Post 401 Managed to Piece Together Memorable Year

The South Brunswick Post 401 season started with an 11-7 loss to  Bordentown on June 5. The season ended with an 11-1 loss to Mount Laurel on July 27. The roughly seven weeks between those setbacks, however, were winners.

"I've had teams that were better on paper, but this one perservered," South Brunswick Manager Tony Cosumano said.

The first obstacle was the Greater Middlesex Conference's league for players that would be returning to the high school team the following year. This took a lot of players away from Post 401.

"We almost didn't have a team," noted Cosumano.

Cosumano had seven players from South Brunswick High School. He had two more South Brunswick residents that played baseball at St. Joe's. By the time the season started, he added three more St. Joe's players, three from from Monroe and three from Middlesex.

This group finished with a record of 18-9-2 and advanced to the state final eight. The other South Brunswick team, playing in a league without high school seniors or any returning from college, was 17-4 and

In other words, there was a lot of talented baseball players in South Brunswick this summer.

"Yeah, the talent pool would have been increased if the two teams had been together," Cosumano noted. "I don't really want to think about that, though. Whoever comes out, you play with those guys."

And when you don't have enough players for a team, you do the best you can to get more.

"I did the best I could," Cosumano said. "I've been doing this for a while. Look at the three guys from Middlesex. Rob Johnson was 9-0 at Middlesex and 7-0 for us."

Ray Lang, also from Middlesex, batted .353 with 21 runs and 19 RBI. Chris Winkleman, the other Middlesex player, batted .364 with 20 runs scored, 18 RBI and a .441 on-base percentage.

Dominick Forcella, from St. Joes, batted .373 with 21 runs scored and 18 RBI.

Kevin Mayce played at St. Joe's, but lives in South Brunswick. He had 14 runs scored and 30 RBI.

Ariel Torres played the past high school season for South Brunswick. He batted .368 with 20 runs, 12 RBI, 12 walks and eight steals.

Jimmy Nemeth, Gabe Frankel, Ryan Phillips, Rob Fliegelman, Johnson and Theodore Moke established the basis of a dominating pitching staff.

"Once these guys started playing together and became friends, they took off," Cosumano.

The team placed second in the Middlesex County American Baseball League. Piscataway won that league, but South Brunswick made up for that by knocking the Middlesex Legaue champs out of the districts.

"We played well at the end of the season when we needed to," Cosumano said. "We lost that first game in the districts and then won four in a row to make the state final eight."

Even for this resilient group, the run in the districts took a lot out of them.

"We were spent after playing 27 innings in 100 degree weather that final weekend in the districts," Cosumano said. "The guys gave it all they had. It was a great season."

Put aside the bumpy start and the finish. It was the heck of a ride that Post 401 took that should be remembered.