Ryan McCutcheon slides home safely in the fourth inning for Showtime.
By Rich Bevensee
In one of the wildest reversals in recent memory at Diamond Nation, Showtime 17U Philadelphia endured the lowest of the lows thanks to six errors to start its Saturday afternoon doubleheader, then flipped the script by enjoying its biggest offensive output of the summer.
Some may excuse the inconsistency by pointing to the fact that Showtime had not played in four weeks due to a scheduled break to give families a chance to breathe.
Coaches and players made no excuses. It was a lack of focus and energy which resulted in less than clean baseball, they said.
Whatever the reason, give Showtime credit for fixing the problem before it compounded. Ryan McCutcheon led the way with a pair of doubles and the Philadelphia boys ran roughshod over the Tennessee Avenue Baseball Club of Atlantic City, 19-7, in the 17/18U Wood Bat division of Summer Finale Week 2 Powered by Victus at ‘The Nation’ in Flemington.
Showtime’s day began with an 18-4 loss to Riot Baseball of Pitman. The six errors and the 18 runs given up were both season highs for Showtime.
“It was energy. Our mindset wasn’t quite there at the beginning and it showed in our play, obviously,” McCutcheon said. “Next game, we just executed. We pitched and hit the baseball extremely well, and we just played cleaner baseball. That’s the bottom line.”
Showtime earned the top seed for the 17/18U Wood Bat Silver Bracket semifinals and has a rematch with fourth-seeded Tennessee Avenue at 3:15 p.m. on Sunday.
Second-seeded Generals Baseball Academy of New City, N.Y., will take on third-seeded North Jersey Diamondbacks National Scout of Mahwah in the other semi at 1:15 p.m. The final is slated for 5:30 p.m.
Against Tennessee Avenue, Showtime hit the accelerator in the second inning and never let off the gas.
Nick Waldron had a fielder’s choice RBI and Eddie Diaz had an RBI groundout as Showtime grabbed a 5-0 lead in the top of the second inning.
Paul Spena had a pair of RBI doubles for Tennessee Avenue Baseball Club.
Tennessee Avenue, named after coach Sal Spena’s Tennessee Avenue Beer Hall in Atlantic City, answered with three runs to jump back into the game. Paul Spena’s RBI double and a Kiernan Mackey sacrifice fly fed that surge.
In the top of the third, Showtime sent 12 batters to the plate and scored seven runs on three hits, five walks and one error to claim a 12-3 lead. Jack Rock had a two-run double and Ryan Quinn had a pinch-hit RBI single.
Fueled by a string of three straight RBI doubles, Tennessee Avenue continued the back-and-fourth scoring festival with four runs in the bottom of the third.
Jackson Hunt singled and scored on a Jack Murray double. JoJo Rivera doubled home Murray, Spena drove in Rivera with a double, and Aiden Riley added an RBI single.
Showtime batted around for the second straight inning in the fourth. It sent 13 batters to the plate and scored seven more runs on three hits, three walks and three hit batsmen.
McCutcheon belted his second double of the game to drive in two runs and Cole Dietz forced in a run when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. The other four runs were scored on throwing errors.
“We just played good baseball,” said McCutcheon, a rising senior at Father Judge in Philadelphia. “We capitalized on mistakes and kept our mistakes to a minimum.”
Showtime coach Nick Waldron said he believes the team got the message to clean up its act after the first game when the coaching staff trimmed its lineup.
“What happened was we made an adjustment,” Waldron said. “We batted all 12 in the first game and in this game we batted nine. It woke them up a little bit. That’s what the whole idea was, to send a message to the kids and wake them up a little bit. We should have beaten that team (Riot) but we had a bad game. This time we had a clean game, no errors. You gotta play clean to win and they know that.”
For Showtime, Rock went 2-for-2 with a double, two walks and two RBI.
For Tennessee Avenue, Spena posted a pair of RBI doubles and Riley was 2-for-2 with a double.