Despite Loss, Post 201 Moves on to Tourney

LINDEN - It was sort of a bitter sweet night on Wednesday for the Livingston Post 201 Junior American Legion team.

The bad news was that Post 201 was shut out 8-0 by Mt. Olive in the final District 2 tournament game with the winner, Mt. Olive, going on to the state finals tournament this weekend.

But while Livingston Manager Bob Thiemer had his team and the parents together, the American Legion officials told them that they would be moving on to the state finals tournament instead of Mt. Olive.

According to a state tournament, a team must have a dozen players dressed for the state finals.  Mt. Olive officials told the American Legion officials before Wednesday's game that they could not play in the state finals tournament because they would not have enough players to fulfill that rule. Livingston was not aware of it during the game until the officials told Thiemer after the game was completed.

While some might think that Livingston backed into the tournament, Thiemer thought that his team earned it by having a great season and a record.

"I think with a team that had a record of 24-4-1 that they deserve to be in the state finals," said Thiemer.

Against Mt. Olive, they lost their second game of the District 2 tournament. Post 201 lost 12-6 to Mt. Olive in the district opener last Saturday. This time the Livingston batters were baffled by the pitching of Mt. Olive's Sean Geiger. 

Post 201 could only muster four hits and never got a runner to third base. Livingston received hits from Taylor Parsons, Andrew Egner, Alex Haberman and Justin Tepper.*

Thiemer said that his team has not seen a pitcher like Geiger with his quality curveball.

"We were talking at the end of the game that you don't see that much of good curveballs during the season," said Thiemer.

Part of the reason for the loss might have been because this was the fifth game in five days for Livingston while Mt. Olive received a day off over the length of the tournament. But Thiemer said that he was not going to make the number of games in five days as an excuse.

He did say that if they faced Geiger and Mt. Olive again, his squad would have better success. "I think if we see him again we would be better prepared," said Thiemer.

While Livingston starting pitcher Hunter Bushwell did not have the success like Geiger, he kept Mt. Olive off the scoreboard in the first three innings. "I thought Hunter did an excellent job and we couldn't have asked for anything more from him," said Thiemer, who added that Bushwell has only pitched at most two to three innings per appearance during the season.

Bushwell admitted that he was getting tired in the fourth inning when he was replaced by Luke Rodino. "My arm got tired," said Bushwell about the fourth inning. "The defense played strong for us today and they made the plays."

Mt. Olive finally got to Bushwell in the fourth inning. With the infield drawn in with nobody out and runners on second and third, Kevin Mok slapped a hit by second baseman Connor Kimmel to score a pair of runners and put Post 201 behind 2-0.

While Mt. Olive scored a run in the bottom of the fifth inning, Livingston still had a fighting chance down 3-0 and Egner started the bottom of the fifth with a double to right field giving the Post 201 fans thoughts of a comeback.

But Geiger continued to control the Livingston bats as he got Haberman and Nick Striglia to ground out and then struck out Parsons.

That would be the last thought of a comeback as Mt. Olive put five runs across the plate in the top of the six inning. While it is not the way that Livingston wanted it to go on Wednesday, Post 201 will be able to play another day starting on Saturday at Memorial Field in Linden.

Correction: Alex Haberman was a pinch hitter in the bottom of the seventh inning. Douglas Bresnick hit a double to the center field fence.