Zoom Baseball Academy’s first baseman Jared Federer hit a two-run home run and scored twice.

By Steve Merrill

Zoom Baseball Academy took care of business in four innings with an 11-1 explosive mercy rule win over Colossal Sports Academy in the Super 16 World Series at  Diamond Nation on Friday afternoon.

Jarret Federer (Wissahickon High School, Ambler, PA) clobbered a two-run home run over the left field fence off Colossal starting pitcher Jordan Spila to open the game’s scoring in the bottom of the second and Zoom Baseball was off to the races.

“It was my pitch right there in the middle of the zone,” said Federer, who acknowledged he got all of it on the homer. “I just saw it perfectly out of his hand and met it with the barrel. Originally, I thought it was a pop fly to the warning track but it just kept going.”

Zoom Baseball would add on two more runs in the inning after a walk, an error, and a wild pitch. Richie Lee and Santino Pharma came across the plate to give the home team a 4-0 lead heading into the third.

Colossal did not create many threats off Zoom starter Colin Brady. But, in the top of the third, Colossal scratched across its only run when Brett McLaughlin singled home Ethan Lawrence, making it a 4-1 game. Brady scattered five hits on the day, giving up two of them to Nate Covone.

Zoom’s left-handed starter pitched all four innings, striking out three and not walking a batter. Brady mixed his pitches well to keep Colossal’s lineup off balanced all game and there was an emphasis on pitching to contact.

“He filled up the strike zone and that’s all we asked,” said coach Nick Nardini, filling in for regular skipper Mike Zolk. “If you fill the strike zone with three pitches, you’re going to get us ground balls and fly balls and then you play defense. That’s how you win baseball games. You can’t defend a walk. When you pitch the way he did we’re going to give ourselves a good shot.”

Zoom Baseball posted a six-spot in the bottom of the third off Colossal reliever Jake Taylor, sending 10 batters to the plate. Five of the inning’s six hits were for extra bases (three doubles and two triples).

“They came out and were aggressive,” Nardini said. “They put good swings on the baseball. Multiple extra base hits so yeah they came out and performed and swung the bat great.”

Among Zoom’s top performers were leadoff man Christian Cerone who went 2-for-3 with a triple, an RBI, run-scored and a stolen base, along with Richie Lee who tripled in plate appearances in back-to-back innings.

Zoom Baseball tacked on a final run in the bottom of the fourth to reach a 10-run margin and hit the mercy rule. James Langham came home on a wild pitch after leading off with a double and getting to third on a fielder’s choice.

“It’s just putting constant pressure on their defense,” Nardini said of his team’s performance at the plate. “We talk a lot about that as a group. Put pressure on the defense and good things happen. We have a lot of guys that run pretty well. Any ball that’s close to being in the gap, we’re going to test it. We’re going to trust the wheels.