Mount Laurel Red White and Blue - (Mount Laurel, NJ)

Recap of Mount Laurel's 2010 season
August 3, 2010 — 2010 could probably be summed up as a disappointing one for MTL. A regular season record of 15-18-1 and getting swept in the first round of the playoffs is definitely not what they were looking for. There were a few reasons that they did not reach their goals. First and most importantly is pitching. They were very light in pitching, and I think everyone knows that you can’t be successful in the RVL without pitching. This will have to be something they address in the off-season. Secondly, is the lack of commitment by its players. It took until the first playoff game that they had all of their starters at a game, and even then they were missing a guy that would be a potential starter. The lack of being able to play with each other on a consistent basis is a reason they never formed as a team. If you look at all the top teams in the league they all seem to have a consistent core of guys at pretty much every game, and it helps. Third, Mount Laurel is a very young team. They are actually the 2nd youngest team in the league behind Riverside. In each of their 2 playoff games they only had 4 players that started that are legally allowed to drink. All of their other starters were either rookies and younger than 20 or 2nd year players that were 19 or 20. This makes a difference. If you look at the past 10 years of the teams that made it to the championship in the RVL, they all had plenty of veterans and guys that have played together for a long time. It takes time getting used to the wooden bat coming from high school, and hopefully these younger guys will improve in the years to come.

This team did have some positives in the season. They had 4 guys who played in the all-star game and 3 of them, Mike Cooper, Matt Szukics, and Brian Black, were rookies. Cooper, whose only 18 years old and started the RVL season still in high school, quickly became the team’s ace. He pitched a great game 1 against Cinnaminson and will hopefully be this teams ace for years to come. Szukics was one of the best 3rd baseman in the league and also filled in at short stop at times. He hit .372 and had a great first year in the league. Black impressed as well in his first year in the RVL. He hit a crazy .443 this season, and played a great left field. The most impressive thing about Black is the fact that his best position is on the mound. He’s currently recovering from Tommy John surgery and will hopefully be able to help this team on the mound next year. Jenkins was the 4th Mount Laurel player to play in the all-star game and he led the league with 43 regular season hits. There were other notables from the 2010 season. Dan Rella caught all 36 games this year, which is a very impressive mark for someone whose been catching as long as he has. Kevin Diamond who was signed during the year and played in his first season in the league, ended up hitting .348 and finished 3rd in the home-run derby. Ernie Covington who has been strictly a pitcher in the past, was struggling with some arm problems this year. However, he stepped in and played the field a lot this year and finished the year hitting .293, and also came to almost every game whether he was playing or not. Pat O’Reilly made it to any game he could, due to his profession he was only able to make a certain amount of games which limited his plate appearances. However, he was still able to hit well in the playoffs, and be a middle of the order guy for this team like he’s been for years. Jesse Solar who graduated high school during the 2010 season came in and played a great outfield for the team and finished the regular season with a .326 average. After getting the start in both playoff games he came up with a few huge hits, and made it seem like he’s played in plenty of playoff games throughout the years. Justin Streleckis and Dave Smith both played in their fist year for Mount Laurel and helped out the pitching staff. Both of these guys threw some good games this year. Joe Hydro even though in his first year in the RVL is an older player and has been out of college for a couple of years. It took him sometime to get going since he wasn't able to make a lot of games and he hadn't touched a baseball since graduating college a few years ago, but definitely improved as the year went on. Joe Homan also deserves a shout out. He shows up to every single game and knows his role. He knows that he’s a fill in guy when guys are missing. You would never know whether he’s playing or not because he’s always there and always routing for the team, no matter what. It’s very important to have guys like this on your team, and Joe has constantly been there for this team for years.

One other guy on this team deserves his props. Shawn Counard has been a constant contributor for this team for the past 8 RVL seasons. After last night’s game Shawn announced that he’s hanging up the spikes and that last night was his last game. Shawn is getting married this upcoming year and also coaches, so he has a lot of things going on. He has been a great leader, a great hitter, a great outfielder/first baseman, and most importantly a great teammate in his time on the team. He will be missed not just for his ability on the field, but also his baseball knowledge and dedication to the team. He is also the longest tenured player on the team. I’m sure he will be at games in the future, and I’m sure we can count on him sitting in a lawn chair in left center field next year for the playoffs. This team won’t be the same without him.

This was the first year for the Mount Laurel website. All in all I think that it went pretty well, but can definitely see some improvements. Next year I’m hoping to improve on the creativity of the site, especially adding some pictures of the guys on the team. Also improving the front page of the site is something that is a goal for next year. On occasion during the year I plan on coming on and writing any updates that involve the team. Whether it is a release of a player, or a free agent pick-up. I also plan on updating how some of the guys are doing on their college teams. Since Mount Laurel was so young this year, they have a lot of players that will be playing this upcoming spring, and hopefully I will have some positive updates about how they are playing. Thanks to everyone who has come on and read the updates, and also voted on the polls. I enjoyed updating everyone on how Mount Laurel was doing this year, and hopefully next year I’ll have some more positive things to write.

Cinnaminson sweeps Mount Laurel in Round 1
August 2, 2010 — Mount Laurel goes 2 and barbeque in the playoffs again. Cinnaminson took care of them 7-3 on Monday night to sweep the series 2-0. Cinnaminson was the only team in the RVL that MTL didn’t beat at least once this season, as Cinnaminson won 7 straight games. Cinnaminson will move on and either play Burlington or Delran depending on what happens in tonight’s game 3 between Willingboro and Vincentown.

Cinnaminson once again got off to an early lead. With 1 out Greg Gilbert got on with a single, and Mike Osborne followed with a walk. Then 2 batters later with 2 out Chris Murray walked to load the bases. Hot hitting Mike Wasco then followed with a 2 run single that tipped off Jenkins glove on the mound, and went into center field. Mount Laurel’s bat were silent in the bottom of the 1st.

In the top of the 2nd Cinnaminson was held scoreless, and Pat O’Reilly led off the bottom of the 2nd for MTL by reaching on a pop-up that landed between two Cinnaminson players. Dan Rella then doubled to left center, and Henry Chou walked to load the bases with 0 outs. Joe Hydro then walked to make it 2-1 and still 0 outs. Then John Meadus stepped it up by getting a strikeout followed by a double play ball to end Mount Laurel’s threat.

In the top of the 3rd Cinnaminson was held scoreless, and Matt Szukics led off the bottom of the 3rd with a bunt single followed by a walk to Brian Black. Bret Jenkins then singled through the hole but Matt Szukics was thrown out at home trying to score from second for the 1st out. Black and Jenkins moved up on the throw, and Pat O’Reilly followed with a sac fly to score Black. Meadus was able to get out of the inning without anymore damage and the score remained tied 2-2 after 3.

Cinnaminson was held scoreless in the top of the 4th, and Chou led off the bottom of the 4th with a walk. He moved up third on 2 passed balls. With 1 out Jesse Solar grounded out to short and scored Chou to give Mount Laurel the 3-2 lead.

In the top of the 5th Greg Gilbert and Mike Osborne led off with back to back singles. Two batters later with 1 out Chris Murray hit a hanging curve ball a country mile to give Cinnaminson the 5-3 lead. Jenkins was able to get out of the inning without giving up anymore runs. Murray’s homerun proved to be the game winner as Meadus was able to hold MTL scoreless in the last 3 innings. Cinnaminson added 2 more runs, 1 in the 6th and 1 in the 7th. In the top of the 6th with 1 out Frank Sirolli hit a ground ball to first that wasn't able to be fielded. He then pulled off a hit and run with Greg Gilbert who hit a single and Cinnaminson had first and third with an out. Then Mike Osborne hit an infield single to score Sirolli. In the 7th Mike Wasco hit a solo homerun. Cinnaminson was better in all aspects of the game throughout the series. They had better pitching, better defense, better hitting, and ran the bases much better. They deserve to move onto the next round, and will be tough to beat.

Game 2 postponed and moved to Monday
August 1, 2010 — After a great effort by many members of the RVL, to get Vincentown's field playable, game 2 was canceled due to poor playing conditions. The managers of both Cinnaminson and Mount Laurel deemed the 2nd base area too soft and dangerous to play on, so game 2 was postponed to Monday.

Mount Laurel loses heartbreaker in game 1
July 31, 2010 — Mount Laurel lost game 1 in the 1st round of the RVL playoffs, 6-5 to Cinnaminson. Mount Laurel was losing the entire game and continued to battle back. However, they didn’t have enough to take down the defending champions. MTL and Cinnaminson played the only close game on day 1 of the playoffs as Burlington and Delran both won by 13 and Vincentown won by 9.

Last year Cinnaminson swept MTL in the 1st round of the playoffs with 2 wins by a combined score of 15 runs. Cinnaminson has a pretty similar team with a few guys not playing from last years team and also a few additions. Mount Laurel is a totally different team from last year with half of its players being rookies. The same stands for the two pitchers in game 1. Cinnaminson will be trotting out veteran pitcher Ryan Varga while Mount Laurel will be throwing rookie Mike Cooper. The amount of playoff games Varga has thrown in his career is more than the amount of girls Mike Cooper has ever talked to. It will be interesting to see how the young Laurels handle their first ever playoff game.

Cinnaminson got off to a great start scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the first. It all started when Frank Sirolli hit a hard hit ball up the middle that tipped off Mike Cooper’s glove and was unable to be handled by MTL’s second baseman Henry Chou. Greg Gilbert then doubled to left center, and Mike Osborne followed with a single scoring both Sirolli and Gilbert. Mike Oz then stole second base. Cooper was then able to get his first out as Bobby Diepold hit a deep fly ball to center that was caught by Brett Tiagwad that moved Oz up to third. Chris Murray then hit a sac fly to score Oz and make the score 3-0. Mike Wasco scored the 4th run for Cinnaminson, in the 1st inning, by hitting a solo homerun that just cleared the right field fence. So this year’s playoffs started off exactly where last years ended with Cinnaminson embarrassing Mount Laurel.

In the top of the 2nd Mount Laurel got on the board, and gained a little momentum back. Pat O’Reilly singled to right, and moved up to 2nd on a ground out by Rella. Two batters later Jesse Solar, in his first ever playoff at bat, singled to score O’Reilly. Cooper was able to hold Cinnaminson scoreless in the bottom of the 2nd. The 3rd inning showed how young and inexperienced Mount Laurel was. Brett Tiagwad led off by hitting a double to left center off the bottom of the fence. Matt Szukics was then unable to lay a bunt down and Varga got his first out of the inning by striking him out. While Brian Black, Mount Laurel’s 3 hitter, was up to bat Tiagwad tried to steal 3rd and was thrown out by Wasco to give Varga his 2nd out. Black ended up walking and moved up to 2nd on a failed pick-off attempt. Varga then walked the next batter Jenkins which should give Mount Laurel 2 guys on with 2 outs and Pat O’Reilly walking to the plate. However, Black who was on 2nd and the only guy on base while Jenkins was hitting, thought that someone was on first base and started walking to 3rd thinking that Jenkins’ walk forced him to 3rd. Cinnaminson was able to throw out the confused Black to end the top of the 3rd inning. Cooper was able to hold Cinnaminson scoreless in the 3rd. Neither team scored a run in the 4th, so it was 4-1 Cinnaminson heading into the 5th.

Brett Tiagwad led off the 5th by hitting a ball in the hole that was unable to be fielded and he was on 1st with 0 outs. Szukics then walked to give the Laurels 1st and 2nd. Brian Black followed by laying down a beautiful bunt to move Tiagwad and Szukics up to 2nd and 3rd. Jenkins then grounded out to 2nd scoring Tiagwad and making the score 4-2. Varga was able to get out of the inning with no further damage. Cooper held Cinnaminson scoreless once again so it was 4-2 Cinn after 5.

Dan Rella led off the 6th inning by hitting a deep fly to left center. Frank Sirolli made a great effort and looked to have caught the ball for a second but then dropped it after hitting the fence. Henry Chou then hit a blooper in the triangle of short, second, and center that was dropped which gave MTL 1st and 2nd with 0 outs. Jesse Solar then walked to load the bases. Varga was able to get a strikeout on Counard to get his 1st out in the inning, but then walked Tiagwad to score Rella and make the score 4-3. Szukics then singled to left to score Chou but Solar was thrown out at home on a questionable call. Varga was able to get out of the inning after that, but MTL had tied the game at 4. In the bottom of the 6th Tyler Powell led off by getting hit with a pitch. Bobby Osborne then laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Powell up to 2nd. Dennis O’Hanlan then singled down the left field line to score Powell and give Cinnaminson the lead. Cooper was able to get out of the inning with no further damage.

In the top of the 7th it looked like Mount Laurel's chances of a game 1 upset were over when they had 2 outs and nobody on. Dan Rella then walked on 4 pitches, and Henry Chou followed by getting hit with a 3-2 pitch. Jesse Solar then came up with a huge 2 out single to right to score Rella and tie the score at 5. Mount Laurel was unable to score anymore runs in the inning, but they were able to continue the game into the bottom of the 7th. Cooper continued his good pitching to start the 7th by retiring very strong and veteran hitters Mike Oz and Bobby Diepold. Chris Murray then singled followed by a 2 strike hit by Mikey Wasco. Tyler Powell then hit a shot to third that Szukics made a nice play to stop but was unable to field cleanly. Cinnaminson now had the bases loaded with 2 outs, and Bobby Osborne up to bat. Osborne was able to work the count to 3-2, and even fouled off the first full count offering. He then singled the next pitch up the middle to end game 1, and Mount Laurel’s chances for a big come from behind win.

It’s hard to take anything positive out of a heartbreaking loss like that. However, the young Mount Laurel players were able to gain a lot of playoff experience in such a good game. Mount Laurel also showed that they can play with any team in the league when their players show up to the game. Mike Cooper proved that he can pitch in the spotlight of day 1 in the RVL playoffs, and will have more day 1 starts in the years to come. It will not be easy to win 2 straight against Cinnaminson but if the Laurels showed anything on Saturday, they showed that they won’t give up.

John Meadus and Bret Jenkins are scheduled to square off on the mound in game 2. The game is scheduled to take place at 5:00 on Sunday at Vincentown Memorial Field.

1st round playoff preview
July 29, 2010 — As we all know the regular season doesn’t mean anything now. With a good weekend any team except for maybe Riverside can find itself in the 2nd round. There is a possibility to have 3 good series this weekend and hopefully we do. Here’s a little preview of everyone’s favorite part of the RVL.

Burlington vs. Riverside - Not too much to say here. Burlington has been the best team this year, and Riverside is winless. It’ll be a good experience for the young Riverside to play in the playoffs, but these 2 games could get ugly. Burlington will be looking over the left field fence and their normal spot the entire game, salivating at the chance to get over there and give it to the remaining 6 teams that have to play.

Delran vs. Pemberton - Normally getting the 2 seed and the opportunity to play the 7 seed is a huge advantage in the opening weekend. However, not when the 7 seed team has Krankowski throwing on the mound. Pemberton still has its deficits and their line-up isn’t as strong as Delran’s. Also in game 2 when Krankowski is not on the mound they will have some serious trouble. Lastly, if they are able to win 1 of the first 2 games, then without rain Krankowski will have to throw on 1 days rest on Monday in game 3. That’s if he’s even willing to get on the mound with only 1 days rest. Needless to say Pemberton will have their work cut out for them against Ronca, Gertie, Newill, and Maull on the mound, and the Delran line-up. It won’t be easy, but at least with Krankowski it might stay interesting for the crowd.

Cinnaminson vs. Mount Laurel - The defending champions, Cinnaminson, have the clear edge in this series. They have the better pitching staff, and one of the best in the RVL. They can trot out Varga, Meadus, Murray, Mingin, and Diepold and can be confident that they’re going to win no matter which one is on the mound. They have the experience that it takes to win in the RVL, especially since this team won it all last year. They have a better commitment from their players, and they have gotten to play together more than Mount Laurel, and not just this year but for years. I would like to say Mount Laurel has a very good line-up when everyone is there, but more than half of the line-up hasn’t ever played in a playoff game before, so I think the line-up battle goes to Cinnaminson as well. There is a chance that counting the DH, 5 or 6 of the 10 starters for MTL will be playing in their first ever RVL playoff game. If the 5 regular season games against each other is any indication of the defensive battle, than Cinnaminson has the edge there also. Cinnaminson also won all 5 games in the regular season. That being said Mount Laurel hasn’t played 1 game all year with their entire team. They do have talent on the field and if everyone comes to play then they can definitely hang with Cinnaminson. They have a young and good arm in Mike Cooper and who knows what could happen if they are able to come out with a win in game 1.

Vincentown vs. Willingboro - This could end up being a great series to watch. The over under for runs scored for both of these teams, in 3 games, is set at 60. No offense to either team but they don’t have the best pitching staffs ever. However, no pitcher in the RVL wants to face either line-up. Willingboro has made some nice additions this year, and have a great balance in their line-up. They have guys that hit for a good average and have speed, and they also have guys with pop. Everyone knows Vincentown’s line-up is stacked and they have a ton of experience. They will be playing on their home field, and I’m sure they average somewhere around double digit runs a game on their field. Chances are the outfield crowd will be loud for this game, and to me this will be the most entertaining series.

For players that have played in the RVL playoffs before, you understand what this weekend is like. For some, the only reason they play in the RVL is for this weekend and possibly the week to come if your lucky enough to win. This weekend should be a great one just like all the others in the years past, and I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say, “It’s finally here”

New RVL championship poll
July 29, 2010 — Our voters are smart. The winners of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th place poll were Burlington, Vincentown, and Mount Laurel, which ended up being the three winners for those spots in the standings. That option on the pole for all three of those teams received 10 out of 20 votes. Burlington received 16 out of 20 votes for 1st place, Vincentown received 15 out of 20 votes for 3rd place, and Mount Laurel received 17 out of 20 votes for 5th place.

My favorite past poll that we usually see right before the playoffs is, who will be the most heckled player in the playoffs? However, now that Larry has retired, Varga doesn’t seem to be hated anymore, Tabernacle dropped out of the league, Freddy from Tabernacle is no longer involved in the league, Rella doesn’t act like he used to anymore, and Mount Holly’s player who asked his mom to call the cops on the crowd in left field is gone, that poll doesn’t have the same meaning anymore. The new poll is pretty boring, but with such a competitive league this year it’ll be interesting to see what everyone thinks. Who will win the RVL championship this year?

Cinnaminson sweeps Mount Laurel
July 28, 2010 — Cinnaminson takes down Mount Laurel in a preview of this weekend's 3rd playoff game. In a game that saw 10 pitchers and took about 2 and a half hours, Cinnaminson completed the season sweep against Mount Laurel. The final score ended up being a lot to 3. Mount Laurel scored all 3 runs in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Jesse Solar led off with a bunt single and later stole second base. With 1 out Counard walked. O'Reilly then hit a ground ball to second but was able to beat out the double play. After he beat out the double play Cinnaminson tried to throw Solar out at third, who was a little far off, but they threw it away and Solar scored and O'Reilly moved up to second. Then Bret Jenkins hit a 2 run homer. That was all the scoring Mount Laurel was able to put across the plate.

These two teams will face off at Vincentown at 4:00 on Saturday afternoon, in game 1 of the playoffs.

MTL breathes a sigh of relief with 10-7 win over Riverside
July 27, 2010 — Mount Laurel receives another scare from Riverside on Tuesday night in their 5th and final meeting. The game was 1-1 in the top of the 3rd, with 2 outs and nobody on for Riverside up to bat. A ground ball was hit to second and the ball was dropped at first. After that error all hell broke loose. The next batter walked to make it 1st and 2nd. Then a single loaded the bases. Another single scored a run to make it 2-1 young bulls. Then a ground ball to third was thrown away by Mount Laurel and 2 runs scored to make it 4-1, and runners on 2nd and 3rd. Then two consecutive walks made it 5-1 with the bases loaded and the end of the night for MTL pitcher Dave Smith. Jenkins then came in relief and the first batter grounded to third, and an error was made to make it 6-1. Finally, the next batter struck out to end the very long inning. Mount Laurel found themselves down 6-1 going into the bottom of the 3rd, in a game that they would never hear the end of if they lost. Maybe the terrible top of the 3rd was a good thing because there seemed to be a different attitude in the dugout in the middle of the 3rd. With Mount Laurel actually acting like they give a shit, they were able to make a little noise.

Shaun Counard flew to center but the ball was dropped. He then stole second and moved to third on an over throw. Matt Szukics then grounded to third, which scored Counard, and the throw over to first pulled the first baseman off the bag. Brian Black then doubled down the left field line to make it 2nd and 3rd with 0 outs. Pat O’Reilly then grounded out to short but scored Szukics to make it 6-3. Jenkins then doubled down the left field line and Black came into score to make it 6-4. Henry Chou then grounded to short but the ball was bobbled and Chou beat it out. Dan Rella then walked to load the bases followed by another walk to Cooper to score Jenkins and make it 6-5. Riverside was able to get out of the jam with back to back pop-ups. Riverside was held scoreless in the top of the 4th and Mount Laurel was able to tie the score in the bottom of the 4th. Matt Szukics led off with a walk and stole second. After a couple fly-outs to left center, Szukics stole third with 2 outs and was able to score on an overthrow. In the top of the 6th Riverside pushed a run across to take the lead 7-6. In the bottom of the 6th Joe Hydro led off with a single, and then stole second. Shaun Counard then laid down a bunt to third that was thrown into right field. Hydro scored on the error and Counard moved up to 2nd. Matt Szukics then laid down a bunt to move Counard over to third and Riverside got their first out. Brian Black then hit a 2 run homer to make it 9-7. Two batters later Jenkins hit a solo homer to make it 10-7. Riverside was held scoreless and the Laurels held onto win 10-7. A deep sigh of relief was definitely felt from Mount Laurel as they didn’t want to be the first team to give Riverside a win this season. If these guys stay together, are able to pick up a few players, get a coach that can get a little order and coach third base, and they mature a little bit, than they will definitely win a few games next year. They were definitely a different team at the end of the year compared to the beginning. Don’t get me wrong they are going to take their beatings this weekend against Burlington, but they have showed some growth.

Mount Laurel plays its 34th and final game of the regular season Wednesday night at 7:30 against Cinnaminson. The game is at Cinnaminson Memorial Park.

MTL sleepwalks and barely wins
July 26, 2010 — Mount Laurel beat winless Riverside by 1 run, in a day where there were four 1-run games in the RVL. Ernie Covington pitched a complete game 2 hitter and didn't give up a run until 2 outs in the 7th. Mount Laurel's bats were once again quiet, which is not a good sign leading up to the playoffs this weekend. In addition to Riverside's normal behavior of yelling at their own teammates every time they make a mistake, they also decided to get into a verbal battle with the Laurels. For the third inning in a row, Riverside's pitcher took a while to come out of the dug-out to start the inning. Mount Laurel asked him to pick it up a little so we could play all 7 innings, but he didn't appreciate that. This led to a verbal battle that felt like we were arguing with an 8th grader. Riverside has 2 more chance to win on Tuesday night and Wednesday night or they become the first team, at least as far back as I recall, to go the entire season without a win.

MTL and Pemberton canceled due to rain on Sunday
July 25, 2010 — The 5th game of the series between Mount Laurel and Pemberton was canceled on Sunday because of the weather. No make-up game has been announced at the moment.

Cinnaminson shuts out MTL 5-0
July 24, 2010 — Mount Laurel and Cinnaminson played on Saturday night to make up a rain-out. Just like every game this year it was scorching hot. Luckily the game was quick due to Varga’s work on the mound against the Laurels. Varga threw 6 innings and was able to shut out MTL and only give up 5 singles in his 6 innings of work. Jim Goodwin pitched the 7th for Cinnaminson and gave up a single and a double but was able to get through the inning without giving up a run. Mount laurel has only scored 4 runs in their last 22 innings. Justin Streleckis through 5 for Mt. Laurel and Sean McNeil through the 6th. These two teams will play their 5th and final regular season game on Wednesday night at Cinn at 7:30.

Mount Laurel's next game is Sunday at 4:00 against Pemberton at Hainesport.

Delran takes the game and the series over Mount Laurel
July 22, 2010 — Delran beat MTL 4-2 on Thursday night, which gave Delran the series win 3 games to 2. It was a well pitched game by both Mike Cooper and Eric Gertie, and because of that the game only took about an hour and a half. Gertie was able to hold Mt. Laurel to 5 hits, 2 of them being infield singles.

Delran was first to get on the board with a run in the 2nd inning, and held a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the 5th. At this point Gertie had a perfect game going, as he had faced 12 Mt. Laurel batters and sat down all 12 of them. In the bottom of the 5th Jenkins led off with a swinging bunt single, which broke up the perfect game. He then moved to second on a passed ball and later scored on a 2 out single by Shawn Counard. In the top of the 6th Delran added another run to make it 4-1. In the bottom of the 6th Jesse Solar led off with an infield single, and then he stole second. Later he scored on a single hit by Henry Chou, which made the score 4-2. Neither team scored a run in the 7th, and Delran took the game and the series.

Mount Laurel plays next on Saturday night against Cinnaminson. The game starts at 7:00 and is at Cinnaminson Memorial Park.

Failed Poll
July 21, 2010 — Unfortunately the poll about who you would want on the mound in the last inning of game 5 of the championship was a total bust. I was curious to see who everyone would want, but unfortunately a couple people thought it would be cool to vote for Cooper and Mingin over and over again. No offense to the two of them as I think they are both great pitchers, but there is no way that they received 57 votes and 25 votes respectively in less than 2 days especially since I don‘t even know if that many people visited the site in that time. Shaun Babula received the most votes other than those two.

There are 3 races currently going on in the standings. Burlington and Delran are fighting for 1st, Vincentown and Cinnaminson are fighting for 3rd, and Willingboro and Mount Laurel are fighting for 5th. All three races are within 2 points of each other in the standings. The next poll is asking who do you think will win each of these races. Since I can’t put up three separate questions as who do you think will finish in front of the other, I’ll put it up as one question. So vote for who you think will get 1st, 3rd, and 5th place. For instance, if you think Delran is going to get 1st place, Vincentown is going to get 3rd place, and Willingboro is going to get 5th, than click on the Delran, V-town, Boro button. Let’s see if we can keep it to one vote per person on this one.

Delran beats undisciplined and inexperienced Mt. Laurel
July 20, 2010 — Mount Laurel and Delran squared off Tuesday night at Harry Thompson field. The reason for the game being played in Vincentown was because Delran had to play Vincentown after our game. This was the 4th meeting between the two teams, and the 2nd in less than a week. Just like every game this summer, it was about 94 degrees and felt like 104. With the heat and dry air, the fact that the game was played at hitter friendly Vincentown, and also knowing that two position players, Wickersham and Jenkins were pitching, the over under of runs scored was set at 13.5.

The first 2 innings went scoreless with Mt. Laurel leaving men at 2nd and 3rd to end the second. In the bottom of the 3rd Mount Laurel was able to push a run across. Joe Hydro singled up the middle and moved up to second base on Matt Szukics’ ground out. Then Brett Tiagwad followed with a double to knock in Hydro, and give Mt. laurel the 1-0 lead. Mt. Laurel continued to threaten in the inning as a single was hit by Shawn Counard to right field, however Tiagwad didn’t move up from second to third on the hit. A few pitches later Workman was able to throw Tiagwad out at third trying to advance on a past ball. Then Pat O’Reilly’s fly ball to left center was the third out rather than a sac fly. The lead didn’t last very long because in the top of the 4th Delran was able to push 3 runs across. In the bottom of the 4th Mount Laurel threatened again. Jenkins lead off with a walk, followed by a walk to Henry Chou, and a single by Rella to load the bases with 0 outs. Then as Wickersham seemed to be struggling a little bit, Kevin Diamond swung at a 2-0 pitch and grounded it down third. Dave Kittle made a nice diving stop and threw Jenkins out at home. Then Joe Hydro was hit by a pitch to score Chou, and make it 3-2. After that Wickersham was able to get out of the bases loaded jam with a strikeout followed by a flyout and MTL failed to capitalize on another opportunity. In the top of the 6th Delran was able to put another run across to make it 4-2. This inning could have been much worse but on a single up the middle Tiagwad was able to throw out Rocky at the plate on a great throw from center. In the bottom of the 6th Mt. Laurel threatened again as they had first and third with one out and Tiagwad up to bat, their fastest runner on the team. Tiagwad hit a semi-hard hit ball to short that Delran was able turn for two very easily since the ball wasn’t ran out hard to first, and another solid opportunity went to waste. In the bottom of the 7th Delran added yet another run to make it 5-2, and Wick sat down the Laurels 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 7th to end the game. Hats off to Wick for pitching a great game. Mt. Laurel had many opportunities but failed as they left 9 guys on base, plus had 2 guys thrown out at third and one at home.

These two teams will square off for the 5th and final time on Thursday at 6:15 at Notre Dame field. The series is currently tied 2-2.

Mount Laurel beats the storm and Pemberton
July 19, 2010 — Mt. Laurel was in a hurry to try and get this game official, as a storm was definitely looming. The no throw around rule was put into affect, and there was a little more hustle than normal in between innings. It wasn't as if they were winning by a ton and had a guaranteed victory if the game became official, but there are no days that this game could have been made up. Which I'm sure is something every team is going through at the end of this season.

Mt. Laurel got off to a 4-0 victory in the top of the first, but Pemberton answered with 4 of their own in the bottom of the 1st. Then after P-ton scored 2 more in the bottom of the 2nd, MTL found themselves down. However, they quickly regained the lead with 3 in the top of the third and had a 7-6 lead. This is when the speed up rules came into affect as the skys were black and the wind started swirling. Mt. Laurel added 4 more in the 5th to make it 11-6, and they were also able to get the game official. The game even made it all the way to 2 outs in the bottom of the 6th, when the game was called as it was pretty much pitch black and lighting seemed to be close by. Mt. Laurel was happy to get out of Pemberton with an official game, and a victory was a bonus.

Boro homers past Mt. Laurel again, 13-8.
July 18, 2010 — A second home-run derby was held on Sunday at Hainesport. 8 home runs were hit, 4 by each team, and even righties were able to hit homers unlike in the home-run derby. This was the 5th and final game of the regular season for Willingboro and Mount Laurel, and Boro was able to take 4 of the 5 games including the last 4.

Even though Mt. Laurel lost they still had some great performances. Shawn Counard went 2-4 with 2 homers and 2 runs and 3 RBI’s. Kevin Diamond went 3-3 with 2 doubles, 1 run, 1 RBI, and a walk. Dan Rella went 2-4 with 2 runs, 1 RBI, and a home-run. Matt Szukics went yard again, and had a run, 2 RBI's, and a walk to go with it. Jesse Solar went 2-4 and added an RBI. All that doesn’t sound like a team that lost by 5 runs, but that’s what happens when you give up 13.

New poll about RVL pitchers
July 18, 2010 — I didn’t plan on leaving the retirement poll up there for so long, but due to the interest in the question I kept it up there. 55 votes were casted on the poll, which shows how much these 4 guys mean to the league. Gary Herron received the most votes with 21 and Bujanowski Sr. received the least amount of votes with 7. Hopefully none of these guys ever retire.

The all-star game this weekend got me thinking about the next poll. As you looked around the RVL all-star team one thing occurred to me; this league has some really good pitchers. There was even a bunch of good pitchers missing. So the question is: If your team was up by 1 run in the bottom of the 7th, in game 5 of the championship series, which RVL pitcher would you want on the mound to get the last 3 outs to win the championship for your team? If I didn’t put you up and you think you deserve to be there, I just chose the pitchers who pitched in the all-star game, or were voted to the all-star game and didn’t end up pitching. Sorry.

RVL all-stars win a 13-1 laugher over the NJIBL all-stars
July 17, 2010 — Clearly the NJIBL all-stars were overmatched by the RVL all-stars. Having all the players from different teams at Vincentown at one time made it seem like a playoff atmosphere, however the RVL players put about a fifth of intensity into the game as they do a playoff game. It was hard to really get into the game when it was clear that you were playing a team that had no chance of making it a game. The highlight of the night might have very well been John Meadus’ dad umpiring him behind the plate as he was on the mound. Even the elder Meadus who I’m sure didn’t want to show any bias towards his son, couldn’t help the NJIBL all-stars as John pitched 2 scoreless innings. Oh wait there was also Shaun Babula who picked a NJIBL player off of first, and as Kellen Peter caught the ball at first the kid hadn’t even taken a step back to first base yet.

The 4 Mt. Laurel players were all happy to represent the team in the game. They actually felt like it was a regular game for them since there were many all-stars who were voted into the game and didn’t show up, just like Mt. Laurel hasn’t had a full squad at one game all year this season. To update the 4 MTL players:

Mike Cooper: 1 IP, 0 hits, 0 walks, 1 K
Matt Szukics: 0-1, 2 Walks, 1 Run Scored
Brian Black: 0-2, 1 Walk
Bret Jenkins 2-3, 2 RBI’s, 2 Runs Scored

MTL-5 ; DELRAN-0
July 15, 2010 — Mount Laurel beat Delran for the second time this season, 5-0. Mike Cooper threw the complete game 5 hit shutout for MTL. Chris Maull threw 4 innings for Delran and Eric Gertie finished the last 3.

