By Sean Reilly
Where you hit in a batting order doesn’t seem to matter when you play for Team Crush-Balliet.
The team traveled from its Tuckahoe, N.Y. base to Diamond Nation over the weekend to compete at the 15U Home Run Classic, Powered By Victus.
Team Crush went home with the championship after capping an unbeaten four-game showing with an 8-6 victory over the NJ Marlins 15U-Mendes in the final on Sunday afternoon in Flemington.
Just about everyone on the roster contributed over the course of the event.
A case in point was Dario Morovic, who started the tournament by pitching a four-inning one-hitter in a 10-0 pool-play win on Friday night.
Morovic ended the weekend by going 2-for-3 with four RBI in the final, doing so as the 11th batter in an 11-man lineup.
He shared tournament MVP honors with teammate Holden Cusic, who didn’t even play in the final, but was a major reason his team reached the final. He allowed one run on six hits in a 3-1 semifinal decision over Complete Game Academy immediately preceding the title game.
“Everyone can play a role, it doesn’t matter where you’re batting,” Morovic said. “Anyone can produce, and you just need to do a job.”
Joe LaMotta, who hit ninth in the final, was also instrumental in the win. He went 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI, and also pitched 2.1 innings of relief to earn the win.
The game was tied, 3-3, before Team Crush went ahead by scoring four times with two out in the bottom of the fourth.
After the first batter grounded out to shortstop, Jacob Moore and Ryan McEvily both walked on full counts.
The next man flew out to left field before LaMotta lined a first-pitch double to left which scored both runners. Morovic followed with an RBI double on a 2-2 pitch to the right field corner. He scored when Josh Cohen dropped a single into center field.
Morovic also supplied an important hit earlier in the game, a two-run triple to right-center with two out in the second, which scored J.C. DiNapoli, (reached on an error) and LaMotta (single to center) for a 3-1 lead.
“That one felt good,” Marovic said.
The Marlins, from Toms River, N.J., had gained the 3-3 tie with two unearned runs in the third.
Holden Cusic and Dario Morovic of Team Crush were named co-MVPs of the 15U Home Run Classic.
After falling behind again after the four-spot from Team Crush in the fourth, the Marlins almost came all the way back.
Jose Rodriguez hit a two-run single with two out in the fifth, and Logan Scully hit a sacrifice fly to score Cavan Haack in the sixth to get the Marlins within 7-6.
Team Crush added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth. McEvily led off with a single to center and DiNapoli followed with a single to left. After a fly out, a balk advanced the runners before Morovic hit a run-scoring ground out to first on a 2-2 pitch.
“I knew I had to do something,” Morovic said. “I just tried putting it in play.”
The Marlins loaded the bases with one out in the seventh, but reliever Nick Morello got an infield fly and pop out to shortstop to end the game.
Jake Liotti went 2-for-4 and Haack was 2-for-2 with two walks for the Marlins.
The bottom four in the Team Crush lineup — McEvily, DiNapoli, LaMotta and Morovic — were a combined 6-for-11 with six runs and six RBI. The team had 10 hits overall.
“This was a lot of fun,” Morovic said. “It was a nice experience and a lot of fun playing on these fields. This was a good start to the season, and now we’ll try to win as many tournaments as we can.”