Livingston Seniors Fall to Randolph

UNION - Livingston Manager Chris Politan was looking for his team's bats to come alive on Sunday when Post 201 faced Randolph in the second game of the double-elimination state tournament.

While the bats did come alive, Post 201's pitching rotation had trouble against Randolph's offense and the team was sent home after falling in a close 10-9 defeat in the blistering heat.

But Politan and his team can take some solace in that they did not give up, even when they were down by three, 10-7, in the top of the ninth inning.

"The kids fought hard and did a nice job," said Politan. "I'm glad we came back. They didn't fold their tents. They came back in the last inning."

 The Post 201 manager said that they had plenty of offense to move on to the next game, especially from right fielder Matt Flynn who was 3-for-5 with a triple and three RBIs, and center fielder Jon Sorrentino, who was 2-for-3 and was on base four of five times and scored two runs.

"We don't score a lot of runs, so if you told me that we scored nine runs, I would tell you that we won the game," said Politan.

Flynn kept Post 201 fans' hopes alive as he smacked a one-out base hit past the Randolph second baseman to score center fielder Joe Napolitano and left fielder Nick Grande to trim the deficit to one run, 10-9.

But Livingston could not get that extra hit against Randolph's relief pitcher, Mike Rampone, to at least tie the game and send it to extra innings.

Post 201's Mike Mansfield, who had a key RBI single in the eighth inning, went down swinging for the second out of the ninth inning.

Livingston pinch hitter Brian Witt gave hope to Post 201 fans as he smacked a single between second and shortstop to push Flynn to second base.

But Livingston shortstop Jordan Farber, who had a pair of hits to right field earlier in the game, could only a muster a grounder to Rampone on the mound and Farber was out at first.

Despite the loss, a high point came in a big five-run, fifth inning for Livingston, which was capped by a towering two-run home run by Napolitano over the left field fence.

The inning gave Post 201 a 6-3 lead, but Livingston pitchers Sam White and Ryan Sullivan could not stop the Randolph offense, which tacked on three runs to tie the game at six.

After Randolph added a run in the sixth inning, Post 201 came back and Mansfield brought home Sorrentino to tie the game at seven.

A missed chance occurred in the top of the third inning. With the bases loaded, Napolitano smashed a pitch out to centerfield. Randolph centerfielder Chris Lowery went up and appeared to catch the ball, but the umpire said the ball dropped out. Lowery then threw to shortstop Evan Steidl who touched second base to get Livingston catcher Alex Webster out. Farber scored from third to give Post 201 its first run of the game.

"That was a big play because if that ball got past him (Lowery) we would have scored three runs," said Politan.

Instead, runners were on first and third with only one run scored. Napolitano was caught stealing trying for second base to end the inning.

While the loss in the state tournament stings, somewhat, Post 201 has recent memories of winning the Essex County Championship and of having a good season, overall.