PURCELLVILLE, VIRGINIA-Henry Hawkins, and his Flemington Post 159 American Legion baseball team, have started to pound the opposition pitching staffs at the Mid-Atlantic Regional. And with the shutdown pitching from the Indians, that makes for a winning combination. Now, all it takes is two wins for Flemington Sunday, and the Indians will come back to New Jersey with another...
PURCELLVILLE, VIRGINIA-Henry Hawkins, and his Flemington Post 159 American Legion baseball team, have started to pound the opposition pitching staffs at the Mid-Atlantic Regional.
And with the shutdown pitching from the Indians, that makes for a winning combination.
Now, all it takes is two wins for Flemington Sunday, and the Indians will come back to New Jersey with another banner to add to their growing collection. Just two more wins, and the Indians will find themselves headed to Shelby, North Carolina for the American Legion World Series next week.
But as has been the mantra of this team all season, they just have to focus on the game at hand, and nothing else.
Flemington 10-run ruled an opponent for the second day in a row Saturday morning, with a 10-0 win over the Maryland state cahmpions Funkstown. It was also the second straight game that the Indians got off the field early, in seven innings, while the two teams that played after them had to battle through an extra-inning game filled with a long rain delay.
Flemington (35-5) will play Danville (26-3), the Virginia state champions, at 1 p.m. Sunday, with the winner advancing to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Final at 4 p.m., against the host team, 16-8 Leesburg.
Once again, the Indians got a strong performance on the mound, as Matt Brennan threw seven innings of shutout baseball, allowing only three hits. The Flemington bats have caught fire, and the lineup banged out 13 hits, led by Hawkins (3-for-4, run scored, RBI) and Jeff Guile (3-for-5, two RBI, run scored.) Every player in the batting order had a hit or run scored for the Indians.
Matt Busher comes up big again for Flemington Post 159
Flemington head coach Steve Farsiou saw his starter go seven innings, allowing a run or less, for the third straight game.
"Matt Brennan throws strikes," Farsiou said. "If you hit him, you hit him. But if you go up there taking, he will strike you out. He also gets a lot of ground balls. We just have to make the plays behind him."
Flemington Post 159 stays alive at Mid-Atlantic Regional
Because the starters went so deep into games, and also because there are so many arms on the roster, the Indians are in good shape Sunday. But, as is the mantra of this team, Flemington has to focus on the first game.
"We are in good shape with the pitching," Farsiou said. "But listen, we have to play the 1 p.m. game. We can't think about anything other than that. We have to stay focused. But the kids have done a great job of that."
"We are playing very well," Farsiou said. "I have said from day one, if we hit, we are going to be very hard to beat. We have good pitching, but if we hit the baseball, we have a good shot."
Contact Sean Miller at seanmillertrentontimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheProdigalSean
