Post 401 Rally Falls Short Against Park Ridge

South Brunswick Post 401's late rally fell a bit short in the opening game of the American Legion state final eight on July 26.

Post 401 scored four runs in the ninth, but were still defeated by Park Ridge, 7-5, at Moody Park.

"Hopefully, that ninth inning will carry over to the rest of the tournament," South Brunswick Manager Tony Cosumano said.

South Brunswick is scheduled to be back in action at 9 a.m. Wednesday against Mount Laurel.

If South Brunswick had managed to scratch out a few more runs, it would have gotten a chance to sleep in a little.

"If we had won, we would have played at 3 p.m.," noted Monty Forthun, who filled in for Cosumano as the manager on Tuesday.

According to Cosumano, he was thrown out of South Brunswick's second game this past Sunday "because I questioned the umpire if he knew whether we were playing by high school or pro rules. Didn't raise my voice or anything."

According to Cosumano, there is no appeal process and he is out of the entire final eight.

Cosumano did see his team stage a heck of a comeback, however, from behind the outfield fence.

Down 7-1, South Brunswick scored four runs in the top of the seventh. That rally started with singles by Mike Huber and Ariel Torres. An out later, Chris Winkleman walked to load the bases.

"Ray Lang then hit a ball where the left fielder seemed to run a quarter mile and made a diving catch," Forthun said. "It was a foul ball, but the guy made the catch. Ended up being a sacrifice fly."

Dom Forcella followed with a walk to reload the bases. Kevin Mayce then unloaded the bases with a theee-run double.

"That brought the tying run to the plate for us," Forthun said. "Robbie Fliegelman was called out at first on a bang-bang play. It was really close at first base."

Both Cosumano and Forthun were happy with the late rally. Both men were left thinking about the missed chances earlier in the game.

In the first, South Brunswick had a runner thrown out at the plate. The team also couldn't score in the second after putting runners on second and third with two outs.

"We left ten runners on base, five on at third," Forthun said. "We also had two runners thrown out at the plate. We certainly had our chances."

The same was true on the mound. Ryan Phillips started and had a shutout going through four innings. He then allowed a run in the fifth, three in the sixth and two in the seventh.

"It wasn't like he was getting hit hard," Forthun said. "It was bloop stuff. There were plays that could've been outs, but something happened. In the sixth, the ball bounced over a glove. Stuff like that."

As a result, a team that had only one day off after playing three games over the weekend --- two on Sunday -- will be back in action at 9 a.m.

"We've made the trip to this tournament several times in the past and there were always three or four days to let the kids get rested," Forthun said. "We played eighteen innings in the brutal heat on Sunday. The guys gave everything they had on Sunday. They're tired. They still managed that great surge in the ninth, but they're tired."