sports Everett excels in the 2023 Legion baseball season

By Rich Fisher

Asked what he hit for Lawrence Post 414 in the 2022 season, Jordan Everett thought for a second, then smiled.

“Nothing worth remembering, let’s put it that way,” Everett said with a laugh.

A year later, his memory bank has filled up with pleasant facts and figures about his final Mercer County American Legion League campaign. During the regular season the former Ewing High player batted .345 with three doubles, three triples, a league-high four home runs and a teamhigh 24 RBI.

In a District 4 state playoff win over Washington Township, Everett had a double and three RBI in the game that sent Lawrence to the Final 8 for the fourth straight year.

“This is his third year with us,” manager Jason Zegarski said. “I would say it’s definitely his best, and I think he would too.”

On top of all that, he was Lawrence’s winner of the Team Sportsmanship Award. Zegarski feels that was a by-product of Everett going away to school at Vil- lanova for a year.

“You’re on your own, you gotta learn to be an adult, manage your time,” the skipper said. “That’s the biggest thing. He put the work in in the off-season and it showed this season. If they have questions they can always go to him and ask.”

Everett had a solid career with the Blue Devils, batting .281 with good gap power, as indicated by four doubles and seven triples. After graduation in 2022, he entered Villanova as a business major. Although not recruited to play, Jordan joined the club baseball program, which actually helped sharpen his game for legion.

“I was able to stay active, and that kept my skills intact so I was able to come back here and have a great summer,” said Everett, who noted that club baseball can be extremely competitive.

“Especially the schools that have Division I baseball teams,” he said. “They don’t make the team and they come play club. Those guys are pretty good, they could play somewhere else at another school. So it gets pretty competitive depending on what school you’re going to. I think people think it’s a little less than it actually is.”

Along with his club experience, Everett worked on his own with former Blue Devil star Kyle Elder. The result was more power along with a higher average.

“The first couple practices I could see he gained a little size and put on some weight in the weight room,” Zegarski said. “When he started with us he was down in the lineup but he started working his way up and he’s driving in some runs.

“Jordan is aggressive at the plate. He’s definitely a guy that can work the count. He’s got a lot of confidence in himself that with two strikes he can put the ball in play. He can also beat one out in the sixth hole, so it’s pretty nice to have a guy with power and speed.”

Both of those attributes were on display at Hamilton’s DeMeo field this season when he hit an inside-the-park home run. As for the ones that leave the park, Everett says it has nothing to do with trying to hit home runs.

“Oh no,” he said. “You do that and you go 0-for-30.

“It’s just focusing on staying back on the baseball and that just translated to me hitting the ball a little further than I usually do. Pretty much my legs are turning faster and I’m putting as much as I can in each swing and it results in the ball going over the fence.”

Everett came up through the Ewing Little League before playing in the EwingHopewell Babe Ruth program. He was hoping to play legion for Ewing and when the team folded, it disappointed him.

“Especially coming from Ewing High School and not being able to see a lot of the talent come up from Ewing Little League,” he said. “They all went to travel ball and other teams around us. So it does kind of stink not being able to have a competitive team anymore.”

He was definitely happy to have Lawrence as an option.

“It’s been a really good experience,” said Everett, who is joined on the roster by recent Ewing grad Zaire Lowe. “I was glad I was able to stay so close, meet people and build strong relationships through the league, who are still close friends now.”

See EVERETT, Page 18

Unlike so many others, Everett never played travel ball, as he opted for strictly legion.

“Legion is just a completely different experience,” he said. “It’s a great combination of fun and competitiveness and being with the guys that come from the different schools it’s amazing to be around. They bring more out of you and you want to not only win for yourself but the team; and that just brings us together a lot more. We’re able to have a great team chemistry and a fun time.”

Lawrence has become a true melting pot for Mercer County legion, as it now draws players from the Lawrenceville School, the Pennington School, Lawrence High, Hopewell Valley Central, Ewing and Notre Dame. It’s a large talent pool but it needed to mesh.

“It’s always all about the chemistry,” Zegarski said. “We tell them the most important thing is to start coming together as a team. The quicker we start gelling as a team the quicker we put those wins in the win column. This was probably one of the quickest teams I’ve had to gel in my 10 years in charge.”

The cohesiveness was helped by mature leaders such as Everett, who was looked up to even as a newcomer.

“I didn’t know a lot of the guys because I was in college for the year,” he said.

“But meeting these guys was pretty cool, they’re all really good at the game. It was just fun to meet them, play with them and hear stories about the high school season.

“I felt from the very first practice we all meshed, we made jokes introducing ourselves to each other. We all have a love and passion for this game so it brought us together pretty quickly and we were able to mesh pretty well together.”

That camaraderie resulted in a 15-7 record and third-place finish during the regular season. After losing its first game in districts, Post 414 came back to win two straight to gain another berth in the Final 8, which began July 21.

The fact that team results still matter is a major reason why Everett has always opted for legion over travel ball.

“I think a lot of people get mixed up about legion and think it lacks competitiveness,” he said. “That’s not really the case. It’s just a fun way to play baseball, stay competitive but not break the bank.

“It also is a nice way to meet people. It’s really fun. I feel like travel ball sometimes takes the fun out of baseball. They’re just playing inning after inning. There’s more team play in legion rather than individual play. I think legion does the fun part as well as making it super competitive.”

And this year, Everett competed with the best of them.