Mount Laurel got out to an early lead with 2 runs in the 1st. Brian Black had an infield single and Bret Jenkins followed with a walk. Pat O’Reilly then hit a fly ball to right that was dropped, which loaded the bases with 1 out. Kevin Diamond then reached out and singled a 2 strike pitch to left to score Black and Jenkins. Mount Laurel added 2 more runs in the 3rd, when Jenkins led off with a double and advanced to third on a ground out by O’Reilly. Kevin Diamond walked and later moved to second on a stolen base. With runners at 2nd and 3rd and 2 outs Dan Rella doubled in the left-center gap to knock in Jenkins and Diamond. In the 7th Mount Laurel added 1 more run when Matt Szukics doubled and was moved to third on a ground out by Brian Black. Pat O’Reilly later knocked in Szukics with 2 outs on an infield single to give Mount Laurel their 5th and final run. Cooper only got into a couple of jams on the mound for Mt. Laurel, and was able to get out of any trouble he ran into. These two teams will see each other 2 more times before the end of the season.

Brian Black and Mike Cooper were both added to the all-star roster. Both players are rookies, which means that 3 of the 4 Mount Laurel representatives in the all-star game are in their first year in the RVL. Congratulations to Black and Cooper.

Make-ups announced
July 13, 2010 — Mount Laurel and Cinnaminson announced that they are making up their two rain-out games on:
Saturday, July 24th @ 7 and
Wednesday, July 28th @ 7:30 both at Cinnaminson

Willingboro rallies against Mount Laurel to win............AGAIN
July 13, 2010 — Willingboro scored in the bottom of the 7th to beat Mount Laurel 6-5. This was the third time this year that Willingboro has come back from a deficit against MTL and beat them.

Willingboro scored the first run in the bottom of the 3rd, to get the early lead. Mount Laurel then answered in the top of the 4th when Ernie Covington led off with a walk and Dan Rella followed with a single. Mike Cooper then sac bunted the two guys over to make it second and third with 1 out. Jesse Solar then singled home both Covington and Rella to give MTL the lead. Matt Szukics then doubled to knock in Solar and Brian Black followed with a single and moved Szukics to third to make it first and third with 1 out. Shawn Counard then singled to score Szukics and Black moved to third. Counard and Black then had a successful first and third steal to score Black and make it 5-1. As the game started to darken Willingboro was able to put 3 runs on the board in the bottom of the 5th to make it 5-4. In the bottom of the 6th Willingboro scored a run on a solo homer with 2 outs to make it 5-5. Lastly, in the bottom of the 7th Boro scored a run to win the game 6-5.

Mount Laurel's next game is against first place Delran on Thursday.

Burlington squeaks by Mount Laurel 15-3
July 12, 2010 — Clearly the title of this summary was a joke. Burlington embarrased Mount Laurel for a second time this season. This was MTL and Burlington's 5th and final regular season meeting this year, with Burlington winning 3 times, MTL got 1 win, and there was 1 tie. Burlington began the massacre with 13 runs in the 1st inning, including a grand slam by Garrett Mull and a homerun by Dave Jost that is still going. Dave Smith and Bret Jenkins combined to throw the first inning gem for Mount Laurel. Jenkins received phone calls after the game from RVL executives to throw batting practice for this weekend's homerun derby. He agreed as long as the champ gives him 25% of the winning pot. Matt Szukics had one of the few bright spots for Mount Laurel with a lead off homer.

Rookie, Szukics, 1 of 2 players that will represent MTL in this weekend's all-star game
July 11, 2010 — Mount Laurel will have 2 players representing them in Saturday’s all-star game, which is at Vincentown at 7pm. One of those players is rookie Matt Szukics, who was voted as the reserve third baseman in the game. It’s not easy to become an instant star when you first join the RVL especially since for most rookies it‘s the first time they‘re using wooden bats on a consistent basis, but Szukics has had no problem making the adjustment. If my research is correct Matt is the only position player voted into the all star game that is a rookie. Matt is hitting .382 with an on base percentage of .477. He is second on the team in hits and runs with 21 and 17 respectively. Not to mention he has played a great defensive third base all year. Szukics was a huge free agent pick-up for Mount Laurel this off season and will hopefully be a mainstay for MTL for a long time. Bret Jenkins will join Matt in the all-star game, and will start at short-stop.

Mount Laurel wins by forfeit
July 11, 2010 — MTL showed up to play Pemberton on Sunday, but was given the win by way of forfeit due to a lack of players on Pemberton's side. Pemberton only had 7 players counting their coach. Mount Laurel will take any win they can get, but would have much rather played the game.

Cooper leads Mount Laurel against the Mets
July 8, 2010 — Mount Laurel got its first win against Burlington this season, winning 8-3. This was a big win for MTL not just because Burlington is currently in first place, but to hopefully gain some momentum leading into the end of the season.

Burlington started out the top of the first scoring 2 runs with 2 outs. In an effort to not fall too far behind a great team and a great pitcher Mount Laurel knew they had to put a few runs on the board. Brett Tiagwat led off the first for MTL with a walk, and later stole 2nd. With 1 out and Tiagwad on second Brian Black hit a sharp grounder in the hole on the left side and Burlington’s short stop Dan Hennigan made a great diving play to stop it. However, when trying to throw Tiagwat out at third he threw the ball away to put Mount Laurel on the board. Jenkins was then hit with a pitch, followed by an RBI single by Kevin Diamond to tie the game at 2. Dan Rella then walked to load the bases. Ernie Covington followed with a double knocking in Jenkins and Diamond to make it 4-2. Mike Cooper then singled to knock in Rella, and Ernie tried to score from 2nd. A great throw was made by Burlington’s centerfielder Dave Jost and in an effort to jar the ball loose Covington trucked Burlington’s catcher Joe Mastrangelo, who was able to hold onto the ball despite the trucking that was done by Ernie. Major props needs to go to Mastrangelo who was able to hold onto the ball and stay in and play the rest of the game, even though Ernie isn’t a little guy and Mastrangelo isn’t a big guy.

The scored remained 5-2 until the 5th inning when Mount Laurel added 2 runs. Brian Black led off with a single, followed by a single from Jenkins. Brian Black was then picked off trying to steal 3rd but was able to creatively slide into 3rd and make it safely to give Mount Laurel runners at 2nd and 3rd. Later in the inning Dan Rella doubled to knock in Black and Jenkins and give MTL a 7-2 lead. In the top of the 6th inning Burlington scored a run to make it 7-3. Mount Laurel then answered in the bottom of the 6th when Tiagwat and Matt Szuckis hit back to back doubles. In the 7th, Mike Cooper finished his complete game effort on the mound, and gave MTL the 8-3 win.

Anytime you beat Burlington it’s a big win, but it’s not the same without them having Pauly. Best wishes to Guerrieri on healing the arm. That being said a win is a win, and MTL has a mini winning streak now at 3 games. Their next game is against Pemberton on Sunday.

Mount Laurel wins a game too close for comfort against Riverside
July 7, 2010 — MTL beat Riverside 10-7. Riverside put 3 runs up in the top of the 1st before Mount Laurel even came up to bat. A few innings later MTL took the lead but to Riverside's credit they came back and tied it. Mount Laurel then scored 4 in the bottom of the 5th, and Riverside scored 1 in the top of the 6th before the game was called due to darkness. Riverside deserves props for battling and playing hard. They even lowered the amount of yelling they did at each other. They only yelled at each other for errors and other mistakes about 4 or 5 times which is about half as much as they normally do.

Ernie Covington received the win for Mount Laurel on the mound and Brian Black closed out the 6th. Offensively, Black had 2 triples with 3 RBI's and 3 runs scored. Jenkins had 3 hits and 4 RBI's.

MTL-9 ; RIVERSIDE-0
July 6, 2010 — Dave Smith threw a 6 inning, complete game, 1 hitter. The game was called after 6 due to either darkness or boredom.

Mount Laurel loses again
July 5, 2010 — Willingboro topped Mount Laurel 8-4 in a game played at Vincentown. It was reported a record 120 degrees on the field. Boro scored all 8 of its runs with 2 outs.

