Super Season Ends for Juniors

LINDEN - The Livingston Junior American Legion team was on a good run in the state finals tournament, but it's come to an end   On Monday, the boys lost to Cherry Hill by a score of 10-4.

"I give them credit," said Livingston Manager Bob Thiemer about his team. "They hung tough with them and battled."

The game was originally scheduled for Sunday, but rain and thunder pushed the game to Monday afternoon and, in turn, forced a different pitcher on the mound.

Because of injuries and vacations, Livingston Manager Bob Thiemer gave the ball to left hander Brady O'Connor, who although he pitched well was unable to overcome  the combination of a powerful Cherry Hill offense and some defensive errors to put Post 201 behind from the start.

The defeat to Cherry Hill was the team's second loss in two games at the state finals tournament, which is double-elimination.  Also, the loss ended the team's summer season.  But Post 201 did well overall, finishing with a 24-6-1 record and winnnig the Essex County league regular season title along with the Essex County Championship best-of-three tournament over Nutley.

"We had a great run and a good season," said pitcher Hunter Bushwell. "We wanted to play baseball and have fun and we did just that."

Thiemer agreed.

"It was a tremendous season," said Thiemer. "This team dominated Essex County."

On Monday, Livingston's offense was stymied by the pitching of Cherry Hill's Brandon Perna to start the game.  After the first inning, Livingston was down 3-0. But Post 201 later started to get some metal on the ball.

With Post 201 down 5-0, Livingston made a comeback starting in the top of the fourth inning, adding two runs. Livingston added another run in the fifth inning to slice the Cherry Hill lead to two runs, 5-3.

Post 201 could not hold back the Cherry Hill offense, though, and they retaliated in the fifth and sixth innings with five runs.

Offensively, Livingston received plenty of support from the top of the line-up. Jordan Farber, the leadoff hitter, went 2-for-4 on the day with a pair of singles and Connor Kimmel, the third hitter in the line-up, went 2-for-3, also with a pair of singles while scoring a pair of runs.

In the fourth inning, Livingston first baseman Justin Tepper sliced a base hit that scored designated hitter Evan Miles from second base and then centerfielder Michael Botti hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score second baseman, Connor Kimmel, from second base.

In the fifth inning, catcher Doug Bresnick smashed a Perna pitch that smacked off the left-centerfield wall about 370 feet from home plate and he walked into second base for a double. Bresnick stole third and then came home on a wild throw by Perna at third base. In that inning, though, Post 201 was not able to get any more runs as Perna shut down the next three batters.

Cherry Hill added three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning against Post 201 pitcher, Hunter Bushwell, to put Livingston down 8-3. Livingston got one run in the top of the sixth inning as Kimmel scored on a Jake Dock base hit to right field, but Post 201 was still down 8-4. Cherry Hill put the game away with two runs in the bottom of the sixth.