The Diamond Jacks’ Chris D’Urso slides home safely, tying the game at 11-11 in the sixth inning.
By Rich Bevensee
The Diamond Jacks desperately needed one more at bat to complete an improbable comeback. It was time for Sebastian Perez to get angry.
Perez said his batting coach once told him to get angry at the ball to help him focus, and the Diamond Jacks needed that focus badly, having rallied from eight runs down and needing four more to finish what they started.
The problem was the Rotten Boys of Allentown, Pennsylvania, had scored multiple runs in every inning and if they did that again in the fifth, they could run out the game clock on the Diamond Jacks.
Perez channeled his anger so well, he struck out the side in the fifth. The Diamond Jacks responded by scoring eight runs in the top of the sixth inning to take the lead, and Perez pitched another scoreless inning to give the Diamond Jacks a wild 16-11 pool play victory in the 11U Fall Brawl on Saturday afternoon at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
“That’s probably one of the best comebacks I’ve seen in a long time,” Perez said. “No, that was the best comeback ever.”
Trailing 11-3 after four innings, the Diamond Jacks scored 13 unanswered runs over the next two innings to stun even their coach, Mike Cust.
“It was like a morgue in the dugout. It was like a funeral, it really was,” Cust said. “I said, ‘Guys we’re not at a funeral.’ They picked it up, got some runs back and they just kept going. We were down and I thought we were out, but then they started battling back. It was unbelievable.”
The drama began in the top of the fifth when the Diamond Jacks scored five runs on five hits, one walk and an error to climb within three of the lead at 11-8.
“We were quiet a little bit but once we got that first baserunner we started to pile on,” said Brady Jezorwski, who would play a key role in completing the comeback an inning later. “We were like, c’mon boys, we need baserunners to score runs and get RBIs.”
Entering the bottom of the fifth, the 1-hour, 50-minute game clock was down to eight minutes, and the way the Rotten Boys’ offense was rolling to that point, the Diamond Jacks needed a hammer on the mound to have a chance at getting one more at bat.
That hammer was Perez.
“On my mind was that I like to get angry,” Perez said. “My batting coach always says pretend the ball has hurt your family. What I think is if the batter hits, then I failed my family.”
Perez struck out the first two batters, gave up a weak single, then got another strikeout to give his team that much-needed opportunity to hit again. He did it in three minutes.
“It felt amazing,” Perez said. “I’ve done that before but not in a long time. It felt great to give my team a chance to come back.”
In the top of the sixth, Perez opened with a single and soon scored on a balk. The next three batters – Dylan Banos, Chris D’Urso and Gavin Feehan – walked and would eventually score. Banos and D’Urso scored on wild pitches to tie the game.
Jezorwski, batting with the bases loaded and still no outs, singled down the left field line and drove in two. Another run scored on an outfield error while Jezorwski cruised into third, and the Diamond Jacks had completed their comeback by taking a 14-11 lead.
Carter Hinkle supplied a huge three-run double in the second inning for the Rotten Boys.
“I was trying to get the barrel on the ball and put it in play,” said Jezorwski, who finished 3-for-4 with three RBI. “It’s really satisfying to get that big win in a big moment.”
Two batters later, Lucas Julian, who went 3-for-3 in the game with four RBIs, padded the Diamond Jacks’ lead with a two-run single.
Going back out to the mound with a five-run lead, Perez struck out the first two batters he faced, one batter reached on an error, and he induced a weak comebacker for the final out and an improbable win.
“Sebastian pitched amazing,” Jezorwski said. “He was throwing really hard and they couldn’t catch up to it.”
Cust emphasized that no single offensive player played the biggest role in the comeback, although many contributed. Nine of 11 players scored and eight supplied at least one base hit.
The biggest role in the comeback was played by Perez, Cust said.
“100 percent, absolutely,” Cust said. “In the fifth I really was trying to keep the game from getting out of hand and I know he’s a guy who can throw hard and pound the zone pretty good. Was I expecting a win? I really wasn’t, and then as we started coming back I thought we can win this game now. Once we got the lead I was very confident in him going right back out there.”
For the Diamond Jacks, Michael Botti went 3-for-3 with a walk, an RBI and three runs scored. Banos and Evan Pfitzenmayer had two hits each.
The Diamond Jacks finished their afternoon 2-0 after another tense ballgame, a 10-9 win over Wildcats 11U Blue. The Diamond Jacks earned the second seed for the 11U Gold bracket playoffs and will face the third-seeded Bucks County Clippers in the semifinals on Sunday. The final is slated for 4:30 p.m.
For the Rotten Boys, lefty Krishna Nehru pitched splendidly for four innings, holding the Diamond Jacks to three runs, before running out of steam in the fifth and finishing with 93 pitches.
Carter Hinkle was the team’s offensive star, going 2-for-3 with a three-run double. Gavin Whitley and Logan Christian both singled twice, Nehru had a two-run single and Jase Strain doubled.
The Rotten Boys earned a split of their Saturday doubleheader after a 19-12 decision over Watchung Hills Warriors White. The second-seeded “Rotties” will face third-seeded Diamond Jacks Gold in the 11U consolation bracket semifinals. That bracket championship game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.