Legion Team Finishes at 11-11

The locals miss the playoffs for the first time in three years.

With 10 seniors returning from a high school team that came within a hit of reaching the state sectional finals this year, the Cougar boys were looking to do a little better than 11-11 in the summer legion season. “If you would have told me that we would go 11-11 at the beginning of the season, I would have said you were crazy,” said head coach Bob Drechsel. Last summer, the boys went 14-9 and qualified for the state playoffs for a second summer in a row. Throw in the fact that three years ago in 2006, many of the players on this season’s senior legion team made the states in the junior legion, and this is the first summer in three years that many of the boys aren’t playing extra baseball. Despite getting better than expected pitching and …

S.O. Legion Boys Edged in Extra Innings

Baseball team loses 2-1 in Montclair.

The Cougar Legion team saw just about everything they needed to see from starting pitcher and probable spring ace Joel Brown-Christensen on Friday. Unfortunately for him, the Cougars needed to see a bit more from their offense and defense on Friday at Woodman Field in Montclair. Two South Orange errors led to two runs on Wednesday, and provided enough offense for the host Montclair team to escape with a 2-1 win in nine innings. After the first two batters reached for Montclair in the bottom of the ninth on a walk and base hit off of Andrew Rigassio, a sacrifice bunt put runners at second and third with one out. The next Montclair batter slapped one to the right side of the infield, where Cougar second baseman Eli Weiss may have been a bit …

Legion Team Drops Second in a Row

Local boys baseball team drops to 10-9.

Not even a week ago, the South Orange Legion boys had a shot at making the upcoming county playoffs as a third-place team. They needed to be near perfect, and while the pitching was there, the hitting, as it has been for much of this legion season, was practically non-existent. After scoring 10 against Newark Academy over the weekend, the Red and Black Legion boys have totaled just two runs in as many games, including a 4-1 home loss to Vailsburg on Wednesday, knocking them completely out of contention. Against the Seton Hall Prep Legion team (Vailsburg sponsors the Pirates), the locals had no answers for Sam Silvestri’s curveball, and though he pitched well, South Orange’s Nigel Hunter couldn’t keep the visiting boys completely at bay. …

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Sloppy Play Costs Local Legion Team

Cougars drop fourth game of summer in 6-0 loss to Millburn.

An extremely sloppy first inning for the Cougar Legion boys at Millburn High School was their undoing on Saturday, as the Millburn Legion team capitalized on the Cougars’ mistakes, blanking the visitors 6-0 for their fourth win of the season. “They played the way I wanted them to,” said Millburn head coach Daryl Palmieri. “When we got into a couple of tough spots, we made plays defensively.” In the bottom half of the first, Jake Hornstein of the Maplewood Legion walked Millburn’s first two batters. A.J. O’Leary came to the plate and dropped a bunt in front of the pitcher. Hornstein overthrew to the first baseman, allowing O’Leary to reach safely and Danny Frischman to score the first run of the game. After Chris Benedict drew a walk to …

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Legion Team Moves Over .500

Christensen, Tamayo and Weiss lead the boys to a win.

The rain finally stayed away on Wednesday, and the Maplewood/South Orange American Legion boys got back over .500. Behind strong pitching performances from Joel Brown-Christensen and Sam Annoni, the Red and Black powered to a 6-0 shutout victory over the Belleville Legion team. Christensen pitched through 4.2 innings, striking out six, while Annoni finished the job whiffing four in the final 2.1 innings. The boys have been getting great pitching all season, surrendering just nine runs over the first five games of the legion season. Christensen mostly cruised through his performance. He did not allow a hit until the top half of the fourth, when he got into a little bit of trouble. A double, a hit by pitch and a walk loaded the bases for …

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