground ball was sent to Livingston shortstop Jordan Farber who fired home to Post 201 catcher Doug Bresnik. The usually sure-fire Farber's throw was too low and went skidding by Bresnik to allow the third base runner and the second base runner to score.

"I could hit the ball to him (Farber) 100 times and he would make the play,” said Politan.

Both Livingston starting pitcher Alex Haberman and relief pitcher Luke Rudino pitched the tough top of the sixth inning when Vailsburg would eventually score the four runs.        

The Livingston manager said the two areas that did not work on Saturday, pitching and defense have bolstered the team. "Our team has been based on pitching and defense all season," said Politan.

Down 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Livingston sliced the Vailsburg lead to one with runs scored by courtesy runner Evan Miles and Egner.