By Sean Reilly
The odds weren’t on Connor Crittenden’s side when he was called upon to pitch for the Richmond County Baseball Club 16U Nationals on Sunday afternoon at Diamond Nation.
His Staten Island team was locked in a tie game against the CB Futures from Syracuse, N.Y., in the final of the Summer Finale 16U Blue Bracket tournament.
The bases were loaded and there was nobody out in the top of the sixth inning. The batter was the same player who hit a walk-off grand slam and had six RBI for the Futures roughly two hours earlier in the semifinals.
Crittenden struck him out looking. He retired the next man the same way. A line out to second base ended the inning.
He pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, and the game went into the bases-loaded with one out tiebreaker in the eighth.
Crittenden was one pitch away from getting out of that inning as well, before Dalton LoGuidice hit a two-run single on a full count to give the Futures a two-run lead.
It didn’t matter though, as Dan Ducalo had an RBI fielder’s choice and Nick Fopeano hit an improbable two-run double with two out to give RCBC a 4-3 victory for the championship in Flemington.
Fopeano fouled off the first pitch with Jackson Pettid on second and Ducalo on first. He then hit a hard liner toward left-center field. The left fielder made a sprint toward the ball but overran it. The resulting two-run double ended the game.
Connor Crittenden of RCBC 16U Nationals was named MVP of the 16U Summer Finale-Blue Bracket.
“I was sitting fastball and I got one,” he said. “I thought it was going to be caught, but I’ll take it.”
The ending wouldn’t have been possible without the relief work of Crittenden, who was selected tournament MVP.
“I feel like I have the experience, which is why they put me in there,” he said. “I’ve been pitching under pressure a lot, so I was ready. I also have a lot of confidence in myself. I was throwing fastballs and sliders today. I also have a changeup, but I didn’t throw that many because they had a lot of righty’s and I like to throw it more to lefty’s because it breaks away from them.”
Because RCBC opened the tournament with two pool play games on Friday night and clinched the top playoff seed with a win its pool finale on Saturday, the championship game was its first of the day.
The Futures, in contrast, played two pool games on Saturday and their third on Sunday morning.
They were also the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, which meant a 12:15 p.m. semifinal against Rams Baseball Club 16U. In what wound up being one of the longest contests of the entire year at the complex, the nearly three-hour game also went to a tiebreaker. The Futures allowed two runs in the top of the eighth, but scored six in the bottom of the inning, capped by Andrew Chupeck’s grand slam, for a 14-10 win.
The Futures showed no signs of weariness, in terms of exhaustion or depleted pitching, in the final.
The Futures took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth. Tyler Huson led off with a full count walk. After Cael Bruce walked with two out, an error on a pickoff throw to first allowed Huson to score.
RCBC tied it in the bottom of the frame. Garrett Cruz (2-for-3) led off with a single to right. Justin Haag was hit by a pitch, and after a strikeout, Christian Winter walked to load the bases. Ducalo then hit a sacrifice fly to center.
When the game went to the tiebreaker in the eighth, the first Futures batter, the 11th and last man in the order, dropped down a bunt which resulted in a force at the plate. LoGuidice then supplied his clutch single for a 3-1 lead. The final out of the inning came courtesy of an excellent play by RCBC third baseman Aaron Vasquez, who fielded a ball behind the base and threw a seed across the diamond in time for the third out.
RCBC sent up the top of its order in the bases-loaded bottom of the inning. Ducalo hit a grounder to second which resulted in a force out at second. He hustled down the line in time to deny a game-ending double play, while Cruz scored from third with a run which cut the Futures lead to 3-2.
Fopeano followed with the game-winning double, after he had flown out to center in his three prior at-bats.
“Once we got that first run, I thought we had a chance,” he said. “And we did an awesome job pitching.”
Crittenden was the third RCBC pitcher. Christian Manteria allowed two hits over four scoreless innings, plus one batter in the fifth. Luca Scarangello then pitched until Crittenden took over in the sixth.
Michael Daniel started for the Futures and allowed one run on five hits through five innings. Cooper Smith allowed two hits over the remainder of the game.