American Legion World Series: Rain pauses Shrewsbury run

SHELBY, N.C. — Needing a win and some help on Sunday to extend their stay at the American Legion World Series, Mother Nature stepped in to ensure Post 397 would play baseball on Monday after all.

With Post 397 rallying, but down 5-1 to Fargo, North Dakota Post 2 in the bottom of the third inning, a lightning strike forced the players off the field, and not soon after, a driving rain forced the game to be suspended. The game will resume at 11 a.m. Monday, with Shrewsbury trailing 5-1, but with A.J. Hamm on second base and Matt Livingston at the plate with one out.

In order for Post 397 to stay alive in the World Series and advance to the semifinals later on Monday, they need to come back and beat North Dakota and hope North Carolina loses to Idaho in the 1 p.m. game. That would create a situation where three teams have identical 1-2 records in Pool Play, and a tiebreaker will be used to determine which team will move on.

Shrewsbury manager Frank Vaccaro said his team is not done quite yet.

“We’re going to go out on Monday and give it our all and go from there,” Vaccaro said.

After going down in order in the first against Post 397 starter Mike Bean, the North Dakota bats came to life in the second, batting around and recording six hits while pushing across five runs. Drew Sandy and Zach Sandy had RBI singles in the inning, and Zach Kluvers delivered an RBI double as North Dakota jumped ahead, 5-0.

Shrewsbury got on the board in the rain-shortened third inning, when T.J. Morgera stole third and came home when the throw sailed into left field to make it a 5-1 game. Not soon after, heavy rain and lightning forced the suspension of the game after a 45-minute delay.

“The timing of the rain was unfortunate,” Vaccaro said. “It looked like we had something going there in that inning.”

“Personally, I was frustrated because I was right in the middle of my at-bat,” Livingston said.

Shrewsbury entered Sunday’s game with an 0-2 record in the World Series, after dropping the opener to North Carolina, 8-4, and a 4-0 setback to Idaho on Saturday. Post 397 had a 3-2 lead in the sixth against North Carolina before North Carolina put up six runs in the sixth to take control of the game. Against Idaho, Post 397 had the bases loaded twice, and a runner at third with in the fifth, only to come up empty.

Vaccaro said his team his team didn’t play well enough in either game to earn the win.

“The story of this tournament has been physical errors and mental mistakes,” Vaccaro said. “You can’t win if you allow that to happen.”

Second-year player Tyler Hopping agreed with Vaccaro.

“It’s been extremely frustrating,” Hopping said. “We’re there and we’re not and each game we have times where we get close to scoring, and we’re making a lot of mental mistakes and that’s been a huge problem this tournament.”

Livingston said his team’s lack of offense also has a lot to do with the overall approach at the plate.

“I don’t think guys are ready to hit on time with the fastball,” Livingston said. “I think that’s all they are doing is trying to pound the zone and work with their fastball and guys aren’t executing.”

Despite the recent frustrations for Post 397, that takes nothing away from their 157-23 record over the past four seasons, where Post 397 has developed into a national power. Shrewsbury has won a state tournament and a pair of Northeast Regional Tournaments over the span, while also making the trip to Shelby in 2017.

Hopping said success can be traced back to coach Vaccaro.

“It all starts with coach (Vaccaro),” Hopping said. “He really brings us together and coach does so much team-bonding wise and it gets our team chemistry up and helps our level of play.”

Vaccaro credited his entire staff — Josh Desai, Chris DeSantis, Peter Grillo, Matthew Jackson, Jeff Svendsen, Frankie Vaccaro, and Matt Vaccaro — for helping develop a successful team year in and year out.

“We have a great coaching staff and they all do something different and they get the most out of the kids,” Vaccaro said.

Vaccaro also credited his players for coming together so quickly.

“The fact that you have this rivalry between Shrewsbury and St. John’s and they don’t think about that when they come here,” Vaccaro said. “They really come together.”

“Having a majority team from St. John’s and Shrewsbury, crosstown rivals, and we really gelled together,” pitcher Carson Hauben added.

And as for the experience in Shelby, it’s been a memorable one so far for Post 397.

“It’s a wonderful experience,” Livingston said. “I think it’s everything a ballplayer dreams of and I think if it’s something people get the chance to do, I think they should do it.”

“We’re treated like royalty here and it’s a great time,” Hopping said.

“There is nothing else like it and you really got to credit that to Legion baseball,” Hauben said. “I’ve been an AAU guy my whole life and there is nothing you can say or do to compare what Legion has done for me.”

Mike Tonelli, the youngest players on the roster, said he hopes this is a sign of things to come.

“I’m 16-years old and I’ll have three more years on this team and it was good to get out here and have a couple good at-bats,” Tonelli said. “I’m happy to be here and hopefully we can get down here again. Maybe next year I can come back here with this team and be leader and help us get back here with a different team.”

—Contact Chris Kyne at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @tgsports.