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sPoRTs

Porcelli beats slump to lead Post 26 in season’s second half

By rich FiSher school and then have his bat go hollow
at the start of legion.
After tearing it up with his bat dur- “In my 20 years in the league, I’ve
ing the high school season, Jimmy seen it a lot,” he said. “Legion is defi-
Porcelli hit a sudden bump in the nitely better competition than high
road when American Legion baseball school because you’ve got kids playing
started. in college. And the weather’s warmer,
The recent Bordentown High gradu- pitchers get better control on their
ate hit .438 for the Scotties and was curveball, better grip on their curveball.
ready for a big year in legion. But some- And some of these pitchers hit spots like
where between mid-May and early June, that. You can’t come into legion like it is
something happened. high school.”
“I was just not seeing the ball as well Porcelli did not get frustrated but kept
as I used to,” Porcelli said. “It was a dif- battling to figure it out. Interestingly,
ferent kind of pitching; older guys at the he emerged from his slump with help
college level. I was real happy, having a from Moore—without the manager even
good year in school ball and thought I watching him play. The skipper spent
would be bringing it into here. I strug- nearly the entire season away from the
gled a little bit in the beginning but I’m team as he battled serious health issues.
starting to get my swing back and help- But he got to know Porcelli well enough
ing the team.” last year to figure out what was going
Indeed, Porcelli went from scuffling wrong.
at the plate during the first part of the “I told Jimmy, ‘You might struggle
season, to getting back into his high Jimmy Porcelli (right) stands with Bordentown teammate Kyle but just go back to your basic mechan-
school groove in the second. He ended Marchetti after the Carpenter Cup this year. Porcelli led Bordentown ics,’” Moore said. “He hit a lull again and
the regular season batting .341 with a Post 26 after a slump at the start of the American Legion season. I told him on the phone what I thought
home run and 10 RBI although he suf- was wrong. I’m not trying to take credit
fered a hamstring pull in the second to for it, but he started hitting the ball bet-
the last game and was questionable for with us a little bit,” manager Doug pretty good and that’s really nice to ter from the reports I got from (interim
the district playoffs. Moore said after Bordentown won its see.” manager) Tom Dolan and (coach) Chris
“Jimmy had a good year in high regular-season finale over Allentown. Moore was quick to point out that Por- Hoyer.”
school and then kind of struggled “Lately he’s been stroking the ball celli is not the first kid to hit well in high And what exactly was wrong?

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16Bordentown Current | August 2017