By Rich Bevensee
After surviving a semifinal game with a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning, Diamond Jacks 13U Super withstood a different kind of drama to claim a championship.
The top-seeded Diamond Jacks built a seven-run lead through two innings and then sweated through three more frames while third-seeded Pioneers Baseball Red clawed back into the game.
Not until Brycen Davis coaxed a two-out groundout with the tying and go-ahead run in scoring position could the Diamond Jacks celebrate an 8-7 victory and the championship of the 13U Grand Slam Powered by Kessler Rehab on Sunday afternoon at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
“When we saw them chipping away, we tried to stay in it, just be ourselves and get some big hits,” said Noah Komline, who went 2-for-3 with two runs scored from his No. 2 slot in the order for the Diamond Jacks. “We tried to keep getting hits and hold them to seven runs and we were able to stop them from scoring any more.”
Pool play for the Diamond Jacks was a complete 180 from what they had to endure on Sunday to win twice and claim the bracket title. On Saturday they defeated East Coast Power-Hunter and Wladyka Baseball by a combined 33-1 to earn the top seed.
Sunday was a different animal altogether for coach Mark Crawford’s group. The Diamond Jacks advanced to the final only after J.J. Villanueva capped a four-run rally in the bottom of the seventh inning with a walk-off two-run single to give his team a 6-5 semifinal win over the fourth-seeded Avengers.
Diamond Jacks catcher Alex Wheeler, the tournament MVP, said the challenge of hanging onto a big lead is one reason why he enjoys the game.
“Honestly it’s a fun game when that happens,” Wheeler said. “To stay in the game it’s about having good defense, good pitching and keeping the team together.”
Wheeler, who had a 2-run single in the championship game, played four different positions and batted 3-for-9 for the tournament with a double, triple and four RBI. He left the championship game in the bottom of the fourth with hamstring cramps and was replaced by Brandon Brewster.
Alex Wheeler of the DJacks Super 13U was named MVP of the Grand Slam tournament.
“This means a lot, having a great weekend, balling out, playing your best, better than most of my other weekends, actually,” Wheeler said. “Just locked in, I guess. I got in the back of the batter’s box, kept my load a little later, and sat back.”
The Avengers may have fallen into a seven-run hole early but they held the Diamond Jacks to one run over the final three frames while mounting their comeback.
Avengers coach Garry Maddox II lamented the existence of a game clock for a championship game.
“That was a pretty good comeback but we ran out of time,” Maddox said. “Playing baseball and having a time limit, especially in a championship, kind of stinks. We felt we had momentum to close it out. It is tough when you’re in a hole, and then you have to maximize your opportunities when you get them. We got some but we had opportunities we didn’t cash in on. It’s tough playing five innings of a seven-inning game.”
For two innings it seemed the Diamond Jacks would coast to the title after building a 7-0 lead. The big shots for the team were Wheeler’s two-run single in the first and Garrett Garlits’ two-run single in the second.
The Avengers responded with four runs in their next at bat, a rally keyed by back-to-back RBI singles from Emmett Cronauer and Riley Hutchison.
Noah Komline slides into home safely in the second inning for the Diamond Jacks Super 13U.
Teams traded single runs in the fourth, with Luka Manfredi’s baserunning leading to the eventual winning run for the Diamond Jacks. With runners on second and third in the bottom of the fourth and the infield playing in, Nico Dufkis hit a slow chopper back to third. Manfrerdi got a great jump from third and beat the throw home to give the Diamond Jacks an 8-5 lead.
With the Avengers entering the fifth trailing by three, Max LeGrand slapped an RBI double into left-center and Max Quenzer scored on a two-out infield error to make it a one-run ballgame.
That was as far as the Avengers would get, as Davis, who pitched the final two innings, coerced a groundout to clinch the championship.
“We’re hitting a lot, our pitching has been great, our fielding is great,” Komline said. “We’re doing really nice right now and we hope we can do that ‘til the end of the fall season.”
For the Diamond Jacks, righty starter Nick Penna went three innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on four hits and three walks with a hit batter and one strikeout. Davis allowed three runs on five hits and one walk with one strikeout in his two innings of work.
Avengers starter Hutchison went a third of an inning and yielded five runs on three hits and three walks. Max Quenzer was steady in relief for the Avengers, going 3⅔ innings and allowing three runs on five hits and three walks with one strikeout.