Willingboro took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning with 2 outs on a balk to score a run, and then an RBI single. The game remained 2-0 until the bottom of the 5th when Willingboro added another run on a 2 out RBI single to make it 3-0. In the top of the 6th MTL finally woke up a little after having 13 consecutive scoreless innings, since they scored a run in the 6th inning against Burlington last Tuesday. Counard led off with taking a fastball to the back. Then Jenkins singled to make it first and third with 0 outs. Kevin Diamond aka Meat then hit a sac fly to finally put Mount Laurel on the board. Mike Cooper then walked and Ernie followed with an RBI single to make it 3-2. Rella and Joe Homan hit back to back balls that were tough plays for Boro’s shortstop that he was unable to come up with. With it now 3-3 and the bases loaded and 1 out, Jesse Solar took a pitch off the shoulder to give MTL the lead 4-3. Mount Laurel was so excited to finally have the lead they forgot how to run the bases and had a guy picked off third for the second out, and a guy thrown out at home on a passed to ball to end the inning with Mount Laurel having a 4-3 lead. Jenkins then relieved Justin Streleckis to start the bottom of the 6th, and he preceded to get his titties ripped in batting practice fashion. With 2 outs and men on second and third Boro got a single to knock in 2 runs and take the 5-4 lead. Then a walk and a 3 run homer gave them an 8-4 lead. Mike Hynes, who came in relief during the 6th inning, closed the door for Willingboro in the 7th. Mount Laurel is 0-4-1 in their last 5 games after getting their record to .500.

Mount Laurel plays 2 straight against Riverside on Tuesday and Wednesday, in 2 no win situation games. No one wants to be the first team to give Riverside a win, and if you do beat them you were supposed to win. Who knows maybe Mount Laurel can get 2 in the win column, but nothing is definite the way they are playing recently.

LEGENDS poll
July 1, 2010 — Tabernacle wins a close race as everyone's favorite team that has dropped out of the RVL, in the past few years. I think that the 8 people that voted for second place Browns Mills voted for them to mock them, however they did almost win the poll.

Our next poll involves some of the legends in the RVL. There are 4 very special players/coaches in this league that have been involved in the league longer than most of us have been alive, and impress us all every night they touch the field. This is not to mock the age of these guys, but to praise them and point out how impressive they are in what they do. First, Harry Thompson. Harry has been the coach for Vincentown forever, and has been very successful. He has coached more players than the amount of people most of us have ever met. He never misses a game and is always in good spirits. Next, is John Bujanowski Sr. As everyone knows the guy flat out rakes. You know what your doing is special when your son plays right next to you in the field. Then is Jeff Vitale. Don’t dare hit the ball down the third baseline against Burlington because you won’t get on base. The way he moves at third you would think he is about to turn 20, but if I heard correctly he is about to turn 50. Lastly, Garry Herron. A great coach in the spring, who has no fear lacing them up come summertime. As of now he has played in 11 games this year and started in 9. He caught 7 innings against us once this year, and I don’t think we had one stolen base on him. I personally hope none of these guys ever leave the league because it won‘t be the same without them, but we all know that it will happen someday. In your opinion, who will be the first one of these 4 to hang up the spikes from the RVL?

The Merchants smoke Mount Laurel
July 1, 2010 — Mount Laurel gets shellacked by Vincentown 10-0. In the 5th and final regular season game of the season against these two teams, it wasn’t much of a contest. I personally think Mt. Laurel and Vincentown will be playing on Saturday night July 31st so I don’t think it’s the last time these two teams will be seeing each other. Tonight the Merchants scored 1 in the 2nd, 4 in the 4th, and 5 in the 5th against MTL. They scored on a bunch of errors, numerous hits, and plenty of walks. It was a nightmare, and there wasn’t even a space station sighting. Hopefully July 31st will have a different outcome.

From what I hear MTL has a make-up game against Willingboro on Monday, July 5th. Supposedly this game is being played at Vincentown. I guess its a replay of Mount Laurel and Willingboro in the playoffs from years ago. The only thing that will be missing is Varga, Larry Davies, and "IT'S HAPPENING."

MTL loses heart breaker to first place Mets
June 29, 2010 — The Mets edged Mount Laurel 6-5 in the bottom of the 7th. This was the 3rd straight day that Mount Laurel played Burlington and all MTL has to show for it is a tie. However, after the first game where the Mets won a laugher 15-2, MTL did show that they could play with the first place Mets.

Mount Laurel got off to a great start in the first inning, by scoring 4 runs. Brett Tiagwad led off with a walk, followed by Matt Szuckis getting hit with a pitch. Brian Black then laid down a bunt to the pitcher in which was fielded and over throw to 3rd base. That put a run across and runners on 2nd and 3rd with 0 outs. Jenkins then hit a ground rule double to knock in the 2 runs. A few hitters later Mike Cooper hit an RBI single to knock in Rella and give Mount Laurel the 4-0 lead. Burlington scored 2 in the bottom of the 1st off of Jenkins on a walk, single, and dropped pop-up to centerfield. Ace Robinson then settled in for Burlington and threw 4 scoreless innings to follow the first. In the bottom of the 4th Burlington scored 3 more off of Jenkins on a combination of infield singles, some errors, and a ground rule double by Shaun Babula. With Burlington up 5-4 in the 6th and Kevin McGovern in relief for Ace, Brett Tiagwad hit a slow roller to short with the bases loaded to tie the game at 5. In the bottom of 7th and the first two guys out, Dan Graham walked and moved to second on a passed ball, then Paul Guerrieri was intentionally walked, and Dave Jost ended the game with a hit over the right fielders head.

Mount Laurel’s next game is Thursday night at Vincentown at 8:00.

MTL and the Mets continue the new RVL fad with a tie.
June 28, 2010 — After yesterday’s debacle Mount Laurel was hoping to show up and at least give Burlington a game. It was Mount Laurel’s first trip to Life Center this season. As so many games have so far this season in the RVL, the game ended in a 7-7 tie. The game never went into extra innings because it was called a tie due to darkness.

Mount Laurel got its scoring started in the 2nd inning when Mike Cooper hit a double to knock in Ernie Covington, and then later Cooper scored on a sac fly hit by Bill Edger. Burlington had a 3-2 edge in the top of the 5th when MTL tied it on an RBI single by Jenkins to knock in Szuckis. In the bottom of the 5th Burlington added 3 runs on a homerun by Dave Jost. Down 6-3 going into the 6th inning Mount Laurel woke up a little. With 2 outs and nobody on Bill Edger and Brett Tiagwad both got on base. Then Szuckis knocked in Edger on a ground rule double to make it 6-4. Jenkins followed with a triple to knock in Tiagwad and Szuckis to tie it at 6. Shawn Counard then got an RBI broken bat single to give Mt. Laurel the 7-6 lead. In the bottom of the 6th with 2 outs and a man on third, Mike Cooper, who was in relief for Justin Streleckis, had Paul Guerrieri down 0-2 but gave him a hittable fastball and Paul didn’t miss it and hit an RBI single to tie the game at 7. Neither team scored in the 7th, and it was called a tie.

Mount Laurel goes to Life Center again tomorrow.

Mount Laurel gets embarrassed on their home field
June 27, 2010 — MTL’s first meeting with Burlington this season was an embarrassing one. The Mets smoke them 15-2 in only their 2nd real home game of the year. There is a good update of the game on Burlington’s website. MTL apologizes to the Mets for wasting their time with this game. One of the only positives for Mount Laurel was a homerun by Mike Cooper. Mount Laurel gets another shot at the Mets tomorrow night at Life Center.

MTL has walk-off homer in marathon game against V-Town
June 24, 2010 — In what had to be one of the longest games in RVL history, Mount Laurel snuck by Vincentown with a walk-off victory 14-13. This was a game that had a ton of hits, too many walks, a lot of hit batters, I don’t think any 1,2,3 innings, 4 homeruns, 6 lead changes, and a space station citing(I’ll explain later). If Chris Wheeler was announcing the game, he would have annoyingly proclaimed this game as being a “goofy game” as he says every Phillies game is.

Mount Laurel got out to an early 1-0 lead in the first when Brian Black singled, then Bret Jenkins singled, followed by a single by Pat O’Reilly to load the bases. Kevin Diamond then hit a sac fly to center to put Mount Laurel on the board. Vincentown then answered with 3 runs in the top of the third to give them the lead. Mount Laurel then answered with 3 runs in their half of the third. Black led off the inning by getting hit in the shoulder, Jenkins followed with a single, and then O‘Reilly flew out to center. With first and second and 1 out MTL got back to back walks by Kevin Diamond and Dan Rella to score a run. Then Ernie Covington followed with a sac fly on a deep fly ball to right center, which tied the game at 3. The final run of the inning came on a RBI double to left center by Joe Hydro. Mount Laurel was then able to follow up with 3 more runs in the bottom of the 4th. Szuckis led off with a bunt single, then Black walked, and a past ball shortly followed to make it 2nd and 3rd with 0 outs. Jenkins then hit a sac fly, followed by a 2 run homer by O’Reilly over the right field wall, to extend Mount Laurel‘s lead to 7-3.

