By Rich Bevensee
Brayden Nalducci and Mike Condon found it difficult to put into words what had just transpired after the Jersey Shore Wildcats polished off their fourth and final opponent at the 17/18U Halloween Mash, Powered by Victus.
Nalducci enjoyed perhaps the most fruitful performance a ballplayer had produced this fall at Diamond Nation in Flemington, throwing a five-inning no-hitter and slamming an exclamation point on the feat with a walk-off, inside-the-park, three-run home run.
Condon, the Wildcats coach, was stuck watching a bittersweet moment – Nalducci celebrating with his Most Valuable Player award, a shiny, black Victus baseball bat, while surrounded by his teammates. It was the last time Condon would coach this particular group of players.
Still, it was a celebration worth savoring as the Wildcats won their final tournament as a team with a five-inning, 9-0 victory over Power Pitching & Hitting Mafia 17U Blue in the 17/18 Wood Bat championship game at the Nation.
“It was pretty cool because it was this team’s last time playing, so a no-hitter for our last game is pretty crazy,” said Nalducci, a senior at Brick Memorial.
Condon was more sentimental about the victory.
“I’m amazed, I can’t even talk,” Condon said. “That was the last ride for this team. I’ve been with five guys on this team since they were 8. It’s definitely sad because it’s been a good ride.
“The best part is I got to see these guys develop until they were 18 years old. It’s been a complete blessing to be a part of it.”
Nalducci, a 6-4, 195-pound righty, never gave PPH a chance to get on track. He faced just one batter over the minimum while striking out seven and walking two.
“My velocity was down but my pitches were working pretty good so I just stuck with it,” said Nalducci, who mixed fastballs, curveballs and changeups, but in key spots leaned on his splitter, a self-taught pitch.
“Normally the slider has late break so it’s hard to pick up and it gets me over a lot,” Nalducci said. “I started developing it two years ago. My friend (Brick Memorial teammate) Jaxon Figueroa was throwing it and I saw it was pretty good. It came pretty easily to me.”
Nalducci, clearly jacked about receiving a bat as his MVP award, chalked up his second solo no-hitter and the third of his career. This past summer he threw a no-no for his Allentown American Legion team, and last month he and Wildcats teammate Noah Banick teamed up for a combined no-hitter in a Perfect Game contest.
For any superstitious baseball followers who believe in not talking about a no-hitter in the dugout until it’s over, one of Nalducci’s teammates tempted fate, mentioning the no-no to Nalducci in the fifth inning.
“Tristen Condon actually brought it up in the dugout, but the jinx did not work,” Nalducci said. “I thought about the jinx for, like, two seconds but then I was going to hit.”
And that brings us to Nalducci’s piece de resistance, the inside-the-park homer.
In the bottom of the fifth, leadoff hitter Keegan Hertel reached on a walk and scored on a wild pitch to give the Wildcats a 6-0 lead, two runs shy of bringing about the mercy rule. Peter Nolan walked and Connor Voelksen was hit by a pitch to bring up Nalducci with one out.
Nalducci ripped a sinking liner to left which caused the Mafia left fielder to stutter step and then stumble while in pursuit, allowing the ball to roll to the fence. Nolan and Voelksen scored easily, and Nalducci beat a wide throw home to complete his walk-off heroics.
“I saw it was an opportunity to win the game, I saw a strike and swung at it,” Nalducci said. “I saw him fall in left field. I was at first base and I was kind of jogging to see if it would get down. It got down so I put on the burners. I thought I would score no matter what.”
Brayden Nalducci of the Jersey Shore Wildcats was named 17/18U Halloween Mash MVP.
Nalducci finished the tournament batting 6-for-11 with a triple and a home run. Nalducci may be reaching his potential as a pitcher but he’s been displaying his talent as a hitter since last spring when he batted .357 for Brick Memorial.
“He’s an athlete. The kid’s just a thoroughbred, that kid,” Condon said. “He did it with a bat in his hands, he did it on the bases, and he threw a no-hitter. He was a beast on the bump.
“I had other guys to get in the game and there was no room to get them in. It’s rare to get to a spot like this (the championship game) and have pitching left. And we have a lot of pitching left which is a bummer because you want to get guys in the game. But when you have a kid throw five innings of no-hit ball…”
The Jersey Shore offense went to work early, scoring a couple runs in the first inning when Hertel scored on an infield error and Voelksen added a fielder’s choice RBI.
In the fourth, Jamie Duffy had a sacrifice fly, Nalducci scored on a wild pitch and Aiden Opatosky slotted an RBI single through the left side for a 5-0 Wildcats lead.
GAME NOTE: In a rare moment in Diamond Nation competition, a coin flip determined the home team for the final. Operations manager Jim Rueb said the tiebreaker system checked through all nine factors (run differential, runs allowed, biggest single-game run differential, etc.) and the Wildcats and Mafia had the same statistics for all nine before resorting to a coin flip.
Rueb has been working at the Nation for nine years, and tournament coordinator Marty Clark has been there for 13, and Rueb said they agreed that the coin flip was the Nation’s first in tournament history.