Now it’s really over.
The Allentown Senior American Legion baseball team lost to South Brunswick Post 401, 7-6, on July 16 in a district elimination game at Passaic High School.
The loss ended Allentown’s 2018 season.
Only two of the four teams in the Passaic district tournament, the champion and the winner of the losers’ bracket, qualified for the New Jersey state tournament.
Allentown did reach the district championship with a 12-7 victory over Rochelle on July 14.
But Whitehouse Post 284 beat Allentown, 10-0, on July 15, which was a defeat that relegated Allentown to the elimination game.
“I don’t think anything necessarily went wrong. Whitehouse could just hit one through nine. They got on us early and kept running with it,” said Allentown coach Justin Ely. “The South Brunswick game was just back and forth. They did a great job knocking through some base hits to tie the game in the seventh (inning). They came up in the clutch moments and that kind of sent them through.”
Allentown’s season still lasted longer than anyone expected. After finishing sixth in the Mercer County American Legion League, Allentown was not expected to receive a district playoff bid.
Then, on July 13, two days after Allentown’s season finale, Ely learned that a playoff team from another league was “unable to participate” in the Passaic tournament. Allentown was offered the spot–and accepted.
Ely’s club was on a roll, having won three straight games to end the regular season. The players expected to make a playoff run, too.
“If we get let in, we’re going to be a problem for every team we face,” said Allentown pitcher and first baseman Frank Delguercio, after Allentown’s second-to-last regular season game, an 8-5 victory over the MCALL champion, Hopewell Post 339.
After the playoff victory over Rochelle, things looked promising.
Allentown needed just one victory to qualify for the state tournament, and had two chances to get it. But Ely’s pitching didn’t quite hold up, allowing 17 runs over those final two games.
“I think if we displayed what we saw in the last week (of the regular season), we would have found ourselves in a better spot. But I’m pleased overall,” Ely said. “To keep playing late in the season when we thought we were eliminated, it shows this team’s love of baseball, their resiliency. It’s a good group.”
Most of that group–14 of 18 players–is eligible to return in 2019. Eleven of those players, however, were high school seniors this past school year. So they may play in instead on college summer league teams.
“I want to come back. Hopefully I can,” said Allentown third baseman Guiseppe Arcuri, an East Tennessee State University recruit. “Unless my coach from East Tennessee puts me in a college league.”
“I’ll probably be back playing legion,” said Allentown catcher Chris Reeder, who will play for The College of New Jersey next year. “I’ve been with these guys since sophomore year of high school. We’ve built that bond and we have a lot of talent coming up.”
Reeder is right.
Allentown’s three underclassmen, infielders Matthew Tannenbaum and Dante DiSilvestro, and pitcher Matthew Bethea, all got valuable experience in 2018 and are ready to play leading roles. Bethea, who is only 15 years old, earned two victories and two saves in 2018.
“He showed poise beyond his years, which is exciting,” Ely said.
Along with the underclassmen, Ely is the most likely Allentown team member to return next summer.
“I can’t stay away from the baseball diamond. I’ll go crazy,” he said.
