Call Stirs Post 201 Team

Maybe Livingston manager Scott Politan can thank the umpires for a little wake-up call.

A controversial call in the sixth inning against Cedar Grove really got Politan revved-up as he gave an impassioned speech to his team in their last at bats, down 7-6 in the top of the seventh inning.

It definitely worked.  The Post 201 crushed the ball off the pitches of Cedar Grove pitchers Jay Unger and Steve Raum for five runs en route to a 11-7 victory to take the double header at home on Saturday in Livingston at Petrina DiGirolamo Memorial Field. Post 201 defeated Cedar Grove, 3-2 in the first game.

With the win, Livingston is hoping to start a new winning streak after losing to Bloomfield on Thursday. Livingston travels today to West Essex in a battle of two of the top Essex County teams in the American division. After the double header win on Saturday, Post 201's record is now 10-2.

"The coach just got us fired up," said Livingston first baseman Frank Schwindel, who went 3-for-4 in the second game with a pair of doubles and a triple and scored three runs.

Politan said that he would like to bottle his in-between half-inning speech for the rest of the season.

"If I knew that would do it, I would do it all the time," said Politan, who can laugh after the controversy in the sixth inning.

In that sixth inning, Politan said that the umpire had called one of the runners out, combined with getting the runner at second which would have finished off Cedar Grove in that half inning. Instead, Cedar Grove would score a pair of runs to take the 7-6 lead instead of a Livingston 6-5 lead.

With double headers, the two teams take turns at getting last wraps. In the second game, Livingston was the away team on the scoreboard and it came down to the last three outs with the team down 7-6.

The controversial play came with one out in the sixth inning when Cedar Grove first baseman Mike Nieglos grounded to Livingston third baseman Brent Blanc-Singer, who fired to catcher Brian Writt as Raum headed for home. Raum was caught in a run down and Britt ran Raum back to third base where according to Livingston he was tagged out with another Cedar Grove runner, Brian Lind, converging at third base. At the same time, Nieglos headed to second base and was tagged out by Livingston's Andrew Egner. The Livingston Legion team felt that they had a double play and gotten out of the inning.

But the umpires claimed that they never called out either of the runners at third base and instead Raum ran home to score the run. Cedar Grove catcher Joe DiVizio smashed a double into left field that scored Lind and put Livingston down 7-6.

Schwindel, who will be playing at St. John's next spring, was hitting the ball hard all day, especially in the second game and whacked a double into left field to start off the seventh-inning rally that gave Post 201 five runs.

"Frank is such a great leader and that double was big," said Politan. "Hitting is contagious. If he does not get that hit, we might have gone down, one, two and three."

Schwindel said that the Cedar Grove starting pitcher pitcher,Jay Unger, kept throwing the same pitch.

"He did not throw one fastball," said Schwindel. "He kept throwing curveballs."

The extra base hit set off the five-run rally in the top of the seventh inning. After Schwindel's double, rightfielder John Beaubien stroked a base hit into left field to score Schwindel to tie the game at seven.

After designated hitter Jon Pena grounded out to first base, catcher Brian Writt got an infield hit to score Beaubien to take the 8-7 lead. Shortstop Sammy White got a base hit to bring home Writt and Jon Sorrentino cracked a double to score White for a 10-7 lead. Centerfielder Jim Napolitano brought home Sorrentino for the 11-7 lead.

After taking the four-run lead into the bottom of the seventh, Napolitano came in relief to shutout Cedar Grove to seal the victory.

In the sixth inning, Livingston pitcher Jordan Farber came in relief of starting pitcher Egner to get the victory,despite the mess of the sixth inning.

In the first game Jordan Haberman picked up the victory while Pena had a big game offensively and had six RBIs for the day while Schwindel contributed another triple.