Michael Cavaliere of Dutchess Arsenal hits an RBI single in the first inning.
By Rich Bevensee
Amazing how a quick confidence checkup and a new pair of baseball shoes can turn around a pitcher’s day on the hill, especially in lousy weather.
As the rains in Flemington continued to fall on Diamond Nation Tuesday evening, the mound got more and more slippery. And for a couple innings, at least, it looked as though it just wouldn’t be Angelo Bodarky’s day.
After two innings, a change of cleats and a confidence boost, Bodarky looked like a new pitcher. He allowed no runs on only three hits and two walks over his final 2⅔ innings of work in pacing Dutchess Arsenal to a five-inning, 8-3 victory over Philly Bandits Red in the 16U Diamond Nation World Series.
At the end of the week, the top five teams in the World Series standings qualify for the 16U Top 25 Showcase at ‘The Nation’ in August.
Dutchess, from Wappingers Falls, N.Y., improved to 2-0. On Monday the team slipped past Complete Performance Baseball Academy, 3-2.
The loss was the first of the week for the Bandits (2-1). On Monday, they defeated Diamond Jacks Gold, 5-2, and TCS Blackhawks Black, 3-2.
For the game, Bodarky threw 4⅔ innings and struck out seven while allowing three runs on six hits and six walks. Ryan Algarin came on to get the final out.
Bodarky got knocked around in the first two innings, allowing three runs on three hits, four walks and a hit batsman. At one point in the second inning, he walked three straight batters to force in a run. Coach Jason Cafaldo had seen enough when his pitcher returned to the dugout, insisting Bodarky try on a pair of molded cleats offered by a teammate.
“He went out there and was slipping around. One of the guys offered his molded cleats and Angelo said, ‘I’m good,’ ” Cafaldo said. “He slipped around in the second and said, ‘I’m good.’ In the third I told him he had to change his cleats.”
Bodarky’s control took a turn for the better, and markedly so. He escaped a minor jam in the third after he gave up a two-out double. In the fifth, he retired the first two batters before giving up two hits and a walk, so the reins were turned over to Algarin.
“It got in my head a little bit.” said Bodarky, a rising junior at Roy C. Ketcham in Wappingers Falls. “I had to remember I have a team behind me and I had to do it for the team. I was trying not to overthrow, throw strikes and win the game. The big thing is winning the game. I don’t like losing.”
Colin Mahon of Dutchess Arsenal slides back to first base after an errant pickoff throw.
Dutchess showed off a balanced lineup where six players recorded a base hit and eight players scored. The Arsenal turned on the juice in the final two innings, turning a one-run lead into a five-run gap.
”We work on seeing the ball longer, staying the other way and using the big part of the field,” Cafaldo said. “These guys are in the cages day in and day out. Yesterday we didn’t have a good hitting output, but today we banged the ball around.”
The Dutchess bench is a threat as well, as Aiden Cancel showed when he roped a pinch-hit, two-run double from the bottom of the order in the fifth inning.
“We have a deep roster, to say the least. We carry 17 guys,” Cafaldo said. “We try our best to get everyone in so we want everybody to stay ready all the time. Once we get a lead we try our best to move guys around.”
Michael Cavaliere got Dutchess on the board first with an RBI single in the top of the first inning.
The Bandits took their only lead of the game, 2-1, in the bottom of the inning, as Shane Broadwater scored on a double steal and Jimmy Clark scored from second on Aiden O’Quinn’s bloop single to shallow right.
Jake Barnes, the Arsenal’s No. 9 hitter, put his team back on top in the second with a two-run double to deep center, and Jayden Long added an RBI single for a 4-2 lead.
Rob Fornicola got the Bandits within a run when he coerced a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the second.
In the fourth, the Arsenal’s Jayden Long scored on a bases-loaded wild pitch and Sean MacCormack scored after an infield throwing error on Cavaliere’s ground ball for a 6-3 lead. Cancel’s two-run double in the fifth rounded out the scoring.
MacCormack made one of the best catches ‘The Nation’ will see all season when, in the bottom of the fifth, he went horizontal in deep center field to snag a liner off the bat of the Bandits’ Cole Hasson.
For Philly, right-handed starter Fisher Haggerty went 1⅔ innings and allowed four runs on five hits and one walk. Jorge Suarez pitched two innings and yielded two runs on seven walks with one strikeout. Hasson pitched the final 1⅓ innings, permitting two runs on one hit, one walk and one hit batsman and he struck out three.