Rooting for the Home Teams

by Marc Narducci | Jul 23, 2025

The New Jersey Senior American Legion state tournament is down to four teams and half of them are from the seven-county South Jersey area—Cherry Hill and two-time defending state champion Brooklawn. Senior American Legion is for players up to 19 years old. Many of the players are graduating high school seniors, but there are also a few rising college sophomores who are eligible to compete.

Brooklawn, which debuted in 1952, has won a New Jersey record 32 state championships. Cherry Hill, which split two games in the regular season against Brooklawn, is a viable state title contender.

The tournament is different this year in that it only includes four teams, down from eight. There were four district tournaments, and the champions will now meet for the double-elimination state tournament in Wood-Ridge, which is in Bergen County, not far from New York.

This is an artificial turf field with lights and it’s where Northern Burlington played during the high school season in winning the NJSIAA state Group 3 championship,

The winner of the state tournament then competes in regional competition Aug. 6-10 in Ridge, Maryland. The regional champ will advance to the American Legion World Series, Aug. 14-19 in Shelby, North Carolina.

Last year Brooklawn beat Bordentown, 7-4 to win the state championship.

Here are the teams competing in this year’s state tournament, which begins on Friday July 25 and runs through Monday, the 28^th:

District 1 champion: Whitehouse

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District 2 champion: Allentown
District 3 champion: Cherry Hill
District 4 champion: Brooklawn

NJ state American Legion tournament schedule

Friday July 25
Game 1: Allentown vs. Brooklawn, 3 p.m.
Game 2: Cherry Hill vs. Whitehouse, 6 p.m.

Saturday July 26
Game 3: Loser of Game 1 vs Loser of Game 2, 3 p.m.
Game 4: Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2, 6 p.m.

Sunday July 27
Game 5: Winner of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4, noon

Monday July 28
Game 6: Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5, 3 p.m.
Game 7: (if necessary) Winner of Game 6 vs. Loser of Game 6, 6 p.m.

All four champions went 3-0 district play.

Allentown has enjoyed recent success, having won consecutive state championships in 2021 and 2022.

Scouting the locals

Brooklawn has had some pitching injuries and may have to outhit teams. That is what happened in the District 4 tournament, where Brooklawn outscored teams, 42-6. In the final, a 12-6 victory over Lawrence, Brooklawn received home runs from rising Gloucester Catholic senior Noah Danza, and recent Moorestown graduate Chase Kroberger, an Alabama commit. Recent Audubon graduate Gabe McCracken was the winning pitcher in the clincher.

Cherry Hill’s top pitcher is recent Cherokee graduate Brett Gable, a Harvard commit. Gable was the winning pitcher in Cherry Hill’s 7-5 district win over Bordentown. Recent Cherry Hill West graduate Aiden Ryder, a third baseman and Rowan commit, is among the top hitters for Cherry Hill.

If Brooklawn and Cherry Hill win their first game, they would meet in Saturday’s second round.

It should be a great tournament with no expected easy games for any of the four participants.

Photo: Chase Kroberger / Marc Narducci

Author: Marc Narducci

Rooting for the Home Teams

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