Scotch Plains Wins County Qualifier, But Does Not Advance to State Tournament

The Scotch Plains Senior American Legion baseball team defeated Union 7-6 on Wednesday. With the win, it clinched Union County's third and final spot for the state tournament. But Scotch Plains will not play in the tournament's first game Saturday. In fact, once the final pitch was thrown Wednesday, and dusk settled over the turf field at Union Catholic High School, the Scotch Plains American Legion's season came to an end.

As coach Tom Baylock explained to Union coach Bernie Becht after the game Wednesday, Scotch Plains will lack the minimum number of players required to compete at the state level.

"We've got kids doing other things," Baylock said later. "We have kids in football camps and we have kids playing AAU baseball in tournaments."

Becht said the news came as a surprise. "We had no idea of the circumstances until after the game," he said. "They played their best, they beat us, but, unfortunately, they can't field a team for this weekend."

Union will replace Scotch Plains in the county's third-place slot. It will compete in District 2, playing two games Saturday at Teener Field in Union. Roselle Post 229 and Union Catholic Vikings Baseball will also represent the county in the state tournament.

Although baseball games require only nine players to take the field, the New Jersey American Legion requires 12 players to be present at the start of each state tournament game. According to the league's rules, failure to meet that minimum results not only in forfeiture of that game, but elimination from the rest of the state tournament and possible suspension of the team next year.

"I don't want to risk that," Baylock said.

In the game against Union on Wednesday, Scotch Plains scored its first run in the bottom of the third inning. It added two more in the fourth to take a 3-2 lead. Union came back to tie the game at 3-3 with a run in the fifth.

Scotch Plains retook the lead in the sixth inning, off the bats of third basemen Kevin Raszka and right fielder Ryan Haggerty. Both batters, facing full counts with the bases loaded, hit singles to centerfield  that each drove-in two runs. 

"I was looking fastball low and away and I had to go with it, it was late in the game," Haggerty said. "I went with it, it went back up the middle and it got through and worked out."

Scotch Plains took the lead 7-3. But Union's top batters started the seventh inning.

Jared Sumner, Josh Manto, Jake Foehner and Ryan Pascullo, strung together four straight hits that brought Union to within two runs of Scotch Plains. It then scored once more, on a force-out play to second base that allowed a runner on third to reach home.  

"We didn't quit, we came back with three runs," Becht, the Union coach, said.

But Scotch Plains ultimately escaped the inning with its  lead intact, and came away with the win. Pitcher Sean Reilly threw a strike-out for the second out, and shortstop Marcus Rivera caught a line drive to end the game – and, it turned out, Scotch Plains Legion's summer season.

Although Scotch Plains will not compete at District 2, the team officially kept its streak alive of qualifying for the states every other year since Baylock became the head coach in 2004. The team finished the 2010 regular season with 10 wins, seven losses, and a tie.

"The summer was very productive," Baylock said. "We're very excited about our pitching staff and very excited about what the young kids have done all summer. We started out the season, I believe, 1-5-1 and then we started to put some wins together, winning some close ones. We played some good defense and the kids gelled as the season went on, becoming more comfortable and adjusting to the coaching staff. I'm very pleased with what we did."

NOTES: The four district sites – with two teams advancing out of each site  – are District 1 at Overpeck Park in Ridgefield Park (Bergen County), District 2 at Teener Field in Union (Union County), District 3 at Community Park in North Brunswick (Middlesex County) and District 4 at Toms River East High School in Toms River (Ocean County).

Eight teams will advance to the state finals, which will take place July 24-29 at Mercer County Park in West Windsor.

UNION COUNTY TEAMS IN STATE TOURNAMENT COMPETITION, STARTING SATURDAY, JULY 17

DISTRICT 2 AT TEENER FIELD, UNION

Roselle Post 229 vs. Flemington Post 159, second game of first doubleheader, with first game scheduled for 9 a.m.

Union Post 35 vs. Livingston Post 201, second game of second doubleheader, with first game scheduled for 3 p.m.

DISTRICT 1 AT OVERPECK PARK, RIDGEFIELD PARK

Union Catholic Vikings Baseball vs. Wharton Post 91, second game of first doubleheader, with first game scheduled for 9 a.m.

SCOTCH PLAINS LINEUP WEDNESDAY VS. UNION:

• 24-Anthony Scalfaro, left field
• 42-Marcus Rivera, shortstop
• 32-Ryan Haggerty, right field
• 13-Ryan Henkels, catcher
• 11-James D'Angelo, pitcher
• 23-Sean Reilly, first base
• 17-Kyle Berwick, designated hitter
• 9-Cody Lyman, second base: did not bat
• 25-Connor Thompson, center field
• 10-Kevin Raszka, third base

Reserves:

• 40-Anthony Krajcuik
• 22-Brett Kovacs
• 33-John Howarth
• 14-Frank Degnan
• 21-Joe Schmidt