The 5th inning surprisingly went scoreless. Legendary manager Harry Thompson then led an inspirational speech to start the 6th inning, by yelling at Vincentown “LET’S GO, ENOUGH OF THIS, LET’S GET SOMETHING GOING.” His speech clearly worked for the Vincentown bats as they answered with 6 runs. They scored their first run of the inning when they had the bases loaded and a ball was misplayed in right field. With the bases still loaded Bubba DeFabio hit a grand slam over the right field wall, to give the Merchants an 8-7 lead. Stefan Kancylarz then went back to back with DeFabio as he immediately followed with a homer over the right field fence. Vincentown was now up 9-7 and had all the momentum. What comes next is definitely a first in RVL history. As John Bujanowski Sr. stepped into the box to hit next, Harry started yelling “time, time, there’s the space station, that’s the space station, we may never be able to see this again.” Time was then called and all of Mount Laurel’s players in the field, all of Vincentown’s players who are now out of the dugout, and every spectator in the stands were staring in the sky as a speck of light was moving across the sky. I can’t make this type of stuff up. Apparently, it really was the space station and after about 30 seconds of everyone watching this speck of light move, Vincentown’s Mike Ferrara came to his senses and yelled, “ok great, PLAY BALL.” Following the observation Mount Laurel got out of the inning with no more damage.

After seeing something so special as the space station, Mount Laurel knew there was magic in the air and knew that they could still comeback in this game. Szuckis started the bottom of the 6th with a single threw the hole, Black followed by getting hit with a pitch for the second time in the game, and Jenkins then had a bunt single to load the bases with 0 outs. O’Reilly then singled to score 2 runs and tie the game, and Kevin Diamond followed with a walk to load the bases and still 0 outs. Dan Rella then singled to center, and all 3 runs scored, after the ball went under the centerfielder’s glove and rolled for quite a bit. Mount Laurel added one more run as Joe Hydro’s groundout scored Rella to make the score 13-9.

You would think the game would then be over and Mount Laurel would be able to shut the door in the 7th after regaining the momentum and having a 4 run lead. MTL’s Sean McNeil, aka squirrel, who was in his 2nd inning of relief for Mike Cooper, started the top of the 7th by walking the first 2 guys and then gave up a single to load the bases and 0 outs. Jenkins then volunteered to try and get Mount Laurel out of the jam even though he threw 7 innings the night before. He showed he didn’t have much as he got out of the inning, but not after he let in all 3 runners he inherited and 1 runner of his own to allow Vincentown to tie it at 13 all. In the bottom of the 7th Jenkins led the inning off with a homerun over the left field fence to finally end the game, 14-13. This was Mount Laurel’s first walk-off homerun since Torres did it against Cinnaminson many years ago.

With the win Mount Laurel finally reached .500 for the first time this season, and they are 7-3 in their last 10 games. They now have to play first place Burlington on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. These will be the first meetings of the season for MTL and Burlington.

MTL barely beats Pemberton
June 23, 2010 — Mount Laurel traveled to Pemberton on by far the hottest day of the year thus far. In the heat MTL was able to edge Pemberton 5-4 in a pretty well played game. This was Mt. Laurel’s first look at Krankowski, and he is all that Pemberton’s site hypes him up to be.

Mount Laurel got off to a great start in the first. Matt Szuckis led off with a chopper to third that was booted, then Brian Black laid down a bunt single, followed by a walk to Matt Tiagwad, in his first game of the season, to load the bases with 0 outs. Bret Jenkins then tripled to right center to clear the bases, followed by a single by Kevin Diamond to knock in Jenkins, and Mount Laurel had a 4-0 lead before Pemberton even got an out. Krankowski then went into shut down mode to follow that. Jenkins was on the mound for the road team, and held a 4-0 lead into the third when a combination of hits, walks, errors, and a hit batter allowed Pemberton to tie the game at 4. Both Krankowski and Jenkins ran into a couple jams in the middle innings but were able to get out of them, and the game remained tied at 4-4 heading into the 7th. In the top of the 7th Black led off with a single, then Matt Tiagwad singled while Black was stealing to make it first and third with 0 outs. Jenkins then followed with a swinging bunt towards first that Pemberton’s first baseman fielded and threw home, which was late as Black slid in safely. Jenkins held Pemberton in the 7th and Mount Laurel held on to win 5-4.

Mount Laurel travels to Vincentown tomorrow, to once again try and get their record back to .500.

Willingboro's late run beats MTL
June 22, 2010 — Mount Laurel blew a 6-1 lead against Willingboro to lose probably its most disappointing game of the season. With a golden opportunity to move to .500 on the season and move up in the standings, they lost 8-6.

Mount Laurel got 2 RBI’s from Brian Black and 2 RBI’s and 2 hits from Dan Rella. Mike Cooper also added an RBI. Dave Smith had a strong start on the mound, but was unable to hold the Willingboro line-up down throughout the game. Kellen Peter and Mike Lofredo both added 3 hits and had 2 and 1 RBI’s respectively. Brett McLaughlin or Laser as he was once nicknamed also added 2 RBI’s.

Out with the old and in with the new
If you have played Mount Laurel in the past few weeks you've probably noticed that they've finally gotten rid of their American Flag uniforms. This uniform has been the staple of Mount Laurel for quite sometime now, but has been of some discomfort for the team. The players have been mentioning to manager Dean Johnson about a change for a little bit now, and he came through by getting rid of the heavy and very hot t-shirt plus vest uniform. The new uniforms are a plain red t-shirt with Mt. Laurel printed on the front. With Mount Laurel changing their uniforms, now the most famous uniform in the league is Mike Osborne's black t-shirt.

Who is your favorite team that has dropped out of the league?
June 20, 2010 — Ryan Varga won Mount Laurel's second ever poll, as he was chosen as the RVL's best free agent pick-up, even though he probably voted at least 5 times for himself. The next poll should be interesting to see who wins. In the past few years there has been many teams that have dropped out of the league. There could be a couple questions to pose with these teams. Who was your favorite? Who was the best? Who was the worst? Who was ridiculed the most? Which one would you like to come back to the RVL? Maybe we can make these different polls throughout the year, but for this poll we're going to stick with who was your favorite RVL team to drop out of the league in the past few years?

Mount Laurel outslugs Pemberton 14-6
June 17, 2010 — Mount Laurel beat Pemberton 14-6 in their first match-up of the year. MTL had to get their scoring and confidence back at the plate after D-ran shut them out two days before. 11 hits, 9 walks and 5 Pemberton errors hopefully got them back on track.

At the plate Brett Tiagwad, in only his 2nd game of the season, paced Mount Laurel’s offense with 3 hits and 4 runs scored. Kevin Diamond, Tim Edger in his 2nd game of the season, and Shane Fox in his 1st game of the season led the team with 2 RBI’s respectively. Justin Kiss threw 4 innings, while Ernie Covington added 2, followed by Brian Black who closed out the 6 inning shortened game due to darkness.

Mount Laurel takes on Willingboro on Tuesday, and will try to move to .500 for the first time this season.

Ronca shuts the door on Mount Laurel's bats
June 15, 2010 — Delran beat Mount Laurel 3-0 in a game dominated by Ronca. Mount Laurel also got some good pitching as Mike Cooper threw a nice complete game but Ronca had the upper hand on Tuesday night. A little fire was fueled by a guestbook writer, (who I don’t think was even from Mt. Laurel, just someone trying to pose as a MTL player to start some bad blood) after Mt. Laurel’s last win against Delran a few weeks ago. Delran seemed to shut that poster up after tonight’s win.

In the top of the first Mount Laurel sent 5 hitters to the plate, none of which put the ball in play after 3 strike-outs a walk and a hit batter by Ronca. Cooper was just as dominate with a 1,2,3 inning in the bottom of the 1st. Ronca had a couple more strike-outs and gave up a hit in the 2nd, while Cooper worked out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom half. Ronca let a couple guys get on in the 3rd but got out of it, and ended the inning with having 7 total strike-outs in 3 innings. In the bottom of the 3rd Delran got the first two guys on base with routine ground balls that Mount Laurel made errors on. Then Wick was hit with a pitch to load the bases with 0 outs. Dave Kittle followed with an RBI single to drive in a run, then a sac fly was hit by Steve Bejsiuk to score another. Cooper got out of the inning with only giving up 2 runs. Mount Laurel threatened in the top of the 6th when they had first and second with no outs, but were unable to score any runs. Ronca finished the game with 11 total K’s. Delran added 1 more run in the bottom of the 6th with an RBI single by Rocky.

