BORDENTOWN \u2014 The Allentown American Legion baseball team knew that, sooner or later, it was going to play the way it was capable, and the Bordentown Legion Post 26 baseball team knew that, sooner or later, it would suffer its first setback of the 2026 summer season.<\/p>\n
Little did either know that both things would happen so resoundingly Friday at Gilder Field in Mercer County American Legion League action.<\/p>\n
A\u2019town played its best game yet with a 12-2, six-inning win over B\u2019town. It was the first time Post 26 had lost by the 10-run rule since Allentown defeated it by the same score two years ago in the State Final 8 in Wood-Ridge.<\/p>\n
The last two teams to win the MCALL\u2019s regular season crown went at each other as one would expect Friday with the teams locked in a 1-1 tie after two innings.<\/p>\n
But then the game shifted as manager Sahil Thakur\u2019s visiting team sent 14 men to the plate in the top of the third and scored nine times.<\/p>\n
Dan Golembiewski had one of his two doubles in the game to get the scoring started. He drove in another run in the inning when he walked with the bases loaded his second time up that frame.<\/p>\n
Nick Carmino also had two runs batted in for the game when he singled in Allentown\u2019s first run in the second inning, then walked with the bases loaded in the third.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a total team effort. We really wanted to win this game,\u201d A\u2019town starting pitcher Glen Popes said. \u201cI felt great on the mound. Everything was working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Popes, a right-hander who recently graduated from Red Bank Catholic and is headed to Drew University in the fall, limited the league leaders, who had won their first six games this summer, to two hits and one run over the first four innings.<\/p>\n
When Allentown (4-2) failed to score even though Fairleigh Dickinson University-bound Golembiewski hit his second double and stole his second base in the top of the fifth, manager Ryan Podlesny\u2019s home team instead got a run when Kelly Walsh walked before Jordan Gilligo, Jackson Hauger and Liam Velit strung together consecutive two-out hits.<\/p>\n
However, the visitors got the runs they needed in the top of the sixth when Eddie Acevedo led off with an infield hit, then four consecutive two-out walks pushed across two more. Post 26\u2019s three pitchers walked 11 batters and hit four more in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a game like this, you just try to stay in it. No matter how bad things get, you still try to play through the pressure,\u201d said Fordham University-bound Velit, Bordentown\u2019s No. 3 batter. \u201cTheir pitcher was very good. He had a really good change-up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even when Popes left the game after five innings, reliever Colin Ruth came on to shut the door and keep both teams striving for more.<\/p>\n
These teams will get that chance again at 7 p.m. Tuesday when they meet head-to-head once more, this time at Mercer County Park.<\/p>\n
Allentown (4-2)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0019\u00a0 \u00a0 002\u00a0 \u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 \u00a0 12\u00a0 6\u00a0 0<\/p>\n
Bordentown (6-1)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0010\u00a0 \u00a0 010\u00a0 \u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 2\u00a0 6\u00a0 2<\/p>\n
2B: Golembiewski 2 (A), Klusman (B); RBIs: Noviello, McGlynn, Vetrano, Golembiewski 2, Todisco, Simpson, Acevedo, Kish, Crudo, Carmino 2 (A), Velit, Parsons (B).<\/p>\n
WP \u2014 Popes (1-0); LP \u2014 Brewer (2-1).<\/p>\n
SCHEDULE CHANGE<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s rescheduled game between Hightstown Post 148 and Lawrence Post 414 at Mike Pezzicola Field in Eggerts Crossing Central Park was rescheduled again.<\/p>\n
This time, it will be made up as part of a doubleheader between the teams at Moody Park in Ewing Monday, July 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BORDENTOWN \u2014 The Allentown American Legion baseball team knew that, sooner or later, it was going to play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,18736,305,28517,9520,915,28,726,10356],"class_list":["post-230607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-burlington-county","tag-high-school-sports","tag-hunterdon-county","tag-mercer-county","tag-new-jersey","tag-pennsylvania","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-trt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}