August 2, 2005

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

LYNDHURST — Through the years Brooklawn Post 72 has never had a lot of fans in North Jersey American Legion baseball circles. Oh, the teams up north certainly respect and admire the success of Brooklawn, which has 23 state championships and two national titles in its illustrious history, but root for the powerhouse from Camden County? Never….or at least never before Tuesday that is.

 

After losing its opening game of the tournament on Friday, Brooklawn has come storming back through the loser’s bracket, winning once on Saturday and twice on Monday to reach the tournament’s Final 4. As a host team, Brooklawn is already assured a spot in the Regional tournament, which it has won 11 times, and could also secure spots for the two remaining representatives of the Bergen Area Legion.

 

 

Mike Ryan had a hit scored one of Lyndhurst Post 139\’s three runs in its season finale.

 

Should Brooklawn win its game on Tuesday against Milltown Post 25, Brooklawn would eliminate the last team with a shot to wrest a regional tournament bid from either Wayne Post 174 or the River Vale Ravens, the two Bergen Area teams that are both
2-0 in the tournament and scheduled to face off on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. The top two finishers in the state plus Brooklawn will advance to the regional round, meaning both Wayne and River Vale could both be qualifiers before they even take the field.

 

\”If we win they are in and that makes things a little bit interesting,\” said Brooklawn manager Dennis Barth. \”It’s rare, in fact I don’t think it’s probably ever happened, that North Jersey teams are going to be rooting for us, but that will be the case.\”

 

While it could extend the season of two teams on Tuesday, Brooklawn ended the summer schedule for two others on Monday. The Brookers knocked off Hamilton Post 31, 4-1, in Monday’s first game and then ended Lyndhurst Post 139’s season about four hours later, 13-3, in eight innings.

 

 

Adam Tussey had one of Brooklawn\’s 10 stolen bases and scored two of its 13 runs.

 

With injuries forcing position switches and vacationing players leaving Lyndhurst at less than full strength, Brooklawn took advantage of its depleted opponent by stealing 10 bases, drawing eight walks and banging out 13 hits. Brooklawn scored one run in the second inning on an RBI single by Roy DiLiberto to get on the board first.

 

Lyndhurst (23-6) briefly got back into the game in the top of the third when Vin Mazzaro lined a clean base hit that turned into a triple when it took a kangaroo hop over the head of Brooklawn rightfielder Joe Sacerdote. Paul Urbanovich scored on the play to tie the game, but it all came a part for Lyndhurst in the bottom of the inning when Brooklawn batted around and scored three times. Adam Tussey, Dave Randolph and Vince Mazzaccaro all had RBI singles in the rally.

 

Brooklawn added an unearned run in the fourth and then pulled away for good when it sent 11 hitters to the plate and scored seven times in the sixth to take a 12-2 lead. Lyndhurst managed to extend its season by another inning when Joe Zembryski doubled home Mazzaro in the top of the seventh to get back under the 10-run mercy rule.

 

 

Anthony Latti, one of the four pitchers Lyndhurst used on Monday, went the first four innings.

 

But Brooklawn got that run back and ended the game in the bottom of the eighth when, facing Lyndhurst’s fourth pitcher of the game, Larry Townes, Zack Braddock singled up the middle to score Mazzaccaro. The game took well over three hours to play even though it ended one inning early.

 

Nick Alloway, who just completed his freshman year of high school, went the first six innings and picked up the win for Brooklawn. He allowed seven hits and four walks, but got big outs when he needed them and struck out four while allowing two earned runs.

 

\”Even though we already qualified for the regionals, we still want to focus and play good baseball,\” said Barth. \”We’d like to go into that tournament not because we are a host team, but because we finished first or second in the state. We’ll be back here tomorrow not just to show up, but to try to win another game.\”