Saturday night lights comes to Milltown
BY JOE PIETANZA
Correspondent

On a less than perfect night, weather-wise, a crowd of over 400 baseball fans watched the first home night game in Spotswood High School history as varsity baseball made its debut in Milltown (Milltown high school students attend Spotswood) Saturday night.

Having the game played in Milltown was the brainchild of Spotswood head coach Glenn Fredericks, whose team faced conference rival South River under the lights at the recently refurbished and historic Michelin Field (named after the Michelin Tire Co.).

The hometown Chargers won the game, 15-8, thanks to the pitching of Spotswood senior Mike Hohman and the slugging of sophomore Joe Petosa among others. While the game included the quality baseball we've come to expect of these two strong programs, the real story was a community embracing a game, a team, a first and the hope that there will be more to come in the future.

With all the recent bad weather, the playing of this game was in serious jeopardy. After last Friday's rain, the field was not playable and water needed to be removed from the field and bench areas on Friday night to have any hope of playing on Saturday night. Thanks to the efforts of members of the Milltown baseball program, the Spotswood varsity players, Fredericks and a few parents, most of the water was removed from the playing field and bench areas, leaving the field to dry all day Saturday.

Unfortunately, Saturday's weather was not conducive to drying the field sufficiently. At 1 p.m. on Saturday, Councilman Mike Skarzynski, the Milltown Public Works Department and the Milltown baseball program stepped in, raking the field and applying a drying agent to the areas that needed it most. By game time, the field was playable and ready to go.

The national anthem was sung by Gabrielle Risha and Laura Cancio of Spotswood High School. The Honor Guard was a representation of the Milltown Little League Major League program with Anthony Abano representing the Lions Club, Cooper Sisco representing the Rangers, P.J. Strahm representing the rescue squad, and Kevin Surace representing the PBA. Then it was time to play the game, and although there were probably more runs scored than either team would have liked, the game was both enjoyable and entertaining and left the community of Milltown wanting more in the way of games of this magnitude in the future.

For Milltown Baseball/Milltown Little League, this game represented a return of players who had grown up playing baseball in that program. It also gave the town a chance to celebrate both the game of baseball and the sense of community that make Milltown the town that it is.

Joe Pietanza is the president of Milltown Baseball/Milltown Little League