Today was Mount Laurel’s 10th game that was played this year, and they have an unimpressive 4-6 record. However, they started off 0-4, and are 4-2 since. Next game is Thursday against Pemberton, for the first time this year.

MTL-15 ; NJIBL-0
June 14, 2010 — Mount Laurel came out on top against NJIBL 15-0. Not too much to report here.

Mount Laurel has big lead spoiled due to weather
June 13, 2010 — Mount Laurel had an 8-0 lead in the 2nd inning against Cinnaminson when the game was called due to pouring rain, on Sunday. Mount Laurel got out to a very big lead and looked to be playing some good ball, but all for nothing.

MTL scored 4 in the first inning, off of an RBI single by Jenkins to score Szuckis and then a 3 run homer by Mike Cooper. They added 4 more in the second off an errant throw on an infield single by Cooper that scored O'Reilly, an RBI single by Brian Black to score Jenkins, an error hit by Rella to score Cooper, and an RBI single by Kevin Diamond to score Black. Mount Laurel had the bases loaded and 2 outs in the bottom of the 2nd when the game was called. From what I hear the game has to start over and doesn't pick up in the 2nd inning with Mount Laurel having an 8-0 lead. Unfortunate.

Mount Laurel takes down V-Town 8-2
June 10, 2010 — Mount Laurel took care of Vincentown 8-2 on Thursday night at Harry Thompson field. For the first time in the young season Mount Laurel actually looked like a real baseball team. It was the first time they looked good on offense, defense, and pitching. Whether it is because guys actually showed up, or Rella's pre-game speech, hopefully it's here to stay.

MTL took an early lead with a 3 run homer by Jenkins, in the top of the 1st, that went over the left field fence by about 3 feet. The Merchants then answered with a run in the bottom of the 1st with an RBI single by Ferrara. In the bottom of the 2nd the Merchants answered with another run on a sac fly, to cut the score to 3-2. In the top of the 3rd the red white and blue added 3 more runs, on an RBI single by Jenkins that scored Counard, a sac fly by Brian Black that scored Jenkins, and Mike Cooper scored on an errant throw to third while he was trying to steal. Mount Laurel added another run in the 4th when Jenkins hit a duck fart for a ground out to short, that scored Kevin Lieb. Finally in the 5th MTL scored its 8th and final run when Rella scored on a line drive by Matt Szuckis that hit off the glove of a leaping Kancylarz at short stop. Mount Laurel, whose pitching seems to be doing better as of late, was lead by Justin Streleckis(Kiss) who pitched the first 4 innings, Dave Smith who threw the 5th and 6th, and Brian Black who closed out the 7th. V-Town does not have an easy line-up to hold to 2 runs, especially on the skin infield of Southampton Memorial Field.

One of the greatest catches I’ve ever seen in the RVL was made on Thursday night on a ball hit by Turtle Power, Al Roach. Roach smoked a ball to left field, and was robbed of a probable homer by Brian Black. As Black made the amazing catch with his arm ending up over the wall, he smacked his face and body into the fence. A sacrifice of the body is rarely even seen in the playoffs of the RVL. That being said I don’t think the young Black who has a bright future would have made such a sacrifice on a regular season solo homerun if he knew the fence was looming. As he ran back to the wall centerfielder Pat O’Reilly was yelling “room room” and then as the fence started to get closer he started yelling “fence fence.” After Black made the catch he looked at O’Reilly like what the hell are you doing. O’Reilly told him that he was yelling fence, but I don’t think Black heard him.

Not to copy off of Burlington’s HEARD ON THE BENCH section, but Kevin Lieb said something worth mentioning. During the game someone checked their fancy internet phone and let everyone know that the Phils lost to the Marlins 2-0. Kevin Lieb stated “Wow, that’s Halladay’s 1st loss isn’t it.” After everyone was done laughing at Lieb about how clueless he is, especially since it’s Halladay’s 4th loss, Rella told him yeah and the Sixers were just knocked out of the playoffs, and what are you wearing for Halloween tomorrow.

Mount Laurel's next game is Sunday against Cinnaminson, who has beaten them 3 times already this year.

Mother Nature takes another game
June 9, 2010 — Mount Laurel vs The Jug was postponed on Wednesday due to inclement weather. This is Mt. Laurel's 4th game postponed, and they've only played 7. The end of the season should be interesting when they are making up those games, and playing 5 games a week.

MTL falls 2-1 to the Jug
June 6, 2010 — Mount Laurel took the field for the first time in 12 days on Sunday night. In one of the quietest most boring 1 run RVL games in league history, Mount Laurel fell to Cinnaminson 2-1. These two teams haven't had bad blood for quite sometime now, and when they play it's almost like everyone is friends. Quite a turn around from what it was like 3 or 4 years ago.

Mount Laurel scored its lone run in the 3rd as O'Reilly plated Jenkins on a sac fly. Mike Cooper, who was making this weeks second most talked about first start on the mound behind Stephen Strasburg's upcoming debut, pitched a gem for the red white and blue. Unfortunately he was outdueled by Corey Mingin for 6 innings and Varga for the 7th. Cooper held a 1-0 lead going into the 6th when Cinnaminson, who I think was looking ahead to its night cap against Vincentown, decided that it was time to wake up. They started the inning off with a walk and then a hit, and later in the inning OZ scored a run on a sacrifice fly to right field that was hit about 140 ft. In the 7th Geoff Gilbert hit a 2 out single up the middle to give Cinnaminson the lead and eventually the win. Yes Mt. Laurel was the home team even though it was at Cinnaminson.

Each team had 1 great play during the game. For Mt. Laurel, Ernie Covington made a great over the shoulder catch, reaching over the fence in foul territory at first. For Cinnaminson Denny O'Hanlen made a great stab on a ball hit hard down the third base line and threw out the runner at first. Now I don't think Den was looking at the ball when he fielded it, but it was a great play nonetheless.

Hats off to Gary Herron who caught all 7 innings for Cinnaminson. Ryan Mingin was the DH for Cinn, I'm assuming because they had another game later in the night against Vincentown, and Gary was given the catching duties. Gary did such a good job that if it wasn't for him not having the perfect tan or the blonde highlights you would've never noticed that it wasn't Mingin catching.

New Free Agent Poll
June 6, 2010 — The Mt. Laurel website will be a mainstay with the other websites for years to come won our first poll, with July 1st getting 2nd. We got 17 votes total in the poll, which isn't bad for our first ever poll. Hopefully after a little more time we'll get a few more followers and get some more votes up there. There has been some movement of players from team to team in this league for various reasons. The new poll is to find out who got the best steal of a player from another team. Please weigh in your opinion.

Mt. Laurel has to wait longer to play
June 2, 2010 — Once again Mt. Laurel is cancelled. Tonight's game against Pemberton was cancelled as Pemberton had a senior babe ruth game scheduled on the same field. This is very frustrating as MTL doesn't have another game scheduled until Sunday the 6th, which is 12 days after their last game. On Sunday they will look to avenge against Cinnaminson who has embarrased them twice this season.

Weather keeps Mount Laurel off the field
June 1, 2010 — The Red White and Blue were excited to get on the field for the first time in a week this Tuesday. They were also excited to see the new faces of P.J. Whelihan's. Unfortunately mother nature had something to say about that, as the game was cancelled and no make-up date has been announced yet.

Hopefully tomorrow they will be able to get back at it against Pemberton, on the road. I don't think on the road is even necessary to write, since every game is on the road.

WE'RE BACK
May 27, 2010 — After having no website for quite sometime, the Mount Laurel Red White and Blue are back on the internet. This time the administrator doesn't plan on deleting posts written by others. I will make my best attempt to not copy any of the other websites. That being said, the formatting is the same for them all, so I'm sure it will resemble the others in some fashion.

Mount Laurel has been a laughing stock in the league for a couple of years now. There has been a few reasons for this, whether it is guys leaving the team because they've retired, guys leaving the league because they can't make any games, or flat out guys not showing up. At one time a few years back Mount Laurel was one of the premiere teams in the league, and hopefully they can return to form. I know as well as all of you, the more competition we have in the league the better it is. After having an embarrassing first 4 games of the season, and living up to our MO of not having players show up, it looks like Mt. Laurel MIGHT be turning a corner. Some clowns are starting to show up from college, and a few mainstays have been doing a better job of getting to the games. Since then they have won 2 straight. It looks like we have the possibility to be competitive this year, and not a waste of time for other teams to show up and play us as it has been the last couple years.

This site was made to update the league on Mount Laurel. Nothing on this site resembles the views of the RVL or the players and coaches of Mount Laurel themselves.

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